1. Bell work Pick a science word and write the definition.
Chapter 7 or the glossary

2. Title of Notes: Fossils
Pgs. 18, 19 & 20 RS
Goal for the lesson: I can describe a fossil.

3. I’ll know I’ve got it when…
Learning target
I can describe a fossil.
Today I am…
learning about fossils and the geological time scale.
So that I’ll be able to…
Explain what characterizes a fossil and understand how they are dated.
I’ll know I’ve got it when…
I can describe what fossils are.

4. Preserved remains of any living thing.
Fossils
Preserved remains of any living thing.

5. Requirements of a fossil….
For remains to be considered fossils, scientists have decided they have to be over 10,000 years old.

6. Carbon-14 has an approximate half life of 5,700 years.
Radiocarbon dating
A chemical analysis used to determine the age of organic materials based on their content of the carbon-14.
Carbon-14 has an approximate half life of 5,700 years.
All organic material has decaying Carbon-14 in it. However, plants and animals that are still alive constantly replace the supply of carbon in their systems and so the amount of Carbon-14 in the system stays almost constant. Once a plant or animal dies the Carbon is no longer being regenerated and so the Carbon-14 starts to decay. In this way, by measuring the amount of Carbon-14 in the body of a prehistoric animal or plant, a scientist can deduce when the plant or animal died.

7. Death
Left: A fish during its life. Right: The fish dies and shortly after sinks to the seafloor.

8. Decay and burial
Left: After several weeks the soft body tissues have mostly decayed.
Right: Tectonic activity causes nearby sediment to bury the fish.

9. Sediment accumulation and permineralization
Left: Several months pass and all that remains of the buried fish is its skeleton.
Right: As times passes more sediment accumulates above the fish and the skeleton is gradually compressed and permineralized.

10. Uplift and exposure
Left: Over time the rock is distorted and uplifted by geological forces associated with continental movement, raising it above sea level.
Right: The uplifted rock is exposed to weathering and gradually erodes away, eventually exposing the tip of the fish's skull at the surface.

11. Discovery and extraction
Left: A paleontologist recognizes the fish by the small area of skull exposed and begins to carefully extract the specimen.
Right: A Pomognathus fish from the Houghton Quarry - the skull is clearly visible, and what parts of the skeleton remain are buried.

12. Geological Time Scale
The first geologic time scale was proposed in 1913 by the British geologist Arthur Holmes ( ). This was soon after the discovery of radioactivity. Holmes estimated that the Earth was about 4 billion years old.

13. Period Tens of millions of years.
Geological Time Scale
Era Two or more geological periods comprise an era (Hundreds of millions of years in duration.)
Period Tens of millions of years.
Epoch The smallest division of geologic time, lasting several million years.
Age An age is a unit of geological time which is distinguished by some feature (like an Ice Age).

14. Eon
Era
Period
Millions of years ago (MYA)
Phanerozoic
Cenozoic
Quaternary
1.8
Tertiary 65
Mesozoic
Cretaceous
144
Jurassic
206
Triassic
248
Paleozoic
Permian
290
Pennsylvanian
323
Mississippian
354
Devonian
417
Silurian
443
Ordovician
490
Cambrian
540
Proterozoic
2500
Archean
3800
Hadean
4600

15. Biggest fossil
This gigantic plant-muncher (named after Argentina, where its remains were found) measured about 120 feet from head to tail and may have weighed over 100 tons (200,000 lbs). Just one vertebra of Argentinosaurus is over four feet thick!
Set of bones that extend from the spinal column. 2,000 lbs = 1 ton

16. Tertiary Cretaceous Jurassic Triassic Permian Carboniferous Devonian
Quaternary
Tertiary
Cretaceous
Jurassic
Triassic
Permian
Carboniferous
Devonian
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian
Precambrian

17. Emily Baldry with the toy shovel she was using when she found her fossil.  When the fossil was first dug up, it looked like a large clump of hard mud.  A fossil expert removed the hardened mud to reveal the fossil pictured above.

18. Cast fossil These are formed with a mold is filled in
Types of fossils
Mold fossil When an animal or plant dies, it may fall into mud or soft sand and make an impression or mark in the dirt. The body is then covered by another layer of mud or sand
Cast fossil These are formed with a mold is filled in
Compression fossil Plants/animals become trapped between layers of sediment and get smashed flat.
Trace Fossils The remains of tracks, burrows, eggs, nests, and fossil coprolites (poop).

19. Resin fossil
Plants, mostly trees, secrete sticky stuff called resin. Sometimes insects, other small animals, or bits of plants get stuck in the sticky resin.
The resin hardens overtime and is preserved in rock making a fossil.

20. Notebook activity pg. 18 LS
Create a geological time scale. Draw a picture to represent each Era. Pg