Fossils Evidence Chart
Directions: As you visit the different pages of the Stories from the Fossil Record website, explain what each of the pieces of evidence tells us by answering these two questions:
Evidence | What it tells us: |
Past Lives | |
1. growth rings in fossil trees or shells | We know that each ring represents one year of life. We can infer that growth rings tell us the number of years that individual lived. |
2. curled up fossil trilobites | |
3. the contents of fossil nests |
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4. fossils of many individuals of the same species together |
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5. a change in the shape of a feature over time |
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Geologic Time | |
1. layers in the rocks |
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2. index fossils |
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3. fossil shells on mountain tops |
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4. identical fossils on widely separated continents | |
Evidence | What it tells us: |
Paleoecology | |
1. fossil marine animals in the desert |
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2. shapes of leaf edges |
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3. tooth marks in fossil shells |
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4. fossil pollen |
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Biodiversity | |
1. fossils of organisms no longer alive today |
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2. features that are shared by more than one species |
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3. the extinction of many fossil species at the same time |
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4. the extinction of one group of organism, like corals, on which other organisms depend | |