4.6.3.5 Fossils

Question 1

What are fossils?

Answer 1

• The remains of organisms from millions of years ago which are found in rocks

Question 2

How can fossils be formed?

Answer 2

• From parts of organisms that have not decayed because one or more of the conditions needed for decay are absent
• When parts of the organism are replaced by minerals as they decay
• As preserved traces of organisms such as footprints barrows and rootlet traces

Question 3

Why is the fossil record incomplete?

Answer 3

• Many reforms of life were soft bodied which means that they have left few traces behind
• What traces there were have been mainly destroyed by geological activity
• This is why scientists cannot be certain about how life began on Earth

Question 4

What can we learn from fossils?

Answer 4

• How much or how little different organisms have changed as life developed on Earth