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Fossil Clues at the Bike Co-op

Use fossil observations from two rock slabs to describe long-ago living things, environments, and environmental change.

Grade 3ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned to3-LS4-1

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
14 questions
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Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 3
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students use fossil evidence to describe living things from long ago.
Students compare fossil evidence to describe two long-ago environments.
Students support claims about past environments with fossil observations.

How to use

Read the co-op report together and discuss what each fossil can show before students answer. Ask students to cite specific fossil clues in the final responses.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

3-LS4-1

Use fossils to describe living things and environments from long ago.

Preview

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Fossil Clues at the Bike Co-op

Compare two rock slabs to learn about places from long ago.

Read the co-op report

The Riverbend Community Bike Co-op is adding a stone workbench. Two slabs came from different rock cuts near the town. Scientists recorded the fossils in each slab. Use the report and graphs.

Two rock slabs

The North Cut is now a dry, sloping hillside. Its slab contains six spiral shell fossils and two fish-scale fossils. A guide says that spiral shells like these belonged to water animals. Fish scales came from animals that lived in water. The shell and scale fossils were found in the same thin layer of rock.

The South Cut is now a grassy slope beside a small stream. Its slab contains seven reed-stem fossils and five root-trace fossils. A reed is a plant that often grows in wet soil. Root traces show that a plant was growing in the soil where the trace formed. The two slabs came from different rock cuts, so the records do not show that the places existed at the same time.

The scientists remind the co-op that a fossil count is a count of fossil finds, not a count of individual plants or animals. A fossil can be a part or a trace of a living thing. Fossils give clues about the past, but one kind of fossil may not tell the whole story.