The Great Fossil Find

1. The Great Fossil Find SWBAT make inferences based on observations

2. Congrats! You’re a Paleontologist • You and your team are digging in a field in Montana, near the town of Randak. • One clear crisp afternoon in October, you find four well preserved and complete fossil bones • Withdraw 4 fossil bones from your envelope, without looking at the remaining ones!! • It is too late in the day to continue the dig, so you return to camp with your find.

3. That night. . . • You and your colleagues begin to assemble the 4 bones you found earlier. Since the bones were all found together and in an undisturbed layer, you assume they are all from the same animal. • You spend the rest of the evening trying different arrangements of the bones in hopes of identifying the animal • You have 5 minutes to try arranging them

4. Bedtime! • As the night wears on, you get weary and decide to retire and begin anew in the morning • Before you go to bed, jot down in your lab notebook the type of animal you think it might be.

5. Good Morning!! • Montana mornings are marvelous. They are cool, clear, and clean. Just the kind of day you need to get to work done at the dig site. • The rock layers holding your fossils are very hard and give up only 3 more specimens • Withdraw 3 more bones from your envelope.

6. Back to Camp. . . • With the day at an end you head back to camp to try assembling this mysterious animal again. • You have 5 minutes to try some arrangements • It’s late and you are weary. Maybe tomorrow you will figure out the puzzle. • Record your ideas on what the animal might be in your lab notebook.

7. Day 3: • The next day is cold. It is the last day of the digging season. Winter lurks behind the mountains, and you must leave. • Just as the day is about to end in disappointment and defeat, one member of the group cries, “I’ve got them! I’VE GOT THEM!!!!” • Withdraw 3 more bones from the envelope. • You have 5 minutes to try arranging them.

8. Back in the lab at Randak, • You go searching in the resource library, and you find some partial skeletal drawings from another group working at a different location, but dealing with the same geological period. • They have found a skeleton similar to yours, but with some additional bones yours doesn’t have. • Take 5 minutes to compare your findings with another team. • Look for clues that will help you in reconstructing your skeleton. • Record what animal you now think you have found.

9. Back in your own lab, • Once you back in your lab at Kimmel College Five and Dime, you find a Skeletal Resource Manual with drawings of skeletons of some existing animals. • Use the drawings to assist you in the final assembly of your skeleton. • Once you are satisfied with your layout glue it down. • Record your final idea on what animal you have found.

10. Record the following data in your lab notebook • Did you make any assumptions at the beginning of the activity that kept you from assembling the “right” skeleton? • Did the discovery of new bones cause any conflict in your group? • Did any of your group members resist changing in light of the new information? • Did the information from another group influence your assumptions?

11. Record the following data in your lab notebook • Did the resource book confirm your group’s ideas, or did it cause you to rework your arrangement of the fossil parts? • What features of the nature of science does this “fossil find” demonstrate? • From looking at the fossil record and the resource manual, what could you say about how and where this animal lived?

12. Record the following data in your lab notebook • Do you think this scenario is typical of how scientists create and revise hypothesis? • What does your experience with this scenario tell you about the work of scientists?