Name:______________________________________ Date:__________ Period:_______
Stories From the Fossil Record Evidence Chart
Go to the following link and click on students then click on each of the pictures to complete
your evidence chart.
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/stories/index.html
Evidence
What it tells us:
Past Lives
1. Growth rings in fossil trees or
shells
Growth rings tell us the number of years
that individual lived.
2. Curled up fossil trilobites
3. The contents of fossil nests
4. Fossils of many individuals of
the same species together
5. A change in the shape of a
feature over time
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Name:______________________________________ Date:__________ Period:_______
Geologic Time
1. Layers in the rocks
2. Index fossils
3. Fossil shells on mountain tops
4. Identical fossils on widely
separated continents
Paleoecology
1. Fossil marine animals in the
desert
2. Shapes of leaf edges
3. Tooth marks in fossil shells
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Name:______________________________________ Date:__________ Period:_______
4. Fossil pollen
Biodiversity
1. Fossils of organisms no longer
alive today
2. Features that are shared by
more than one species
3. The extinction of many fossil
species at the same time
4. The extinction of one group of
organism, like corals, on which
other organisms depend
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Name:______________________________________ Date:__________ Period:_______
Stories From the Fossil Record Analysis Questions
Directions: Please answer each of the following questions in complete sentences.
1. What may fossils provide evidence of?
2. How many organisms from the past have gone extinct?
3. How would you predict the age of a rock if you found an index fossil in a layer of
rock in Montana and a similar fossil in a layer of rock in England?
4. What could you infer about Nevada’s past if you found fossils of coral reefs in the
desert?
5. While exploring a fossil site, you find a bunch fossil leaves with smooth edges.
What could you learn from this evidence?
6. What can fossil pollen tell you about the past?
7. Give an example of how fossils can provide evidence for: individual behavior,
family behavior, or social behavior. Explain.
8. Explain the evidence that is used to understand that the early ancestors of whales
walked on land?
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