Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Time Scale
Anticipation Guide
• If you agree with the statement, put an √
beside it. If you disagree with the statement,
put an X beside it.
• ____ 1. Fossils show how plants and animals
have changed over time.
• _____2. It is rare for the soft parts of an
organism to become a fossil.
____ 3. A footprint is an example of a trace
fossil.
• ____ 4. A petrified fossil is an animal that
was scared just before it died.
Fossils
• Preserved remains or traces of an organism
that lived in the past.
•Fossils are formed when organisms die and are
buried in sediment. Eventually the sediment
builds up and hardens to become sedimentary
rock.
•Sediments are pieces of solid material that have
been deposited on Earth’s surface by wind, ice,
gravity, or chemical precipitation.
•Paleontologist-scientist who study the remains
of organisms in the rock record.
Kinds of fossils
• Petrified - when minerals replace the remains and
they become rock things like wood.
• Mold - when the shell remains and the contents
dissolve (hollow) like in art class you use a mold
to get the correct shape of a bowl.
• Cast - when the mold becomes filled with minerals
that are not a part of the original organism.
• Index- a fossil found in a narrow time range but
widely distributed around the earth;used to date
rock layers.
• Trace fossil-a fossilized mark that is formed in soft
sediment by the movement or actions of an animal.
PETRIFIED MOLD
CAST
• Sometimes whole animals become
preserved intact, but this is very rare.
If an organism is surrounded by ice
or tar they might be discovered
looking much the same as they did
when they died.
AETOSAUR
FOUND IN
THE
NATIONAL
PETRIFIED
FOREST
Relative Dating
Relative dating: looks at where the fossil is
located to determine its age relative to other
fossils. This only works if the area has been
undisturbed.
Absolute Dating
• Uses radioactive elements near the fossils
to determine the actual age of the fossils.
•By determining the age of the radioactive
element, scientists can calculate the age of the
fossil buried nearby.