Which Of The Following May Preserve Ancient Remains Of Plants And Animals?

A Fossil'southward Journeying

Grade Level:

Upper Elementary: Third Class through Fifth Grade

Field of study:

Science

Lesson Duration:

60 Minutes

Boosted Standards:

3rd Form:  iii-LS4-1, 3-LS4-two, and 3-LS4-3

Thinking Skills:

Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Translate or summarize the ideas in own words. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a trouble or relate it to a prior experience.

Essential Question

1.  What is a fossil?
2.  Are fossils rare?
three.  Why are fossils of import?

Objective

i.  Identify fossils and how they are formed.
2.  Distinguish betwixt trace fossils and mere impressions.
3.  Recognize that because some plants' and animals' parts fossilize better than others this creates missing information in the fossil tape.

Background

Definition of a Fossil

A fossil can be defined equally any naturally occurring evidence of by life. Fossils need not be mineralized (turned to rock) or even enclosed in rock. Many relatively young (10,000+ years old) Water ice Age sedimentary deposits are un-cemented sand and gravel, but rich with true fossils. Ice Age mammoths that have been found preserved in permafrost are fossils, although their flesh is still mostly un-decayed. 10 thousand years is a lower limit often used for the age of organic remains that are considered fossils. At that place are three bones types of rocks: sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous. With few exceptions, fossils occur in sediments or sedimentary rocks. Occasionally living things are preserved in lava flows or volcanic tuff deposits (igneous rocks), merely these are relatively rare. Some metamorphic rocks (rocks inverse by heat and force per unit area) contain fossils, only unremarkably metamorphism destroys fossil details.

Sedimentation
The fossilization process is intimately connected with sedimentary processes. Thus, environments where sediments are being deposited (depositional settings) are places where plants and animals have the potential to be fossilized. Examples of depositional environments include a lake bottom, a river sandbar, a beach, sea floor, or dune field. Sediments originate from a multifariousness of different sources. Some sediments outcome from the breakdown, through weathering, of pre-existing rocks; these are chosen clastic sediments. Common clastic sediments are sand, gravel, silt, clay, and mud. The sedimentary rocks they turn into are sandstone, conglomerate, siltstone, claystone, and mudstone, respectively.

Organic sediments originate as tissues of plants or animals. Leaf litter on a forest flooring is an example of organic sediment. Much sand and mud in marine environments results from the break-down of shells or skeletons of animals (oysters and corals, for example) and plants (marine algae). This sediment is rich in calcium carbonate and forms the rock limestone. The organic sediment peat, normally deposited in a swampy surroundings, becomes, with oestrus and pressure, the sedimentary rock coal. Still other kinds of sediment are formed when certain chemicals in a body of water reach too loftier a concentration to remain in solution and precipitate out. An instance is the evaporation of seawater to grade salt. Some limestones likewise class this style.

Fossilization

Regardless of the type of sediment or sedimentary surroundings in which an organism dies, fossilization is past no means guaranteed. There are several requirements that must exist met before preservation of organic remains is assured. The difficulty of meeting all of these requirements is the reason that fossilization is a rare and chance occurrence. First, organisms that possess difficult parts of some kind, such as bones, teeth or shells, stand a far better take chances of fossilization than those that do not. Soft-bodied worms, for case, are extremely rare as fossils although they are mutual in marine and terrestrial settings. Absenteeism of organisms with hard parts is the main reason that fossils from Precambrian time are so rare. The second requirement for fossilization is rapid burial in a protective medium. Upon expiry, the remains of most organisms are quickly acted on by scavengers and by microorganisms that promote decay. Physical activity in the natural surround (east.g., currents, waves, air current, and pelting) is also destructive. If the remains are to make it into the fossil record, they must be buried quickly in an oxygen-free environment before these processes have a chance to destroy them. The type of sediment as well affects the quality of fossil preservation; fine-grained sediments are more than likely to favor the preservation of small-scale details.

Examples of different kinds of fossilization include fish sinking to oxygen-free bottom of lake then buried in soft mud, herd of animals drowning in flood so buried in river sand, beat out droppings accumulating accumulates slowly on ocean floor, and animals grazing on plains which are then buried by sudden eruption of volcanic ash.

Conditions afterwards burial are also important in aiding or hindering preservation of organic remains. This third stage in the process of fossilization is called diagenesis. Diagenesis refers to everything that happens to sediment later on information technology is deposited. The effects of force per unit area, rut, and circulating fluids, that in time plough sediment into a sedimentary rock, also human activity on the organic contents of the sediment, altering their composition and appearance. Sometimes a potential fossil may be dissolved in the process of diagenesis. Other times it may go mineralized. Recollect of how hard h2o acts in a teapot or in h2o pipes overtime; deposition of minerals in those places is like the mineralization process that cements sediments into stone. Mineralization or petrification, a process in which a fossil effectively "turns to rock," may assist preserve a fossil, but is not a requirement for fossilization. Many organic remains can be preserved essentially unaltered for millions of years and still exist true fossils.

