Fossils

Fossil Types

100

What is a bone fossil?

A fossil that is/was a bone.

200

What is a carbon fossil?

A fossil that only has carbon left.

300

What is a trace fossil?

The footprint or imprint of a plant or animal.

400

What is a mold fossil?

The imprint of an animal left in the mud that has hardened.

500

What is a cast fossil?

Minerals and mud that has filled a mold and has taken the shape of the plant or animal.

Vocabulary

100

Define mold fossil.

The shape of the plant or animal that has been filled with mud.

200

Define cast fossil.

Mud that has filled the mold fossil and has taken the shape of the plant or animal.

300

Define body fossil.

Preserved remains or body parts of ancient organisms.

400

Define ichnofossil.

The bio activity of a lifeform but not the lifeform itself.

500

What is the term for the process of something becoming a fossil?

Permineralization.

Learning from Fossils

100

How many ways are there to tell the age of a fossil?

2

200

Which of the following statements is true? A. Fossils tell about many kinds of plants and animals. B. Fossils do not give us any important information. C. Fossils only teach us about dinosaurs. D. Fossils only teach us about plants.

A. Fossils tell about many kinds of plants and animals.

300

How is a mold fossil different from a cast fossil?

The mold fossil is the outline of the animal and the cast fossil is when mud fills the mold and creates the shape of the fossil.

400

How can we tell the age of a fossil?

Radiocarbon/radiometric dating or relative.

500

What tells us how old fossils are?

The radioactive decay of an elements like carbon-14.

Mixed Review

100

What do sharp teeth on a fossil show?

That the animal ate meat.

200

What is most likely to remain in a fossil?

Hard parts-bone, teeth, claws

300

Why are there not many plant fossils?

Because plants do not have hard parts so they are easily destroyed.

400

List 3 ancient fossils that have been found that also has living members alive now days.

Ferns, camels, fish, trees, bugs.

500

List 3 animals that are extinct.

Woolly Mammoth, Saber tooth cat, Great Auk

Facts

100

Describe what a fossil is.

A bone that is now a “rock”.

200

Does a gator die from old age and become a fossil?

No, they never die from old age.

300

What type of rock is a fossil most likely found in?

Sedimentary rock

400

Fossils are like rocks.

True.

500

List the steps of how a fossil is formed.

The animal dies and is buried. The soft parts rot away the bones are replaced with minerals.