Fossils

and the
Stories
They
Tell
1

Table of Contents
Introduction3
Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?..8
How Do Fossils Form?.12
What Stories Do Fossils Tell?22

Once there were

dinosaurs. They
roamed the earth for
140 million years. But
about 60 million years
ago, the last of the
giant dinosaurs died
out long before there
were people to see
them, tell about them,
or draw their pictures.
Tyrannosaurus rex

Introduction

Once there were giant

ground sloths as big as the
elephants that live today.
But about 25 thousand
years ago, like the
dinosaurs, they all died out
before any people saw
them.
How do we know about
animals from long ago that
no longer live on earth?
Giant ground sloth

Introduction

We know about
dinosaurs and giant
ground sloths because
we have found their
fossil bones.
Fossils form a diary
telling the story of the
earths past.
But that diary cant be
read by people who
dont know about
fossils.

Tyrannosaurus rex skull

Introduction

This presentation will teach

you some of the things you
need to know in order to
read the fossil diary. Youll
learn just what is and is not a
fossil.
Youll also learn about four
ways fossils can be made,
and finally, youll learn some
of the stories fossils tell
about what the earth was
like long ago.

Giant ground sloth skeleton

Introduction

After learning these

things, you, too, will be
able to look at a fossil and
read it like a book.

Introduction

Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

Detectives Guide
After you complete Is It a
Fossil? Yes or No?, you will
be able to identify an object as
a fossil or not a fossil, and
give a reason for your choice.

Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

Fossils form a diary telling the story of the earths past.

But reading and understanding the fossil diary can be
tricky because there are many pages missing.
Some were destroyed by changes in the earth. Some
have not been found. Still other pages are blank.
These pages were never
written on because most
living things do not
become fossils when
they die.

Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

10

Because the fossil diary of the earths past can be so

tricky to read, if you want to understand the story it tells,
youll need to become a fossil detective. Just as police
detectives use clues to figure out what happened at the
scene of a crime, fossil detectives use fossil clues to
help figure out the story of what happened on earth long
ago.
These fossil detectives are called
paleontologists. Paleontologists are
scientists who look for fossils to try
and fill in the missing pages of the
fossil diary to better understand the
earths past.
Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

11

When conducting an investigation, whats the first thing

a detective needs to do? Find clues. The trick is,
whats really a clue and what isnt?
When a police detective studies the
scene of a crime, there are many things
to look at, but only some of them are
really clues that will help solve the
crime.
The same is true for fossil detectives. When
paleontologists look for fossil clues, they have to be
able to tell if what they are looking at really is a fossil or
not.
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To know if something is a fossil or not, you have to

know exactly what a fossil is.

What do you think a fossil is?

Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

13

Fossils are the remains of living things.

They can be the remains of plants.

Fossil leaf

Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

14

Or they can be the remains of animals. Animal fossils are

usually shells or bones. The shells or bones are usually
quite heavy, as they have been turned into stone. They
are also usually a different color from when they were
alive.

Fossil alligator

Fossil shell
Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

15

But do fossils have to be the actual remains of a living

thing? The picture below shows the footprints of a
snipe-like shore bird that lived among the dinosaurs
about 100 million years ago. No bones of this bird are
known to exist.
Do you think this is a
fossil? Why or why not?

Bird footprints
Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

16

Fossil dinosaur footprint

Yes, the footprints are fossils. Fossils arent just the

remains of living things. Fossils can be something that
a living thing made.
Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

17

Footprints are not parts

of a living thing. But
they were made by living
things.
Because they were
made by living things,
they are evidence that a
living thing was there.
Fossil dinosaur tracks

Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

18

So, fossils are more than just the remains of living

things. Fossils are the remains or evidence of living
things.
This picture shows an
Egyptian mummy.
Is the mummy the remains
of a living thing?

Do you think the mummy is a

fossil? Why or why not?

Egyptian mummy

Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

19

No, an Egyptian mummy is not a fossil.

How was the mummy formed? Priests
took the dead persons body and cut
out the internal organs, dried out the
rest of the body with a chemical called
natron, rubbed oils on the body and
wrapped it in linen.

Egyptian mummy

In other words, the mummy was made

by man. Thats why the mummy isnt a
fossil. Fossils have to form naturally,
without any help from man.

Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

20

The Egyptian mummy isnt a fossil for

another reason. Its not old enough.
Fossils are prehistoric. Prehistoric
means that it comes from a time before
people could record their history. But
Egyptians wrote about their lives using
hieroglyphics.

Hieroglyphic writing

Because the mummy comes from a time when people

were recording their history, the mummy is not
prehistoric, so it isnt a fossil. People started writing
and recording their history about four to five thousand
years ago.
Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

21

What about the bones

of a cave man? Cave
men drew pictures of
animals on the walls
of their caves.
Would the bones of a
cave man be a fossil?

Cave man skull

22

Cave paintings

Yes, the bones of a cave man would be a fossil. While

the pictures cave men made show animals that lived at
the time, the pictures dont record the history of the cave
men. Because people started writing their history about
four to five thousand years ago, for something to be a
fossil it has to be older than that.
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So, as fossil detectives, we now know exactly what kind

of clues were looking for as we search for missing
pages of the fossil diary.

Fossils are the natural

remains or evidence of
living things from
prehistoric times.

Trilobite
24

But sometimes its hard to tell if something is really the

prehistoric remains or evidence of a living thing. Look
at the picture. What do you think it shows?

25

While it may look like a

fossil plant, this is a picture
of a type of mineral deposit
called a dendrite.

Dendrite

The mineral manganese

was dissolved in water. The
water seeped into the rock.

Later the water dried up, leaving the manganese

behind. The pattern looks like a tree or fern, but its
not.

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Dendrites can be confusing. The

best way to identify a dendrite is
by how flat it is. Dendrites are
usually as flat as a drawing on a
piece of paper.
Fossils are usually not flat. You
can see the rounded shape of the
plant fossils on the right.

Plant fossil

Another clue is that dendrites follow the cracks in

stones, sometimes turning as much as ninety degrees.
Thats because they were formed by flowing water
which seeps along cracks.
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This picture shows a kind of

mineral crystal called galena.
Some people are fooled by
such crystals and think they
are fossils.
But just like the dendrite,
mineral crystals arent from
living things, so they arent
fossils.

Galena

Mineral crystals have repeating geometric shapes rather

than the natural curving shapes of living things.

28

Look at the picture to the left.

Is it a fossil, the prehistoric
remains or evidence of a
living thing?

29

While it may look like a human

leg, this is a picture of a stone.
The stone just happens to be
shaped like a human leg.
Because its not from a living
thing its not a fossil.

One way to keep from being fooled by an unusually

shaped stone is to remember that animal fossils usually
show only the hard parts of a body, like the shell or
bones. But in some very rare cases, thats not always
true.
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This picture shows a 40 million year old gnat. The

entire body of the gnat has been preserved in a clear
stone called amber.

Gnat preserved in amber

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Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

Thumbs up if you think its a fossil.

Thumbs down if you think its not.

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Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

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Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

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Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

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Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

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Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

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Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

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Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

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Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

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Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

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Is It a Fossil? Yes or No?

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Practice 1: Is It a Fossil?
Yes or No?
Directions:
Look at the picture for each question.
On your paper, circle YES if the picture shows a fossil.
Circle NO if the picture does not show a fossil.
On the lines, write the reason for your choice.

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1.
YES

NO

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2.
YES

NO

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3.
YES

NO

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4.
YES

NO

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