Grade 7 Science

Earth and Space Science: Earth’s Crust and resources (EC)

Melanie Giambattitsa

Lesson 3a

Dinosaur skeleton in Dinosaur Hall of Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta

•You’ve probably hear of, if not seen, fossils of dinosaurs and other animals that lived on our planet millions of years ago. But what are fossils? How do they form?

Fossils: Ancient Snapshots in Sedimentary Rock

Review: • How are fossils formed?– Casts, impressions, or actual remains

• Why do you think only a small fraction of organisms are preserved as fossils? • Hint: what happens to most dead organisms?• Decay or are eaten by scavenging animals

• Why are fossils important?– They show us what types of plants and animals

lived on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago• If you look at exposed layers of sedimentary

rock, from bottom to top, the fossils are like, a series of snapshots of how life has changed on Earth, from the distant past near the bottom to more recent times near the top.– INSERT PICTURE YO

• Explain in your journals:– How do geologists use fossil records to provide

evidence of geological history?