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Fossils

Fossils are the remains or traces of plants and animals that lived long ago. They form when the hard parts of organisms, like bones, teeth, or bark, become buried over millions of years and replace with stone. Fossils provide clues about past life on Earth, showing what organisms existed before humans. Early fossils are of sea creatures with shells or bones, while later fossils include the first land plants and animals like dinosaurs and birds that lived hundreds of millions of years ago.

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272 views10 pages

Fossils

Fossils are the remains or traces of plants and animals that lived long ago. They form when the hard parts of organisms, like bones, teeth, or bark, become buried over millions of years and replace with stone. Fossils provide clues about past life on Earth, showing what organisms existed before humans. Early fossils are of sea creatures with shells or bones, while later fossils include the first land plants and animals like dinosaurs and birds that lived hundreds of millions of years ago.

Uploaded by

el_torito
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Fossils

What are Fossils?


Fossils are the remains or marks of plants
and animals that lived a very long time
ago. They are usually found in rock and
stone.
Fossils are important because they tell us
a story about things that lived on the earth
before us.

What Things Become Fossils?


Animals and plants become fossils.
So do nests, eggs, footprints and even
animal droppings!

How are Fossils Made?


Fossils are made from the hard parts of
plants and animals, such as:
- bark, seed cases, bones and teeth.
These parts do not easily rot away after
plants and animals die.
Fossils take millions of
years to form.

Turning to Stone
For example:
- A starfish dies.
- The soft parts of its body rot away quickly.
- The harder parts slowly get covered by mud.
- After millions of years, the starfish is deep in the ground.
- The mud around it is crushed by the land on top and
turned to stone.
- So are the remains of the starfish.
- Millions of years later, the stone gets worn away and the
fossil can be seen.

How Fossils are Formed

From the Sea


The first creatures on the earth lived in the
sea.
Some sea creatures made good fossils
because they had hard shells and hard
bones.
Trilobite Fossil

Horseshoe Crab Fossil


Fish Fossil

Plants
At first, there were only
living things in the sea.
Slowly, over millions of
years, plants began to grow
on the land.
Some of these plants have
left fossils in the rock.

Pine Cone Fossil

Animals

Animal fossils are often bones that have been turned to rock. Sometimes
part of the flesh is preserved, but most of the time only skeletons remain.

Because of this, it is more difficult to find fossils of invertebrates.


(Invertebrates are animals that dont have bones.)

We have discovered several types of animal fossils: bones, skin, teeth,


claws, eggs, nests, muscles, and organs.

We have also found lots of fossils of footprints, which tell us how much
animals and dinosaurs weighed and how they might have walked.

When Did They Live?


First Fish 570 million years ago.
First plants on land 440 million
years ago.
First insects and amphibians 400
million years ago.
First reptiles 360 million years ago.
First dinosaurs 245 million years
ago.
First birds 210 million years ago.

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