Fossils (2024)

FAQs

What is a fossil answer key? ›

Fossils are the preserved remains of plants and animals whose bodies were buried in sediments, such as sand and mud, under ancient seas, lakes and rivers. Fossils also include any preserved trace of life that is typically more than 10 000 years old.

The fossil record represents the collection of fossils that shows the remnants of past life on Earth. The fossil record provides strong evidence for the evolution and extinction of different species in Earth's past.

Some possibilities are: How did behaviors like flight evolve? What did the land look like in the past? What kind of organisms existed in the past? How did organisms move about?

Yes, finding a fish fossil in rocks that are 550 million years old is plausible as the earliest known fishes existed around 500 million years ago, and fossils such as Tiktaalik roseae have been found from 375 million years ago.

The different types of fossils include: petrified fossils, mold and cast fossils, carbon film fossils, trace fossils, preserved remains, compression fossils, impression fossils, and pseudo fossils.

Fossils are preserved parts of dead organisms. This is the impression of once-living organisms on the earth. Examples of fossils are animal bones, shells, stone imprints, cast molds, etc. Paleontology is the study of fossils.

The fossil record provides snapshots of the past which, when assembled, illustrate a panorama of evolutionary change over the past 3.5 billion years. The picture may be smudged in places and has bits missing, but fossil evidence clearly shows that life is very, very old and has changed over time through evolution.

The oldest known fossils, in fact, are cyanobacteria from Archaean rocks of western Australia, dated 3.5 billion years old.

The fossil record is incomplete. Of the small proportion of organisms preserved as fossils, only a tiny fraction have been recovered and studied by paleontologists. In some cases the succession of forms over time has been reconstructed in detail.

A fossil can be destroyed or altered when it is melted, crushed, moved or eroded. 8. Why isn't igneous rock a good place to look for fossils? Fossils are rarely found in igneous rock because the extreme temperatures would destroy any organism caught in a lava flow.

What are the 5 trace fossils? ›

Trace fossils may consist of physical impressions made on or in the substrate by an organism. For example, burrows, borings (bioerosion), urolites (erosion caused by evacuation of liquid wastes), footprints, feeding marks, and root cavities may all be trace fossils.

To establish the age of a rock or a fossil, researchers use some type of clock to determine the date it was formed. Geologists commonly use radiometric dating methods, based on the natural radioactive decay of certain elements such as potassium and carbon, as reliable clocks to date ancient events.

Fossils. The remains or impression of a prehistoric organism preserved in petrified form or as a mold or cast in rock.

A remnant, impression, or trace of an animal or plant of a past geologic age that has been preserved in the earth's crust is called a fossil.

A fossil is any evidence of prehistoric life that is at least 10,000 years old. The most common fossils are bones and teeth, but footprints and skin impressions fossils as well. Fossils are excavated from ancient riverbeds and lakes, caves, volcanic ash falls, and tar pits.

Few examples of living fossils are - Elephant shrew, Red pandas, Koala, Hagfish, Platypus, Tuatara, Olive Ridley Turtle, Limulus, etc.