Fossil Review

Scientists who study fossils are called...

• Neurologists

• Dinologists

• Paleontologists

• Tektonologists

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Fossils are formed when...

• An animal dies and settles on the bottom of a body of water.

• Sediment buries the animal and over time the soft parts decay.

• Hard parts preserved in sediment as a fossil.

• A, B, and C describe the order of fossil formation.

What can we learn from fossils? (Select the all of the correct answers.)

• Information about species that are now extinct.

• What ancient organisms looked like.

• The color of an organism.

• Information about how the earth changed over time.

Answer explanation

Fossils can also tell us the location of fossil fuels and information about adaptations.

Fossils cannot tell us information about their color and we cannot see any soft parts of an organism.

Some organisms never fossilize.

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What is a fossil?

• A mineral deposit

• The preserved remains of a living thing

• A type of metamorphic rock

• Decayed plant matter

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If a plant fossil that is tens of thousands of years old is very similar to what lives today, it tells us...

• None of the plants have changed over tens of thousands of years

• The animals that lived then are the same as now

• The climate is not much different from what is was back then

• Yearly rainfall has increased steadily

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If a shell fossil has a raised shape, it is called a...

• Mold

• Petrification

• Body fossil

• Cast

Answer explanation

Cast fossils have a raised shape.

Mold fossils have an indented shape.

Footprints that are set in the mud that form a mold or a cast are called...

• Carbon films

• Body fossils

• Trace fossils

• Petrification

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Some species like wooly mammoths found in ice, insects encased in amber, or dinosaurs found in tar pits are fully preserved. These are called...

• Original remains

• Petrified organisms

• Shell fossils

• Body fossils

It is unusual to see fossils with soft parts because...

• They are microscopic

• The fossils cannot be opened to examine the soft parts

• The soft parts rot away before fossilization occurs

• The soft parts fossilize separately

You are walking hundreds of miles from any ocean and discover a fish fossil. What might that tell you about about the area you're walking?

• That the area you are walking is very old

• That where you are walking was most likely an ocean at one time

• That the area you are walking was once a part of Europe

• It tells you nothing. Anyone could have dropped their bag of fossils.

Answer explanation

Of course it tells you that the area you are walking was once under water...

...but maybe someone planted the fossil to confuse you!! : )

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