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

REVISION:
1. Are animal fossils made of bone? Explain what a fossil is.
A fossil is stone in the shape of the bone. Substances from
rock have taken the place of each little part of the bone.
2. Which type of rocks are fossils normally found in?
Sedimentary rock
3. Why do you think we only find fossils in this type of rock?
Sedimentary rocks can contain fossils because, unlike other
rocks, they form at temperatures and pressures that do not
destroy fossil remains. Dead organisms can become
sediments which may, over time, become sedimentary rock.
Other rock types will destroy the fossils, such as magma.
4. Fossil wood does not burn. What is the reason?
Fossil wood is made of stone.
5. Some rock comes out of avolcano. It is red hot and then it
cools and becomes hard. Can you find fossils in rock like this?
Why?
No, because the red-hot rock would burn up any bone or plant
that it fell on.
6. Name two fossils that show us the kinds of living things that
lived long ago in South Africa.
Massospondylus, therapsids, glossopteris, etc.
7. Explain how you think fossils can help us understand what life
was like long ago on Earth.
Fossils give us arecord of what life was like millions of years
ago. We do not know what it was like as no one was there to
write it down. So, fossils give us information such as what
types of plants and animals lived long ago, how these
organisms have changed over time, the eect of climate
change on the Earth, we can even tell what animals ate from
their fossils by studying their teeth and droppings.
162 Earth and Beyond