Fossils

A boy was hiking through a desert with his family. He found a fossilized insect that has pinchers for eating grass while he was digging in the sand. What can the boy conclude about the habitat of the once living insect?

• The area must have once had lots of grass because of the characteristics of the fossil.

• The area was always a desert and someone put the fossil there.

• The area was once covered in water and must have had sea animals.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

NGSS.MS-LS2-1

What is a fossil?

• Something that is living

• An organism that died yesterday

• Remains of an organism that died long ago that was covered by sediment.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

What is the first step of how a fossil is formed?

• The first step is that bone is slowly replaced with minerals because if they are replaced by minerals, then once it dies, it starts to fossilize.

• The first step is that an animal dies because once a living thing dies, it has the possibility of becoming a fossil.

• The first step is that an animal dies because once any living thing dies, it will always start the fossilization process.

What clues does the fossil give you about how the animal moved and what type of habitat it lived in?

• This animal lived at the bottom of the mountain since it was discovered at the mountain, but the mountain rose in height over time.

• This animal lived in a water environment such as a lake or ocean since it has bones.

• This animal lived in a water environment since it has dorsal fins.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

NGSS.MS-LS4-2

Scientists learn _________ from the fossils

• The color of the animal

• How the animal acted

• The diet/food that the animal ate

A student was observing a full fossilized skeleton of an animal at a museum. He wants to know more about the animal and is curious about the type of habitat it lived in when it was alive. What clues below would BEST help him to find out what he wants to know?

• The animal has a very large body and flipper-like front feet.

• The animal has large tusks with very short front legs and long legs in back.

• The animal has large flat teeth and really large rib bones.

• The animal has very sharp teeth and a really large skull.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

Two fossils are found in a cold mountain region. One is a fish fossil and the other is a palm tree fossil. What can you infer about the environment in which these organisms lived?

• A cold mountain region because an environment cannot change its type of environment over time.

• A warm mountain region because since there are palm trees, the area needs to be warm.

• A warm ocean environment because fish are found in areas with water and palm trees are found in warm ocean environments.

• A hot desert because palm trees are found in hot areas.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

A student is observing two fossils found in a warm wooded region. One fossil is of an animal and one of a plant. Both of these fossils appear to have the same characteristic that they retain water. What can you infer about the environment in which these organisms lived?

• The fossils are of organisms that once lived in a desert since these organisms are able to live where there is limited water.

• The fossils are of organisms that once lived on the coast next to the ocean because they lived on land, but need access to the ocean.

• The fossils are of organisms that once lived in a wooded area because there are a lot of types of plants and animals found in this region.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-1

True or False: A organism must be buried in sediment BEFORE the soft parts rot away or decay and then minerals fill in the spaces

• True

• False

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

• The student should show people digging out the fossil to show an animal becomes a fossil the moment it is discovered.

• The student should label the soil types in each layer of the illustration.

• The student should label the type of dinosaur in their image.

• The student should draw a time lapse of images for each step with arrows and descriptions.

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-4

NGSS.MS-ESS2-2