Earth Science Chapter 10 Lesson 1 Outline

Fossils

A.    Evidence of the Distant Past

1.                                                  provide clues to Earth’s past. Some of the most obvious
clues that are present in rocks are                                            , the preserved
remains or evidence of ancient living organisms.

2.  Some early scientists thought that fossils formed from the remains of organisms
killed in                                       .

3.                                                  is the idea that conditions and creatures on Earth
change because of quick, violent events.

4.  Based on his observations,                                           proposed that changes
on Earth take place very slowly.

5.  Hutton developed the principle of                                      . According to this
principle, the same                                               processes that occur today occurred
in the past.

a.  This principle says that most changes on Earth’s surface occur in slow,
continuous                                      .

b. In addition to the changes explained by uniformitarianism, sometimes
                                            events quickly change Earth’s surface.

B.   Formation of Fossils

1.  An organism is more likely to become a fossil if it contains
                                            parts such as teeth or bones.

2.  Fossils are more likely to form if an organism is                                           quickly
after it dies.

3.  Tiny fossils are called                                      .

C.   Types of Preservation

1.  If the actual organism becomes a fossil, it was completely
                                                 over a long period of time to keep it away from air and
bacteria.

2.  Some fossils are                                   , which form when pressure drives off
the gases and liquids from an organism’s tissues, leaving only the carbon behind.

3.  Fossils also form when                                                 in groundwater replace the
tissues of dead organisms.

4.  Some fossils are                                               , which is the impression in a rock left
by an ancient organism.

5.  When a mold fills with sediment or mineral deposits, it forms a fossil called
a(n)                                         .

6.                                             show evidence of the activity of ancient organisms,
such as tracks or nests.

D.   Ancient Environments

1.                                      are scientists who study fossils.

2.  Paleontologists compare fossils of                                            with organisms that
live today.

a.  Paleontologists use                                       to learn about the environments
of ancient organisms.

b. If a fossil of an ancient organism is similar to an organism that lives today, these
two organisms might have lived in a similar                                    .

3.  Fossils show that Earth’s climate has                                        many times in
the past.

4.  Fossils of plants such as                                   indicate that much of Earth
was warm and humid 200 million years ago.

5.  Fossils of organisms such as the woolly mammoth help scientists learn about times
that the climate of Earth was                                        .