Trace Fossils
Not all fossils are bodily remains of living things. Sometimes only an impression of the animate being or plant is left behind subsequently its death, such as a natural mold of a trounce. A trace fossil is evidence of some action or behavior of an fauna or institute while the organism was all the same alive. Some examples of trace fossils are footprints, burrows, coprolites, and root casts. Ancient ripple marks, mud cracks, or raindrops preserved in stone are chosen "sedimentary structures," only because they exercise non represent activities of living things, they are not trace fossils. Considering actual remains of the organism that made a trace fossil are commonly non preserved, the trace maker is often unknown.  Trace fossils are even so strong and valuable testify that certain kinds of activities occurred in a given environment. They are useful in learning about the types of animals and their interactions in ancient environments.

Finding Fossils
How do paleontologists find fossils? The best style to find fossils is to look for them. Paleontologists often spend many days searching the footing for small fragments of fossilized beat or bone that might indicate that something worth digging up lies beneath. Fossils are not found everywhere, so scientists must utilise clues to assist them narrow their search. The best way to start is past studying a geologic map. A geologic map shows the age and blazon of rocks at the surface. This method works because paleontologists mostly know the age of fossils they desire to notice and whether they lived in a marine (saltwater) or non-marine (freshwater or dry land) environment. Studying a geologic map volition often allow a paleontologist to narrow the search down to a few foursquare miles.

Two other factors that are important in deciding where to look for fossils are how well the rocks are exposed and who owns the land. Often, permits are required to enter and collect fossils on land endemic past state or federal governments. These fossils are owned by the public. Just sure types of fossils on public land tin be nerveless without a permit. If the state is privately endemic, the fossils are the property of the landowner and he or she must give permission.

Prospecting and Collecting
When a location has been chosen, the side by side step is to begin prospecting. Prospecting is searching the footing for fossils and deciding whether whatever important fossils lies underneath. Searching for fossils in almost areas is very fourth dimension consuming and often frustrating when, after many days of searching, nothing of interest turns upward. Only in that location is no ameliorate feeling of satisfaction than making a new notice. When a paleontologist finds a fossil, they must be conscientious to plot its position on a map so the identify can be establish again. The fossil or its wrapping is besides labeled and notes made so that it can be associated later with its location.

In some areas fossils are collected from surface finds just. Elsewhere a surface find may indicate that earthworks could uncover more fossils. If fossils are pocket-size and relatively durable, they may be collected only by putting them into a box or vial with a little padding. Large fossils, such as those of dinosaurs, may crave large- scale excavation and sophisticated wrapping and reinforcement to go along the frail specimens from breaking up. Paleontologists usually attempt to identify what they have found while even so in the field. But dirt and rock covering a fossil may make identification difficult, and too much training (cleaning) under field conditions may harm the specimen. Thus, careful preparation and study are unremarkably saved for the laboratory. Because of this, exciting discoveries are ofttimes made afterwards specimens have been returned to the museum and prepared.

Collecting fossils usually involves collecting more than the fossils themselves. Fossils are useful just if details near where and how they were nerveless are also recorded. Field paleontologists take careful notes and tape everything they find. They record the kind of stone and the position in the sequence of sedimentary rocks where the fossils were found. Knowing the kind of rock that fossils are preserved in helps put together the story of the environment in which the fossilized plant or fauna lived and how it came to be a fossil. When the location of each fossil find and any other information the paleontologist thinks important take been recorded, and so information technology is time to go to the museum.

Museum Preparation
The start stride on returning to the museum is to clean the remaining dirt off the fossil, and gum information technology together if it is broken and so information technology can be handled and stored. This is called preparation. A preparator is a person trained in the techniques of excavating, cleaning, and strengthening fossils. A preparator also needs to have preparation in the beefcake of the creatures he or she is preparing, so that important details will not be overlooked or destroyed.

Later on the fossil is clean and stabilized it can be studied, displayed, or stored for future use. Preparators quite often paint a permanent number on fossils similar to a library catalog number on a book then they can exist found later. A collections managing director is the person responsible for storing and keeping track of all the fossils in a museum collection.  At that place are several ways that a fossil can be useful once it is in a museum. Near fossils are part of inquiry collections. Paleontologists use inquiry collections to study the anatomy of the plants and animals they are interested in. A museum scientist, called a curator, specializes in the types of plants or animals in a collection. Curators frequently write books or shorter articles most their research interests. They often employ the research collections of many museums to do their piece of work. Public exhibits constitute another role of a museum's mission. Displays of fossils allow the museum curator'south scientific findings to be fabricated available to a wider audience than if they were only described in print. Displays permit fossils and other natural objects to serve an educational purpose for schools and the general public. This is of import because museums depend on the general public, either directly, through museum memberships and contributions, or indirectly, through regime grants, for the funding that allows them to exercise their piece of work. Also, paleontologists are justifiably proud of their finds and are eager to share them with as many people as possible.

