Quiz on Fossils

A scientist who digs up and studies fossils is called a what?

• Archaeologist
• Biologist
• Geologist
• Paleontologist ✓ (Correct answer)

Source: Archaeologists study human artifacts; paleontologists study ancient life like dinosaurs.

In Jurassic Park, dinosaur DNA is recovered from insects trapped in what?

• Ice
• Amber ✓ (Correct answer)
• Tar
• Stone

Source: Amber is hardened tree resin; real amber really has preserved insects for over 100 million years.

Coprolites are fossils of which bodily product?

• Eggs
• Footprints
• Droppings ✓ (Correct answer)
• Teeth

Source: Yes, fossilized poop. Coprolites reveal exactly what extinct animals had for dinner.

Fossils are found almost exclusively in which type of rock?

• Sedimentary ✓ (Correct answer)
• Igneous
• Metamorphic
• Volcanic

Source: Heat from igneous and volcanic rock destroys remains; only gentle sediment buries them intact.

Which body parts most often survive as fossils?

• Skin
• Hard bones and teeth ✓ (Correct answer)
• Muscle
• Hair

Source: Soft tissue rots within weeks; mineral-rich bones and teeth can endure for ages.

The famous early-human fossil nicknamed Lucy was discovered on which continent?

• Africa ✓ (Correct answer)
• Asia
• Europe
• South America

Source: Lucy, a 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus, was unearthed in Ethiopia in 1974.

The La Brea Tar Pits are located in which US city?

• San Francisco
• Los Angeles ✓ (Correct answer)
• San Diego
• Houston

Source: Right in central Los Angeles, sticky asphalt still traps and preserves Ice Age animals.

Petrified wood is created when buried wood is slowly replaced by what?

• Coal
• Sand
• Clay
• Minerals ✓ (Correct answer)

Source: Mineral-rich water swaps the wood molecule for molecule, turning a log into solid stone.

Ammonites, common spiral fossils, were most related to which living animal?

• Nautilus
• Snail
• Squid ✓ (Correct answer)
• Crab

Source: Ammonites are cephalopods most closely related to squid, despite a coiled shell that looks more like a nautilus's.

A preserved dinosaur footprint is an example of what kind of fossil?

• Trace fossil ✓ (Correct answer)
• Body fossil
• Cast fossil
• Index fossil

Source: Trace fossils record behavior, not bodies, so footprints, burrows and even bite marks count.

Mary Anning, the pioneering fossil hunter, made her famous finds on the coast of where?

• England ✓ (Correct answer)
• Scotland
• Ireland
• Wales

Source: She combed the cliffs of England's Jurassic Coast, yet as a woman was long denied scientific credit.

Trilobites, abundant in ancient seas, belonged to which animal group?

• Mollusks
• Arthropods ✓ (Correct answer)
• Fish
• Worms

Source: Like crabs and insects, trilobites were arthropods, and they ruled the oceans for 270 million years.

When an organism dissolves leaving a hollow impression, that fossil is called a what?

• Cast
• Body fossil
• Mold ✓ (Correct answer)
• Compression

Source: A mold is the empty cavity; if minerals later fill it, you get the matching cast.

Index fossils let geologists quickly estimate a rock layer's what?

• Age ✓ (Correct answer)
• Depth
• Environment
• Location

Source: A species that lived briefly but spread worldwide acts like a built-in date stamp for the rock.

Amber, which preserves ancient insects, is fossilized tree what?

• Resin ✓ (Correct answer)
• Sap
• Latex
• Pollen

Source: It is resin, not sap; sap carries nutrients, while sticky resin oozes out and hardens to defend the tree.

Archaeopteryx is the classic transitional fossil between dinosaurs and which group?

• Reptiles
• Birds ✓ (Correct answer)
• Pterosaurs
• Crocodilians

Source: It had feathers and wings but also teeth and a bony tail, a snapshot of dinosaurs becoming birds.

Stromatolites, sometimes nicknamed "blue-green algae" mounds, are actually built by colonies of what?

• Algae
• Bacteria ✓ (Correct answer)
• Fungi
• Coral

Source: These layered bacterial mounds are over 3 billion years old and first pumped oxygen into our air.

Crude oil forms mainly from the fossilized remains of ancient what?

• Trees
• Dinosaurs
• Plankton ✓ (Correct answer)
• Ferns

Source: Despite the myth, oil comes from tiny marine plankton, not dinosaurs; coal is the plant-based one.

The Burgess Shale, prized for soft-bodied fossils, lies in which country?

• Australia
• Canada ✓ (Correct answer)
• China
• Argentina

Source: High in Canada's Rockies, it captured 508-million-year-old soft creatures in astonishing detail.

Tiktaalik, the famous "fish with a wrist," was unearthed in the Arctic territory of which country?

• Canada ✓ (Correct answer)
• Greenland
• Norway
• Russia

Source: Found on Ellesmere Island in 2004, Tiktaalik is often mixed up with Greenland's similar early tetrapod, Ichthyostega.