Mike Tuke’s
TRACE FOSSILS
www.earth-science-activities.co.uk
Trace fossils
Is it a body or a trace fossil
G
Discuss which of the following, if fossilised, would be body and which trace fossils:
fossil teeth, hair, droppings, complete eggs, egg shell, scales, tracks, trails, fin
marks, nests, burrows, sloughed skin of a snake, resting mark, grazing mark, teeth
marks of an ichthyosaur on an ammonite, hole bored into a bivalve shell by a
gastropod to feed on it, moulted carapace of a trilobite.
Burrows and bioturbation
D
Fill a clear jar or better a wormery with distinct layers of soil and silt and put
vegetation on top. Add several worms. First burrows appear but eventually there
are so many burrows the layers get completely muddle up.
Earth Science Activities and Demonstrations