My Fossil

Flipbook
NAME:
Fossils are the preserved remains of once living
things (plants and animals). A paleontologist is

What is a Fossil?
someone who studies fossils and other things that
lived long ago. Scientists can learn about plants and
animals that lived in the past by studying fossils.

There are many different kinds if fossils Animal

remains, or parts of animals, such as bones or teeth,
can become fossils. First, the living thing dies and is
covered under sand and soil. After thousands of years,
the soil turns into rock. Eventually, the rock is work
away though weathering and the fossil can be seen.

There are many different types of fossils. Fossils can be categorized into two
Body and Trace Fossils

main categories: body fossils and trace fossils.

Body fossils are part of the body of Trace fossils are fossils that
plants or animals that have become recorded the movements of
fossils. Typically the harder parts of animals. Footprints, tooth marks,
the body preserve best. Bones, teeth, and burrows and nests are all
and claws are the most common of examples of trace fossils.
these. Eggs are also an example of
body fossils. Other
body fossils can
be found in
hardened tree sap,
known as amber.
A mold fossil forms when something

Cast and Mold Fossils

such as a shell gets buried in the mud.
After thousands of years, the mud
hardens and turns into rock. The shell
decomposes and eventually
disappears. The shape if the shell is
now left in the rock and is now a mold
fossil. After the mold fossil is formed, it Think about a ball of Playdough. If you
can become filled with minerals, sand, were to press a toy dinosaur into a ball
and mud. Over thousands of years, of playdough and take it out you would
those materials that filled the mold have a mold of that toy. Now if you
become rock. This hardened rock is the were to fill that playdough mold with
same shape as the original shell that concrete and let it harden it would
created the mold. This is a cast fossil. create a cast of that toy dinosaur.

Directions: Use your flipbook to answer the following questions.

1. What is a fossil?

2. ____________ fossils are fossils that record movement of animals.

Questions
3. What are the two main categories of fossils?

4. A _________________________ is someone who studies fossils and other things that lived long ago.

5. What type of fossil forms when minerals, sand and mud fill a mold fossil and harden?

6. A(n) _____________________ fossil is the remains of an animal in hardened tree sap.

7. Hardened tree sap is also known as _______________________.

8. What is the first step in how a fossil is formed? ______________________________________________________________

9. What kind of fossil gives us the most information about how an organism used to live long ago? _____________________ Questions

10. Describe what it means for an animal to be extinct. ________________________________________________________