Monday, 9 June 2008

New Earthlearningidea - Fossil or not?

Our latest activity is 'Fossil or not?' It is a discussion about what is a fossil and what is not.
See if your pupils can answer the following questions. Which of the following are fossils?
  • 4000 year-old footprints like ours;
  • a squirrel killed on the road;
  • 3500 million year-old cell filaments;
  • a petrified tree stump;
  • the trail of a trilobite in 530 million year-old rocks;
  • ‘tree-like’, dendritic mineral growths;
  • a beach pebble with holes bored by marine organisms;
  • a human shape preserved in volcanic ash at Pompeii;
  • a piece of dinosaur skin?
    • Do try this out and let us know your thoughts.
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    1 comment:

    1. Anonymous11 June 2008 at 16:15

      I would suggest that a bored pebble could be a fossil in the making or a trace fossil, depends how recently it was bored; otherwise OK.

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