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Learning from the Fossil Record
Grade 8 Science
Name: Colette Gilbert
Date: March 30, 2011
Stories from the Fossil Record Web Quest Blue is class ideas/corrections
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Click on link
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/stories/index.html
Click on STUDENTS
Click on PAST LIVES
Go through this section of the web quest. As you go through the section or when you
complete the section answer the following questions.
a. How can fossils tell us how long individual organisms live?
Some organisms show growth through the numbers of rings on their body or
inside them. They could tell us how long they lived they lived by rings on
shells and on trees. How thick the osteocyte cells are in the cells and bone
shows how old it is/was. Radioactive decay – the radioactivity lessens as it gets
older. A certain amount decreases every 1,000 years. We can tell how long ago
it lived by the percentage of radioactivity that it still has. If it has 90 grams
now, from 100, it lost 10 grams, 10% and 1% of 100 and ten thousand years ago.
It goes by how much is left when it is found and studied as a fossil.
b. How can fossils tell us how individual organisms protected themselves?
Some animal’s curl up to protect vital organs or when they sense a predator so
they don’t die/get eaten. By the way their fossils are found, can show how they
tried to protect themselves. Or if the animals bones allow them to curl up, that
means they curl up to protect themselves. You can compare to animals today
that do the same things. Infer how similar or different they are and how they
are similar to the animals who do things like curl up for protection.
c. How can fossils tell us about the behaviors of individual organisms?
Where fossils are found could suggest how they lived. If many bones are
clustered together, it could suggest they live in herds, or live near each other or
even traveled together. Now, mothers protect their young by keeping them
together. If many fossils of the same species are found together, you can infer
they are related and one is motherly by protecting them.
d. How can fossils tell us how features of organisms evolved over time?
It can show how the bones have either moved in the body, or show different
bones in places in the same animal. Like the whale, the animal evolved into
water and from having the same bones, it is a common ancestor which
includes at one time they were related.
Click on GEOLOGIC TIME
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Learning from the Fossil Record
Grade 8 Science
Name: Colette Gilbert
Date: March 30, 2011
6. Go through this section of the web quest. As you go through the section or when
you’re complete the sections answer the following questions.
a. How can we tell the age of rocks?
The number of rock layers on top of each other… the larger the number, the
more years since the first layer of sediment.
b. How can we tell the age of fossils?
We can tell the age of fossils by which rock layer they are in. If they are in the
closets layer to the top, they are relatively new. If they are closer to the bottom,
they are much older.
c. How can we learn about past geologic events?
We can learn about how the rock and sediment layers moved and which fossils
were found in each layer. If fossils normally found in water or ocean life are
on the top of mountains, you can infer that once the mountain was under
water and sea level. If there is a layer of silt in between two rock layers, like
when the dinosaurs had a meteor hit them to eliminate their species, there
would be a layer of dirt that became a new layer to suggest a geological event.
d. How do we know that the continents moved?
We know that when the continents moved, the fossils and layers moved with
it. If a certain type of fossil lived in one type of environment and now lives in
another, you can guess it moved when the land mass moved. The
animals/plants imprinted in the ground can show you where they are found in
what continent. If the same fossil is found in North America & Europe, that
means they were at one time—one continent.
7. Click on PALEOECOLOGY
8. Go through this section of the web quest. As you go through the section or when
you’re complete the section answers the following questions.
a. How can we tell what the climate was like in the past?
We can tell which now finds fossils in certain areas. If water living animals
now “live” in the dessert, you can infer that the desert used to be covered in
water, and that’s why the ocean life fossils would be found there. Plants are
the way to tell what type of climate. If tropical plants were found in the South
Pole, you can infer that South America & Antarctica were once attached.
Tropical plants are smooth and thick leaves. Colder leaves are thin and rough.
Broad leaf plants in wet environment. Thin leaves in warm environment.
b. How can we tell that environments drastically changed in the past?
If the leaves are sharp-edged, that means that climate was cool where those
type of trees grew to make those types of leaves. If the leaves are smooth
around the edges, they grew in a warmer environment. We could look at
different rock layers and see the different fossils.
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Learning from the Fossil Record
Grade 8 Science
Name: Colette Gilbert
Date: March 30, 2011
c. How can we tell how organisms interacted with each other in the past?
If certain organisms have bite marks on the fossil that means we can see they
were they prey and were being “chased” and made prey by other carnivorous
animals. If they have spikes on the edges, they were dispersal, which means
they grabbed onto other organisms for a ride where they don’t have to do any
work to move from one place to the next. You’d find the bones inside one
another to see which animals ate which animals. You could also match up the
teeth bites on another animal and match up other teeth to see which animals
was the predator and which the prey was.
d. What causes ecosystems to change over time?
When and if animals cause pollen and types of seeds to move, then those trees
and flowers repopulate in new areas, causing that type of plant to “move” into
a new area. Then they grow and drop seeds and those seeds get moved by
other organisms causing that type of plant to migrate indirectly. Changes in
the climate, plants change first and then the animals that eat them change and
it’s a chain. Seasons, or if a species would go extinct … plants disappear, a
animals who eat them leave and it’s a chain. Natural causes could eliminate a
race to change, which would cause others to die or not mutate to survive fast
enough to live.
9. Click on BIODIVERSITY
10. Go through this section of the web quest. As you go through the section or when
you’re complete the section answer the following questions.
a. How can we tell that life has changed over time?
Some of the animals (relatives to birds today) went from being larger with
pointed teeth to the teeth birds have now. The birds changed from either not
being suited fro survival in a certain environment, and had to change to
continue living. Fossil layers.
b. How can we tell how organisms are related?
The Tyrannosaurus Rex has similar teeth to the birds of today. The birds back
then have similar wings to the birds that fly around today.
c. How can we tell that extinctions have occurred in the past?
There are no more dinosaurs today, which means they either went away where
no one can find them or, they became extinct so no more dinosaurs will ever
inhabit the Earth. You can’t match up any bones with those of today to show
similarities. In fossil layers can show how many bones and less was found to
show they became extinct.
d. What can we learn from past extinctions?
That the way some of the organisms lived isn’t always the best for the way the
environment was changing. If they had to change, that had to mean that they
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Learning from the Fossil Record
Grade 8 Science
Name: Colette Gilbert
Date: March 30, 2011
couldn’t survive the way their traits caused them to be. Some things can
change as well as stay the same and have similarities to the organisms from
them.
11. Our FOCUS QUESTION for this portion of the unit is: How can we learn about past
environments and living things by studying fossils? Make a list of key concepts you
learned from this web quest that will help you to revise your pre-assessment answer
to this question.
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We can learn how animals changed over time by studying fossils
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We can learn how continents have moved based on rock layers and fossil layers
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We can learn how long animals lived based on studying fossils
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We can learn how animals protected themselves based on fossils
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We can learn how organisms evolved based on fossils
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We can learn how long rocks have been in a certain place based on the sediment
layers
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We can learn the age of fossils based on what layer of rock/sediment they are in
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We can learn about the climate based on fossils
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We can learn how animals interacted with each other based on where the fossils
are in relationship to each other/what kind of shape the fossils are in
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We can learn how organisms are related based on similarities from fossils to
animals today
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We can learn how extinctions occurred from fossils in the past
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