Laboratory 9
Fossils on the Internet Lab

Pamela J. W. Gore

Department of Geology, Georgia Perimeter College

Clarkston, GA 30021

Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 Pamela J. W. Gore

In this lab, you will visit several web sites to learn more about fossils. You will examine fossils at the University of California Berkeley Museum of Paleontology.

The lab consists entirely of Web Work. Your instructor may direct you to do this as homework, or to do it during lab time using the computers in the Geology Laboratory, or in a computer lab.

A. "Getting into the Fossil Record".
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/fossil/9to12/intro.html

Click the links at the bottom of the page to continue through the site. Some pages may require you to click on an image or answer a question before the link appears to guide you to the next page.

  1. View the animation about getting into the fossil record, and write several sentences summarizing how a dinosaur can become a fossil.
  2. The word "fossil" means what (from Latin)?

  3. What are paleontologists?

  4. Fossils can be body parts of ancient organisms, or they can be traces. Give five examples of traces.

    1.  

    2.  

    3.  

    4.  

    5.  

  5. Which type of organism do you think is most likely to be preserved? One that gets buried quickly or one that gets buried slowly?

  6. What are three biotic factors that can affect an organism after death?

    1.  

    2.  

    3.  

  7. What is an abiotic factor that can prevent the organism from becoming preserved, AFTER it has been buried?

  8. What is a mold?

  9. What is a cast?

  10. What is a foram?

  11. What is amber?

  12. What type of animal might become preserved in amber?

  13. Where in the US is a tar pit found?

  14. What type of animal might become preserved in a tar pit?

  15. Which is more likely to fossilize? Hard parts or soft parts?

  16. Of all the organisms alive today, what percentage is most likely to be preserved as fossils?

  17. What are three ways in which a fossil can be destroyed after it has formed?

    1.  

    2.  

    3.  

  18. Which type of rock is most likely to contain fossils? Igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic?

  19. Why is a mammoth more likely to fossilize than a caterpillar? (From the Review Quiz).

B. Stories from the Fossil Record
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/stories/middle/intro.html

Paleoecology

  1. What is paleoecology?

  2. What are three abiotic factors of the ecosystem?

    1.  

    2.  

    3.  

  3. What are Archaeocyathids?

  4. What could explain finding fossils of sponges in the Nevada desert?

  5. What does terrestrial mean?

  6. Plants with smooth leaves grow in what sorts of climates?

  7. In what climate do plants with leaves with toothed edges live?

  8. List 2 common interactions between organisms.

    1.  

    2.  

  9. What are the holes in the ammonite shell?

  10. What animal made the holes in the ammonite shell?

  11. What can fossil pollen and spores tell us?

Past Lives

  1. Name a fossil animal with growth rings.

  2. How many species of trilobites existed?

  3. Which fossil animal is sometimes found curled up?

  4. Why did they curl up?

  5. What was the evidence that the Maiasaurs cared for their young in the nest?

  6. What was the evidence that hadrosaurs lived in herds with social behavior?

  7. In the page on the whale forelimb, what happened to the REAR legs of the whale ancestor?

Geologic Time

  1. What is superposition?

  2. What is an index fossil?

  3. What is the genus of the plant fossil that has been used to piece together the positions of the continents in the past?

  4. When did Glossopteris live?

  5. On what supercontinent did Glossopteris live?

Biodiversity

  1. What is biodiversity?

  2. What is the genus of the fossil bird?

  3. Did Archaeopteryx have feathers?

  4. Did Archaeopteryx have teeth?

  5. What appears to be the closest living relative of the dinosaur?

  6. When did trilobites become extinct?

  7. What is one of the closest living relatives of the trilobite?

  8. What percentage of all species that lived on Earth are now extinct?

  9. A mass extinction occurred about 248 million years ago. This was at the end of what geologic period?

  10. What are some of the factors contributing to the extinction?

  11. What percentage of the animals went extinct 248 million years ago?

  12. List three groups of organisms that became extinct about 248 million years ago.

    1.  

    2.  

    3.  

  13. List three groups of organisms that became extinct about 65 million years ago.

    1.  

    2.  

    3.  

  14. What sorts of animals became extinct about 11,000 years ago? (list at least 3 types of mammals)

  15. What was the most likely cause of the extinction 11,000 years ago? (list two factors)

  16. When reef-building organisms went extinct, what became of the other organisms that inhabited the reef?

  17. What appears to be the closest living relative of the eurypterid?

C. University of California Berkeley Museum of Paleontology - History of Life Through Time
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/historyoflife.php

  1. What are the three domains of life?

    1. _________________________________

    2. _________________________________  

    3. _________________________________  

  2. Click on the link for Bacteria in the diagram.

    1. What do bacteria do, and why are they important?
    2. What is the age of the oldest fossil bacteria? 
      
_________________________________

  3. At the bottom of the Bacteria page, click on Fossil Record.

    1. What are cyanobacteria?
    2. Name two layered structures that cyanobacteria form. 
      
_________________________________     _______________________________
    3. Explain how cyanobacteria build these layered structures.
      4.

    Use the BACK button to return to the History of Life Through Time page.

  4. Click on the link for Eukaryota in the diagram.
    Which four groups of organisms are included in the Eukaryota?

    5.  
    1. _________________________________
       
    2. _________________________________
       
    3. _________________________________
       
    4. _________________________________
       
  5. Click on the palm tree.
     
    Plants first appeared in the _________________________________ but did not begin to resemble
     
    modern land plants until the Late _________________________________.
     
    Trees appeared by the end of the _________________________________ Period.

    6. Use the BACK button to return to the History of Life Through Time page.

  6. Click on the link for Archaea in the diagram.
    When were the Archaea discovered?
     
    _________________________________
  1. What sorts of extreme environments do the Archaea inhabit?

    _________________________________
     
    _________________________________
     
    _________________________________
     
    _________________________________
     
    _________________________________
     

    Use the BACK button to return to the History of Life Through Time page.
    Click on "Learn more about phylogeny and cladistics".

  2. What is phylogenetic systematics?

    Click on the NEXT button in the bottom right corner of the page,or click on "How to read an evolutionary tree".

  3. What is a clade?
    4.

D. Geologic Time
University of California Berkeley Museum of Paleontology - Tour of Geologic Time
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/geologictime.php

Click on "Learn about the history of the geologic time scale.".

  1. Explain the contributions of Nicholaus Steno to geology.
  2. What was William Smith's contribution to geology?
  3. The beginning of the Phanerozoic is marked by what occurrence?

  4. What are the three divisions (Eras) of the Phanerozoic Eon?

    1. _________________________________  

    2. _________________________________  

    3. _________________________________  

  5. What do the following terms mean?

    1. "zoic" _________________________________

    2. "Cen" _________________________________

    3. "Meso" _________________________________

    4. "Paleo" _________________________________

  6. What major group of animals dominated the Mesozoic Era?

E. Frequently Asked Questions about Paleontology
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/FAQ/faq.html

  1. What are coprolites?

  2. What are the practical uses of paleontology?
  3. How do paleontologists know how old fossils are?
  4. Fossils that are most useful for correlation tend to be:
    1.  

    2.  

    3.  

    4.  

Return to Contents

This page created by Pamela J. W. Gore
Georgia Perimeter College
July 20, 1998
Modified June 22, 1999
Modified February 17, 2000
Modified November 15, 2002
Modified December 17 and 20, 2002
Modified April 8, 2003
Modified December 12, 2003
Modified December 3, 2004
Modified December 12, 2006