Fossils

Kyle found a rock and used a hammer to it split open. One half of the rock had a raised shape of a shell. The other half had an impression of the shell. What type of fossil did Kyle find?

• a shell preserved in amber

• a mold and a cast of a shell

• a shell frozen in rock

• a trace fossil of a seashell

The Green River Formation in Wyoming, is made of layers of rock that contain fabulous fish fossils. The figure above shows the type of fossils that are found in these rocks. What most likely occurred to allow the fish to be preserved so well?

• Animals ate the fish so the bones were clean and ready to turn to fossils.

• The fish got buried in sediment.

• The fish got moved along until it landed in a safe quiet place.

• Temperature and pressure increased until conditions were right to form fossils.

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-4

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

What may have caused 75% of Earth’s organisms to become extinct approximately 65 million years ago?

• The temperature became too warm.

• a meteorite impact

• disease

• glaciers

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

The end of the Paleozoic era is marked by an event called a mass extinction. What is a mass extinction?

• one species evolves into another similar species

• all members of the same species die out unexpectedly

• large numbers of certain species become extinct overnight

• many species become extinct over a short period of geologic time

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

Which of the following fossils would make a good index fossil?

• a snail that lived in Ohio, in a small population during the Cenozoic

• a trilobite that lived in all areas east of the Mississippi River, in large populations during the end of the Paleozoic

• a tree fern that lived in northeastern Pennsylvania, in a small population during the Mesozoic

• a magnolia flower that lived in the eastern United States, in large populations during the Cenozoic

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

What can the presence of fossils tell us?

• Oceans once covered what is now dry land.

• Forests once covered what are now deserts.

• Glaciers once covered much of North America.

• All of the answers are correct.

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-3

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

What have scientists determined about woolly mammoths?

• They were able to live in the very cold climate of the ice age.

• The more wool on their bodies, the older they were.

• Their hair and fur helped block spears from hunters.

• The wool made their bodies too warm and caused them to become extinct.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

Plants and animals become fossilized in several different ways. Which object fossilized most recently?

• A

• B

• C

• D

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

How could you demonstrate relative dating using a stack of newspapers?

• by identifying the age of each paper by the date listed at the top of each one

• by noting the dates of the top and bottom papers

• by describing the placement of the papers within the entire stack

• by comparing the stack of papers to a stack from a different newspaper

What does the fossil record refer to?

• all fossils in the rock layers on Earth

• the fossils in a layer being studied

• an encyclopedia of fossil photos

• a recording of fossil names

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1