Getting Into the Fossil Record
Go to: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/fossil/9to12/intro.html
(You can access this document on Schoology)
Directions:
Please answer the questions below as you read through the information.
You will have to answer questions along the way and click on different items in order to
move on to the next screen. (As you read, directions will be presented to you!)
For the True or False questions, please circle either True or False on your worksheet.
Throughout the activity, you may click on the red, underlined words to see a definition
appear.
Name: ____________________________________________________
Class: _____________
Getting Into the Fossil Record
1. The word “fossil” is reserved for remains that are at least how old? ___________________________________
2. True or False: The fossil record includes fossils that exist but that have not been dug up.
3. What do we call scientists who use fossils to study life in the past? ____________________________________
4. Fossils can be body parts of ancient organisms such as… (please list all)
5. Fossils can also be traces left by organisms such as… (please list all)
6. Look at the 4 pictures of the dinosaur, and read the information. (This will be shown on two
different pages) Summarize how fossils form.
7. Why are organisms that are buried quickly more likely to be preserved?
8. Organisms that are large enough to be seen with the naked eye are _____________________________.
9. What is the most common type of impression left in rock? ________________________________________
10. Besides being formed in sediment, in what other materials can fossils form? (please list all)
11. Why is it easier for hard body structures to be preserved as fossils?
12. Why is it difficult for organisms in the rain forest to become fossilized?
13. Why are lakes, rivers, swamps, deltas, and lagoons a good place for fossils to form?
14. Why is it difficult for fossils to form in the rocky intertidal?
15. Of all organisms alive today, what percentage will eventually become fossils? ______________________
16. True or False: Vertebrates are more likely to fossilize than insects, even though there are fewer
vertebrates.
17. Why are fossils uncommon in metamorphic rock?
18. How old are the rocks that contain the earliest fossils of animals? ___________________________________
19. Define uplift.
20. Why do paleontologists often look for fossils on the sides of hills?
21. Paleontologists understand that there are many reasons why the fossils they find represent only
a partial picture of life in the past. Please complete the information below.
Organisms live and die in different environments.
Of those that remain, only a few will resist destruction long enough to become fossils.
Of those fossils that do exist, only some will be found and studied.
22. Why is a mammoth more likely to fossilize than a caterpillar?