What Fossils Cannot Tell Us

Lab Brief #11

🎯 Your mission

Run the experiment. Find out what really happens.

⚡ The twist

Weather isn't random — it's just complicated.

What you'll learn

Fossils preserve hard parts far more often than soft ones, and only in the right kind of sediment. The record is therefore patchy: an animal missing from the rocks may simply never have been fossilised.

Key words

fossil record
The collected fossils that show what lived in the past.
preservation bias
The tendency for some organisms to fossilise far more readily than others.

Make a hypothesis first

Before you observe: what shape will it leave?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

modelling clay
shells
leaves
sponge

⚠️ Safety first

Wash hands after handling clay and do not put shells near your mouth.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Think about what you just learned: say what "fossil record" and "preservation bias" mean in your own words before you start.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Press shells, leaves and a piece of sponge into clay, then compare how clear each impression is. Use the result to explain why jellyfish fossils are so much rarer than shell fossils.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Question 1 of 2

Fossils most often preserve:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 2

An animal missing from the fossil record:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🌊 The deepest part of the ocean is deeper than Mount Everest is tall.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 2 right.

All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: This is shaping the ground you walk on, slowly, every single day.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Find a rock outside and try to guess how old it is.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “What's the slowest change you can think of?”

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What Fossils Cannot Tell Us

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