NS term 4 grade 5 Fossils

Question 1

Where are fossils found

Answer 1

in sedimentary rock

Question 2

What are fossils

Answer 2

ancient remains of plants or animals formed over millions of years inside rocks

Question 3

Why do scientists get exited?

Answer 3

It tells them about first life on the planet (or life long ago)

Question 4

name in 4 steps the fossil process

Answer 4

1. plants or animals die, sink to bottom of water or fall to the ground. Are covered with sand or rock pieces.
2. Soft parts decompose, leave behind hard parts
3. Covered with more mud/sand (sediment)
4. Sediment hardens and fossils form (are trapped)

Question 5

what is a sediment

Answer 5

something that settles down (like sand or stone)

Question 6

Why are animals in wet places more likely to become fossils

Answer 6

they need a settlement on them soon after they die to be buried. water carries such sediment

Question 7

what is exctint?

Answer 7

no longer living on earth

Question 8

is it true or false: many animals that became fossils are extinct

Answer 8

true

Question 9

What is a paleontologist

Answer 9

someone who studies fossils

Question 10

what can fossils tell us about?

name 3 things we can learn form fossils

Answer 10

what something looked like, how they behaved, what the climate was, how the plant or animal may have died

Question 11

what do we mean when we say an organism is extinct

Answer 11

is is no longer living on erath

Question 12

what 2 main type of fossil are there

Answer 12

body fossil and trace fossil

Question 13

what are body fossils and give an example of 2

Answer 13

fossils from hard body parts (teeth, skeleton, seeds)

Question 14

what are trace fossils

Answer 14

fossils formed of traces that animal or plants left behind

Question 15

name 2 trace fossils

Answer 15

egg, footprints, nestst

Question 16

What are some South African fossils

Answer 16

early types of turtles, crocodiles, dinosaurs.

Question 17

Why is the coelacanth ?

Answer 17

a type of fish that lived millions of years ago , disappeared and was refund recently (both fish and amphibian

Question 18

why was the coelacanth find so important?

Answer 18

scientist thought it had died out

Question 19

What doe s ailing fossil mean?

Answer 19

When a living thing can only be compared with a fossil and still look similar

Question 20

name 2 fossil sites

Answer 20

Karoo: dinosaurus and also cradle of human kind: tooth cats and extinct monkeys

Question 21

what can you say about areas where fossils are found?

Answer 21

they must have been wet in the past

Question 22

what is a hominoid

Answer 22

ape like humans form millions of years ago

Question 23

what was the name of the skull found in Cradle of Humankind?

Answer 23

Mrs Ples

Question 24

why are fossils found in layers of sedimentary rock?

Answer 24

because after an animal or plant died, new rock fell op top and so many layers were formed and compressed.

Question 25

why are scientist excited when they find the missing links? (= a fossil that is not similar to other fossils)

Answer 25

It helps to understand better

Question 26

Explain why the oldest fossils are in the deepest layers of rock?

Answer 26

those layers were formed first before many millions of years of new layers fell on top and buried the fossil