Essential question:

 What can we learn from fossils?

Notes – Fossils

A fossil is the preserved remains or traces of living things. Fossils can provide evidence of how life on Earth has changed and give clues as to what past environments were like. Fossils are formed when living things or traces of living things are buried in sediment. The sediments turn to rock which preserves the shape of the organism.

Notes – Fossils

 How do fossils provide evidence of behavior?

 What types of food organisms ate and what ate the organism.

 How the organism moved.

 Which organisms lived in groups or alone.

Notes – Fossils

 How do fossils provide evidence of how different organisms have changed over time?

 Older rocks contain fossils of simpler organisms.

 Younger rocks contain fossils of more complex plants and animals.

 Fossil evidence shows that some organisms have become extinct.

Notes – Fossils

 How do fossils provide evidence of climate/ climate change?

  Coal can only form in warm, swampy regions with thick forests.

Shells found in what is now a dry area indicate past lakes or coastlines.

Notes – Fossils

 How do fossils provide evidence organisms’ relatedness:   Anatomical similarities or differences Homologous vs. vestigal structures

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Notes – Fossils

Mold fossil – a hollow area in the sediment.

Cast fossil – sediment and dissolved minerals in water seep into the empty space of a mold fossil.

Petrified fossils – minerals replace all or part of an organism. Water and minerals seep into the cells and harden into rock.

Carbon films – an extremely thin coating of carbon left by a buried organism.

Trace fossils – fossils of activities of organisms (footprints, trails, burrows).

Preserved remains – the actual organism is preserved with little or no change (frozen, trapped in amber or tar).

Vocabulary

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index fossil

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fossils of widely distributed organisms that lived during only one short period.