What can fossils tell us

What can fossils tell us

 

Fossils give us information about how animals and plants lived in the past.

Once people began to recognise that some fossils looked like living animals and plants, they gradually began to understand what they were. They realised they were actually the ancestors of today's plants and animals.

 

 

Illustration of a plesiosaur swimming with seafloor and nautilus in the background

By studying plesiosaur fossils, palaeontologists learned that these extinct marine reptiles swam in the warm seas of the Jurassic Period, 165 million years ago.


Some fossils are easy to identify and look like plants and animals alive today.

While we can easily recognise and identify some fossils, many fossils represent animals that no longer exist on Earth. We only know about extinct groups like dinosaurs, ammonites and trilobites through fossils.

Fossil sea urchin on white background

A fossil sea urchin

Fossilised gastropod preserved in rock

A fossilised gastropod

Fossil fern on white background

A fossil fern


Some animals and plants are only known to us as fossils.

By studying the fossil record we can tell how long life has existed on Earth, and how different plants and animals are related to each other. Often we can work out how and where they lived, and use this information to find out about ancient environments.

Tyrannosaurus rex skull on white background

Tyrannosaurus rex's skull

Fossil ammonite with visible suture lines

Ammonites are a well known fossil

Trilobite fossil specimen preserved in rock

Fossil of a trilobite, a group of extinct marine arthropods

 

 

 

 

About this resource
 

Science topic: Fossils, Rocks, Evolution, Extinction

Key Stage: KS2, KS3

Type: Information

Keywords: Fossils, extinct plants and animals

Learn more about fossils on the Museum website