Conservation of Paleontological Resource
Paleontologists take a code of ideals that guides them in their work and encourages the most efficient use of the resources. They are careful to get permission from the possessor of the land on which they intend to work. If the state is owned by a state or federal government, they must apply for a let to piece of work there. Awarding for a permit requires describing what the paleontologist wants to look for and why, what kind of earthworks will be required, and how long the project will take. Paleontologists try to disturb the land only as much as necessary to excerpt the fossils. They besides think to shut gates and non disturb livestock that may be present. Virtually paleontologists agree that vertebrate fossils, considering of their rarity, should be nerveless and used primarily for scientific research and pedagogy. More often than not, vertebrate fossils are not collected merely to be sold. Because of the quality of molding and casting today, high-quality plastic casts can take the place of actual fossils when it is necessary to share fossils with other museums, schools, or private individuals.

Fossils are Nonrenewable Natural Resources
Fossils of all kinds are the only direct bear witness nosotros have of by life. As such they are irreplaceable natural resources for scientific discipline. It is important for students to understand that fossils should be used wisely, and that they tin participate in their conservation. Private collecting of fossils can exist a skillful thing, but apprentice paleontologists should ever follow standards of professional ethics, including discussing their finds with experts in a position to recognize exceptional or valuable specimens. Good field records are necessary then that all finds tin be exactly relocated. In improver, information technology is important for children to learn to respect public and private lands by not trespassing and by obtaining permission to dig or collect specimens.

Protection of fossil resources is aided by public facilities such as the National Park System and on lands administered by other federal agencies. In national parks and monuments, fossils are protected from devastation and made available for educational and scientific use by the public.

Grooming

After reading the background information, gather the following materials

For How Living Things Go Fossils Lesson Programme
Paper cups
Liquid mud or clay of two or more contrasting colors
Bones, shells, leaves, or other possible fossils
Plastic spoons, toothpicks, or small-scale nails

For Making a Trace Fossil Lesson Plan
Shallow trays or pie plates
Modeling dirt
Carving tools such equally plastic knives and spoons, popsicle sticks, etc.
Specimen cards

For Some Parts Brand Better Fossils than Others Lesson Plan
Horse skeleton diagram
Stegosaurus skeleton diagram
Drawing/coloring utensils

Procedure

Vocabulary

Clastic Sediments: sediments effect from the breakdown, through weathering, of pre-existing rocks.
Curator: a museum scientist.
Diagenesis: everything that happens to sediment after information technology is deposited. A potential fossil may exist dissolved in the process of diagenesis, and other times information technology may become mineralized.
Fossil: whatever naturally occurring evidence of past life. Fossils demand not be mineralized or enclosed in rock.
Organic sediments:pieces of tissues of plants or animals such equally leaf litter on a forest floor.
Paleontologists:  scientists who report fossils to empathise the history of life on Globe.
Preparation:  when paleontologist make clean dirt and surrounding rocks off the fossil, glue it together (if broken) and store it.
Prospecting:  to search the ground for fossils.
Metamorphic rocks: rocks changed by heat and force per unit area.
Mineralization or Petrification:the condition when a fossil has effectively turned to stone.
Trace Fossil:  an impression of the animal or establish after its death such every bit a natural mold of a shell.
Sedimentary Structures:  not-biological processes preserved in rocks like ancient ripple marks, mud cracks, or raindrops preserved in rock.  They practise non represent activities of living things, and they are not trace fossils.

Assessment Materials

A Fossil's Journeying Postal service-Unit Questions

Students answer questions after completing all iii activities: How Living Things Become Fossils, Making a Trace Fossil, and Some Parts Brand Better Fossils than Others activeness.

1. In what type of rock are fossils usually found?

two. Where are some places that fossils are likely to be institute?

3. What are some requirements for fossilization?

four. Is fossilization common or rare?

5. Give an case of a trace fossil.

6. How do paleontologists notice fossils?

7. What happens to a fossil after information technology has been excavated?

Rubric/Answer Key

one. In what type of rock are fossils usually found?
Sedimentary Rock.

two. Where are some places that fossils are probable to be found?
Lake bottom, river sandbar, beach, ocean floor, dune field.

three. What are some requirements for fossilization?
Hard parts, rapid burial, protective medium, diagenesis.

four. Is fossilization common or rare?
Rare.

5. Requite an example of a trace fossil.
Footprints, burrows, coprolites.

6. How do paleontologists find fossils?
Geologic map, prospecting.

7. What happens to a fossil after it has been excavated?
It is taken to a lab where a lab preparator cleans it and so a curator displays it in a collection for public learning.

Additional Resources

Books
Audubon Society Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals
Introductory geology textbook

Related Lessons or Education Materials

National Park Service Fossil Educational Activities Webpage
Fossil Butte National Monument: Making a Fossil Game

Contact Information

Email us about this lesson plan

Source: https://www.nps.gov/teachers/classrooms/a-fossil-s-journey.htm

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