Lab #
Interpreting Fossil Evidence
Date
I. Purpose: How can fossils be used to relate the history of an era?
CA Standard: (8e) Students know how to analyze fossil evidence with regard to biological diversity,
episodic speciation, and mass extinction.
II. Materials:
pencil
data book
lab manual
III. Procedure:
Part A
1. Observe the diagram of the fossil footprints in Figure 1 in the Data section below.
2. Use Figure 1 to answer Questions 1-10.
Part B
3. Observe the diagram of the fossil footprints in Figure 2 in the Data section below.
4. Use Figure 2 to answer Questions 11-15.
IV. Data/Observations
Figure 1
Figure 2
V. Calculations/Results: None
VI. Questions (Re-state the questions and answer in a complete sentence.)
Use Figure 1 for Questions 1-10.
1. How can you tell in which direction the animals are walking?
2. How do footprints differ when an animal walks from when it runs?
3. Did any of the animals change speed? When?
4. How many different types of animals are represented, what is your evidence?
5. How did the animals interact with each other?
6. How would footprints be formed and preserved?
7. In what kind of environment did all this take place?
8. If all the footprints were made within minutes of one another, which way was the wind blowing?
Explain your answer.
9. What might the lines between the footprints of the two organisms represent?
10. Using the answers to questions 1-9 and some common sense, interpret the events that may have
occurred in Figure 1. Your interpretation should be consistent with the diagram.
Use Figure 2 for Questions 11-15.
11. Did any of the animals change speed? When?
12. How many different types of animals are represented?
13. How did the animals interact with one another?
14. Using the answers to questions 11-13 and some common sense, interpret the events that may have
occurred in Figure 2. Again, your interpretation should be consistent with the diagram.
15. Is it possible that the animals who made the footprints represented in the diagram never actually
met each other at the same time? Explain your answer.
VII. Conclusion: Answer the purpose. Re-state and answer in a complete sentence.