Fossils and Dinosaurs PDF

Mother Goose Special School System, Inc. SCIENCE 2 Objectives: ✓ Describe how fossils are form ✓ Prove that fossils provide evidences about the plants and animals that lived long ago. ✓ Describe the chara...

Mother Goose Special School System, Inc. SCIENCE 2 Objectives: ✓ Describe how fossils are form ✓ Prove that fossils provide evidences about the plants and animals that lived long ago. ✓ Describe the characteristics of different dinosaurs. Reference Card Fossils are the remains or traces of ancient life that have been preserved by natural processes, from spectacular skeletons to tiny sea shells. - any evidences of life that existed in the past. Paleontologists scientists who study about pre-historic life. Paleontology the branch of science concerned with ancient, fossilized animals and plants. What are the two major types of fossils? 1. Body fossils include any part of the actual animal or plant. Things like bones, teeth, shells, and leaves are considered body fossils. 2. Trace fossils give us proof of animal life from the past.... Because of this, trace fossils are much more common than body fossils. MGSSSI : School Year 2024-2025  Mother Goose Special School System, Inc. Fossils are formed in different ways, but most are formed when a plant or animal dies in a watery environment and is buried in mud and silt. Soft tissues quickly decompose leaving the hard bones or shells behind. Over time sediment builds over the top and hardens into roc Four stages of fossilization 1. A dinosaur dies and is buried before the remains are completely destroyed. 2. Over time, layers of sediment build up and press down on the buried remains. 3. Dissolved minerals, transported by ground-waters in the sediment, fill tiny spaces in the bones. The combination of pressure, chemical reactions and time eventually turns the sediments into rock and the bones into mineralized fossils. 4. The fossils remain within the rock until uncovered through erosion or excavation. Dinosaurs Dinosaurs come from the Greek words “deinos” (which means terrible) and “saurus” (which means lizard.) Were reptiles that inhabited the earth 224-65 million years ago. MGSSSI : School Year 2024-2025  Mother Goose Special School System, Inc. Examples of Dinosaurs 1. Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the fiercest predators of all time, the “king of the tyrant lizards,” T. rex was built to rule. s 2. Argentinosaurus was the largest dinosaur, as well as the largest land animal, ever known. 3. Apatosaurus comes from the Greek words apate/apatelos, meaning "deceptive," and sauro, meaning "lizard." It had four massive and pillarlike legs, and its tail was extremely long and whiplike. 4. Stegosaurus a large, plant- eating dinosaur with four legs that has pointed plates (= flat pieces) all along its back, had a very tiny brain - it was only the size of a walnut MGSSSI : School Year 2024-2025  Mother Goose Special School System, Inc. 5. Ankylosaurus one of the largest armored dinosaurs, Ankylosaurus had a wide, heavily armored skull and a large tail club. It had a large gut space for digesting plant. 6. Triceratops was a rhinoceros-like dinosaur. It walked on four sturdy legs and had three horns on its face along with a large bony plate projecting from the back of its skull (a frill). 7. Compsognathus is one of the smallest known dinosaurs. was a carnivore (a meat eater) that caught and ate small animals, including insects and lizards. was only about the size of a chicken 8. Pterosaurs ( from Greek pteron and sauros, meaning "wing lizard") were flying reptiles of the extinct clade or order Pterosauria. are nonetheless more closely related to birds and other dinosaurs than to crocodiles or any other living reptile, though they are not bird ancestors. MGSSSI : School Year 2024-2025  Mother Goose Special School System, Inc. Causes of Extinction of Dinosaurs A big meteorite crashed into Earth, changing the climatic conditions so dramatically that dinosaurs could not survive. Ash and gas spewing from volcanoes suffocated many of the dinosaurs. Diseases wiped out entire populations of dinosaurs. Food chain imbalances lead to the starvation of the dinosaurs. Trivia Ichthyosaurs were not actually dinosaurs. They were more like ancient dolphins, or fish, but much bigger. Their name comes from Greek, and means 'fish lizard. MGSSSI : School Year 2024-2025