Practical Skills - Fossils

Question 1

What are the marine fossils?

Answer 1

Coral
Brachiopod
Cephalopod
Bivalves 
Trilobite

Question 2

What are the terrestrial fossils?

Answer 2

Plants (ferns/tree)

Question 3

What are the different Cephalopods and how can you tell?

Answer 3

Goniatite - Oldest , smooth saddle and lobes, simple suture lines
Ceriatite - Medium age , smooth saddle but frilly lobed and slightly more complex suture lines
Ammonite - Youngest , frilly saddles and lobes and complex suture lines

Question 4

How can a Graptolite change over time?

Answer 4

Number of stipes - many to one
Position of stipes - pendent to horizontal to reclined to scandent
Thecae shape - simple to complex

Question 5

What is life assemblage?

Answer 5

• Buried where they lived
• Whole fossils
• In as life (corals point up)

Question 6

What is death assemblage?

Answer 6

• Broken fossil
• May be aligned
• transported

Question 7

What is a mould?

Answer 7

A hole left after original fossil shell is destroyed

Question 8

What is a cast?

Answer 8

A filled in mould with either sand or mineral

Question 9

What is silicification?

Answer 9

• Replacement molecule by mineral quartz

- Hardness 7, colourless/milky

Question 10

What is pyritization?

Answer 10

• Replacement molecule by mineral pyrite
• Anoxic conditions
• Brass yellow, hardness 6, greenish black streak

Question 11

What is uniformitarianism?

Answer 11

• What happened today happened then

e. g. If corals today need shallow, clear, warm marine water then corals in the past also need the same conditions.