What Are Fossils?
📋 What it is
Fossils are preserved remains or traces of ancient life — bones, shells, prints — turned to stone over time.
🗣️ Coach says
A fossil is a clue left by living things from long ago. Bones, shells, teeth, leaves — even footprints and burrows — can be preserved when they’re buried fast and minerals slowly replace or imprint them. Fossils are how we "see" creatures that vanished millions of years before us.
🧠 Memory hook
Fossil = preserved remains OR traces (even footprints) of ancient life, usually turned to stone.
😂 Giggle
Why did the paleontologist always have great stories?
Because they really dug into the past!
😲 Whoa!
Not all fossils are bones — a "trace fossil" can be a dinosaur footprint, a burrow, or even fossilised poop (called a coprolite) that reveals what an animal ate.
✅ Quick check: Is a fossilised dinosaur FOOTPRINT a fossil, even though it’s not a body part?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
Yes — it’s a "trace fossil": a preserved trace of activity (footprints, burrows, droppings) counts as a fossil.
Fossils include both body remains and traces of behaviour.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Press a shell or leaf into playdough, remove it, and see the imprint — that’s how trace fossils form.