Introduction to Fossils Pamphlet Key
What Is a Fossil?
Evidence of life such as remains,
traces that are preserved in rock.
How are fossils useful?
Geologists can determine when
life began. When plants and
animals first lived on land. When
certain types of plants and
animals become extinct.
What are Permineralized
Remains? How are they formed?
What are trace fossils? List some
examples
Fossils in which the spaces inside
are filled with minerals from
groundwater. If a hard part is
buried, groundwater seeps in and
deposit minerals in the spaces.
Show evidence of life. Examples
are burrows, nests, coprolites,
tracks, trails, bite marks
How are carbonaceous films
formed? As sediment piles up, an
organism’s remains are subject to
pressure and heat.
Behavior of animals.
What part of an organism
fossilizes better, hard or soft body
parts? Hard
Gases and liquids are forced from
the body leaving a thin carbon
film.
Why?
What is the difference from a mold
and a cast? A mold is like a cavity
in a rock and a cast is where
sediment enters the cavity to
produce a copy of the original
object.
Hard body parts are less likely to
be eaten by scavengers or other
animals
Hard body parts don’t decay as
quickly
What type of rocks are fossils
usually found?
Sedimentary
How are original remains formed?
Part of the actual organism is
preserved in amber, ice, tar seeps
What do trace fossils tell us?
What are index fossils? What
information do they provide?
Remains of species that have
existed on earth for a short period
of time. They are abundant and
are widespread geographically.
What have fossils been able to tell
scientists?
Climate conditions of the past, tell
where a land or area was once
covered by water. At one time,
North America was near the
equator.
What is Uniformitarianism?
The law states that the processes
that are changing earth today like
weathering and erosion, mountain
building, earthquakes, and
volcanoes are the same processes
that have changed the earth
through time as a slow process.
What is the Law of Conservation of
Matter? How does it relate to the
rock cycle?
1. The Law of conservation of
matter states that matter cannot
be created or destroyed.
2. The rock cycle illustrates this
idea since rock material changes
form but is neither created or
destroyed>