The Fossil Record Quiz
- Due Apr 29, 2020 at 11:59pm
- Points 8
- Questions 4
- Time Limit None
- Allowed Attempts 3
Instructions
Changes to Life over Time
Explore This Phenomenon
The Utahraptor was discovered in 1973 near Moab, UT.
- Scientists claim that the Utahraptor is the largest raptor that ever lived.
Changes to Life over Time
It is thought that patterns in the fossil record document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth.
- This is only works if we assume that natural laws operate the same today as in the past.
- If this assumption is true, the patterns that we see in the natural world today can help us understand things that happened in the past.
The Fossil Record
What is on this rock? This rock contains a portion of a fossilized tree fern.
- Scientists study fossils of plants, animals, and other organisms in order to better understand what life was like on Earth many years ago and how it has changed over time.
- Fossils are important evidence for the theory of evolution.
Fossils are the preserved remains of animals, plants, and other organisms from the distant past.
- Because most parts of organisms decompose rapidly following death, fossilization usually preserves only hard body parts like bones and teeth.
- Other fossils include footprints, burrows, droppings, eggs, nests, and other types of impressions.
- Animals and plants were also trapped and preserved in sap called amber.
Different types of fossils reveal the history of life. From left to right: Amber preserves an insect intact. Stone etches impressions of Edmontosaurus skin. Rock echoes a dinosaur’s footprint.
Paleontologists are scientists who study fossils to learn about life in the past.
- Fossils are found in rocks.
- There are many layers of rock in the Earth's surface.
- Newer rock layers form on top of the older layers so the deepest rock layers are the oldest.
- Therefore, you can tell how old a fossil is by observing in which layer of rock it was found.
- The fossils and the order in which fossils appear in the rock is called the fossil record.
- The fossil record provides evidence for when organisms lived on Earth, how species evolved, and how some species have gone extinct.
