Seashell fossils can be found far from the sea

Antarctica surrounds Earth’s south pole and is very cold.

Scientists have unearthed fossils in Antarctica of mosses and tiny animals dating to 14 million years old, indicating that summer temperatures would have to have been much warmer than they are now.

Fossils are most often formed from the soft parts of organisms. The hard parts usually break down before they can be preserved in rock.

Scientists often use models to describe objects or events in nature

A model is a representation of an imaginary thing

The fossil record is the collective accumulation of the remains of organisms from all over the world that have been preserved, particularly in rock, and which are generally at least 10,000 years old.

Fossils are clues to the recent past

Fossils are always the actual organism themselves hardened into rock

Trace fossils are not formed by the actual organism themselves but by it’s activities while it was alive.

Studying patterns in the fossil record can tell us about diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth

If you find a seashell high on a mountain you can conclude that fish used to live in the mountains brought there by birds.

Fossils of single-celled organisms are the youngest fossils ever found

The fossil “Lucy” is a skeleton of an adult female discovered in Africa and is named after a song sung by The Beatles.

Extinction is an evolutionary process that leads to the disappearance of a species or a population.

A layer of rock with no fossils can be just as informative as layers with fossils

The most famous event of extinction happened 2,000 years ago and gave rise to evolution of humans

The collection of fossils and their placement in chronological order is known as the fossil record. It documents the lack of diversity in organisms through the brief history of Earth.