Name____________________________
Notes: Fossils & Fossil Footprints
Date ________ Period _____Group ____
Types of fossils
 Body fossils:________________, teeth, shells, _____________ etc
 Trace fossils: _______________, worm burrows, leaf prints etc
Who Studies Fossils?
_______________________: scientists that study fossils
Paleo- = ___________
Many work with _________________ fossils
How Fossils Form
 Animal or plant _____________
 IF
 Nothing __________ the organism right away AND
 The organism/ footprint doesn’t get ___________________ AND
 the organism is _________________ in sediment (__________, mud etc) very
soon after it dies (ex: sinking in mud) AND
 There is no _____________ in the surrounding environment AND
 The chemicals in the bones/ plant material are ____________ by other minerals
 THEN the bones will become ___________
Things to Remember about Fossils
 Form in _________________ rock ONLY
 _______________ of years old
 not the actual bone
 they are a “model” of the original bone/footprint made of _________
 very, very _______________
 many conditions have to be ______________ to form them
 (_____________ organisms do not become fossils)
Fossil Footprints
Purpose: To make observations and inferences about a set of footprints and to determine four
scenarios based upon those observations.
Procedure: Utilizing the 4 scenarios of footprints, make at least 2 observations and 2 inferences for
each scenario.
Data/Observations:
Observations
Scenario #1
Inferences
Observations
Scenario #2
Inferences
Observations
Scenario #3
Inferences
Observations
Scenario #4
Inferences
Conclusions:
1. What do you think happened? (Final Inferences)
2. What evidence do you have for what you think happened? (Final Observations)
3. How confident are you in your interpretation? Do you think someone else might have
another explanation that is equally likely?