(MS) 6.1.8 - Understanding Fossils Lab

Understanding Fossils

Lab

start

PrerequisiteVocabulary

By understanding what life was like in the past, paleontologists can put together a picture of what Earth may have looked like millions of years ago. They can also reconstruct past environments in various areas of the world.

For example, paleontologists may notice that the predominant fossils in an area change from primarily marine organisms to primarily terrestrial ones. This transition could be interpreted as the area changing from a marine environment, such as an ocean, to land as the sea dries up.

Become a paleontologist

Supervising a dig site in a desert

Grids

You assign paleontologists on your team to find and excavate fossils. To make communication easier, your team has a system for marking fossils on a grid.

Paleontologists Dig!

What do you know about the animals below?

THE FINAL DIG!

Layer Three

Another layer down.

Layer Two

Start the excavation!

Layer One

Data

one layer at a time

Each dig will uncover one layer of fossils. Using the Classkick grid, we will mark our fossils.

Click the fire to reveal the first set of results, then plot them on the grid!

How would you describe the relative ages of the 3 digs?

Does your grid look like this?

Clues everywhere!

This grid tells us a lot! In edio, outline how the area's environment changed over time, revealed by each of the fossil digs.

Continental Drift

and Pangaea!

Wegener used multiple sources of evidence to support his claim of "continental drift," including fossil evidence!

Let's check out some additional fossil evidence that was found. While learning about this fossil evidence, consider the following: How could the fossils of a Lystrosaurus (a reptile that looks like a pig) be found in Australia, South Africa, South America, India and Antarctica?

Edio Questions

Question 5:

Question 6:

You're Done!

Antarctica is a frozen land, so cold and icy that no trees can grow there. Yet scientists have discovered fossils of ancient trees in Antarctica. How is this possible?

The Himalayas in central Asia are the tallest mountains in the world. But fossils of seashells can be found high in these mountains, far from any ocean. How did the shells get there?

In this lesson, you gathered and plotted data from a hypothetical paleontological dig site. Then you used fossil evidence to reconstruct possible past environments. Great job!

Matching the term to the definition:

The branch of science that studies fossils to learn about life in the past

FOSSIL

PLATE TECTONICS THEORY

Remains of a plant or animal preserved in Earth's crust

The evidence that Earth's crust is made up of individual plates that gradually move in realtion to each other

PALEONTOLOGY