Natural Sciences and Technology Grade 5-B ... - Thunderbolt Kids

Do you know where this is in South Africa? Look it up on amap!
These fossils are more than 3000 million years old! That is very,
very old. They look like blue-green bacteria.
QUESTION
What are bacteria? Find out and write a short explanation
below.
Bacteria is alarge group of microorganisms made up of only
one cell. They are microscopic and some cause disease.
Earliest plants
Do you know where Grahamstown is in the Western Cape?
Grahamstown is famous in the archaeological world for having
some of the oldest and best preserved fossils of early plants from
millions of years ago.
Look at the shape of Africa and South America on the classroom
globe. The shapes could fit together like in this picture below. This
diagram shows how scientists think the continents of Earth used to
look millions and millions of years ago. This was called Pangaea.
A South African scientist thought that perhaps Africa and South
America had been joined together long ago. But nobody knew if
this was true.
Then scientists found fossils of aplant called Glossopteris in rocks
in South Africa and they found fossils of the same plant in South
America. This made more people think that perhaps Africa and
South America were once joined, very long ago. The image below
shows how scientists think the plant Glossopteris used to grow in
the world, in the dark green.
Pangaea, showing the distribution of Glossopteris in dark
green.
154 Earth and Beyond