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Dinosaur Discoveries Worksheet

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Dinosaur Discoveries Worksheet

Read the fossil field notes, then use evidence to solve the questions. For written answers, explain your reasoning where asked.

Fossil Field Notes

At a site in inland Queensland, a team uncovers several fossils in layers of sedimentary rock. One fossil is a three-toed footprint beside smaller footprints. Nearby are fossilised leaves and fish scales. In a separate rock layer, the team finds a tooth with a sharp, curved edge. The rocks formed on an ancient floodplain. Fossils provide clues, but they do not always show the whole story: scientists compare many types of evidence and consider other explanations.

1.During which geological era did non-avian dinosaurs live?

Palaeozoic
Mesozoic
Cenozoic
Precambrian

2.The footprint trail has three toes. What is one reasonable inference a scientist might make from this clue?

3.Which evidence in the notes suggests that plants and animals lived near the ancient floodplain? Give two examples.

4.A sharp, curved tooth is found in a different rock layer. Which conclusion is best supported?

The animal probably ate meat or other animal material.
The animal was definitely a plant-eating sauropod.
The tooth proves that the animal lived in the ocean.
The animal must have made the three-toed footprints.

5.A footprint can be evidence of an animal's movement. True or false: one footprint trail always proves exactly how fast the animal was moving.

TrueFalse

6.Complete the sentence: Dinosaurs are vertebrates because they had a .

7.Scientists group dinosaurs into Saurischia and Ornithischia based on features of their skeletons, especially their hips. What is the value of classifying organisms into groups?

Testing an Extinction Explanation

About 66 million years ago, a mass extinction occurred. Evidence linked to an asteroid impact includes a large impact crater in Mexico and a thin worldwide layer of rock enriched in iridium, an element uncommon in Earth's crust. Scientists also investigate volcanic activity and changing climate when explaining the extinction.

8.Name the two pieces of evidence in the field notes that support an asteroid-impact explanation for the extinction.

9.Explain why scientists may investigate more than one possible cause of an extinction.

10.Write an investigable question about dinosaur fossils that could be answered by comparing evidence from different rock layers. State one type of evidence you would compare.

11.Fossil evidence is scientific evidence. How might Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and cultural stories contribute to understanding Country and the natural world? Give a respectful, general example without claiming that a particular story refers to a dinosaur.