What Are Fossils?
What is a fossil?
The remains or imprints of plants or animals from long ago
What is an imprint fossil?
A mark or shape left behind by plants or animals
What can fossils tell us about the past?
What animals and plants lived long ago.
What does extinct mean?
When no more of a type of animal is alive.
What can fossils tell us about plants in the past?
What types of plants grew long ago.
How do fossils form?
When plants or animals are buried under mud or sand, leaving an imprint.
What is petrified wood?
Wood that turned into stone over millions of years.
How can leaf fossils tell us about the climate?
They show what types of plants grew in that area.
Name one extinct animal.
Dinosaur or mammoth.
How do fossils help scientists know about climate?
They show what kind of plants and animals lived in different climates.
Why are fossils important?
They help scientists learn about animals, plants, and environments from the past.
What kind of fossil is a dinosaur bone?
a body fossil
What do dinosaur footprints tell us?
How dinosaurs walked and their size.
What might happen if dinosaurs were not extinct?
They would still live on Earth and might compete with humans.
What is petrification?
The process of turning wood into stone.
What is an imprint?
A mark left by something pressing into soft material like clay or mud.
How is petrified wood formed?
When wood is buried under the ground and minerals replace its parts.
What can scientists learn from fossilized bones?
The size and shape of extinct animals.
Why did dinosaurs go extinct?
Scientists think a meteor hit Earth or the climate changed.
What do plant fossils tell us about the climate?
If the weather was hot, cold, wet, or dry.
Give an example of a fossil.
Dinosaur bone, leaf imprint, or petrified wood.
Name two types of fossils.
Imprints and petrified wood.
What is one thing fossils cannot tell us?
The color of animals or what sounds they made.
What is the first dinosaur that appeared on Earth?
Eoraptor.
How does petrified wood form?
When wood is buried, minerals replace its parts over millions of years.