Starter quiz
- Features which make an organism suited to their environment are called ...
- 'adaptations' ✓
- What are living organisms made form?
- 'Cells' ✓
What type of tissue are the skeletons of animals made from?- Muscle
- Calcium
- Blood
- Bone ✓
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How would you classify wood?- Living
- Dead ✓
- Never been alive
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- Where do we usually find fossils?
- Under the ground in rocks. ✓
- In sand on a beach.
- In living organisms.
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- What does extinct mean?
- The number of living members of a species has rapidly increased.
- The number of living members of a species is small.
- There are no living members of a species. ✓
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Exit quiz
- What are the mineralised remains of once-living organisms, or the traces left behind by organisms called?
- 'fossils' ✓
What word is used to describe a species that has no living members?- 'extinct' ✓
Put the steps in order to show how a fossil is formed.- 1⇔The organism died.
- 2⇔The organism's remains were buried in sediment.
- 3⇔The material around the organism was compacted to form rock.
- 4⇔The organism's remains were dissolved by water seeping through the rock.
- 5⇔The organism's remains were replaced by minerals.
True or false? Only animals can become fossils.- True
- False ✓
- What can fossil evidence not tell us about an organism?
- What the organism might have eaten.
- What sort of habitat the organism lived in.
- What time period the organism lived in.
- The organism's shape and size.
- The colour of an organism. ✓
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- Why are there gaps in the fossil record?
- Fossils can be destroyed before they are found, e.g. earthquakes. ✓
- Conditions for creating fossils are very rare. ✓
- Many life forms were soft bodied and trace fossils are less likely to be formed. ✓
- Most fossils have been removed by humans for studying and displaying in museums.
- The fossils are in the sea and we can't find them.
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Worksheet
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Lesson Details
Key learning points
- Fossils provide evidence about organisms from long ago and their habitats.
- All fossils are the mineralised remains of once-living organisms or of traces left behind by organisms.
- Fossils show that some species have gone extinct.
- Fossils show that the features of some species have changed over time.
- There are limitations to the conclusions and explanations that can be made from fossil evidence.
Common misconception
Most students will be aware that bones can become fossilised but not realise that other remains such as wood or footprints can also become fossils too.
This lesson contains a broad range of examples of the types of remains that can become fossilised.
Keywords
Fossil - Fossils are the mineralised remains of once-living organisms, or of traces left behind by organisms.
Organism - An organism is something that is living, or was once living but is now dead.
Minerals - Naturally occurring chemical compounds of elements such as carbon, calcium, silicon and iron.
Extinct - An extinct species has no living members.
Fossil record - All the fossils ever found, and their ages, provide a body of evidence called the fossil record.
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