Bakcyard Naturalist
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Fossils are the remains of organisms that have been dead a long long time (typically in excess of 10,000 years). These organisms have failed to decay because they have been preserved in some form of bacteria-free environment (e.g., in ice, in pine sap, in a bog or under layers of sediment. In this series of exercises, students will gain an understanding of what constitutes a fossil and mechanisms of preservation (Exercise 1. Fossils: T/F). They will become familiar with the concept of geological time and what really big numbers of years mean (Exercise 2, Geological Time-Line). They will learn about how dates are assigned to fossils (Exercise 3. Dating Fossils), and they will learn how fossils are utilized to examine the historical relationships among organisms (Exercise 4. Fossil Lineages).