In this lab you will read information about each fossil and then answer the questions relating to that fossil. Remember fossils are, many times, just a portion of the entire organism. You have to use your imagination to visualize the organisms in its setting before its final grave. Some of these organisms may have gotten buried during a storm, which ripped up mud and buried them alive. Some fossils may have been some other organism’s last meal. You will look at several large groups that were abundant as fossils in the past.

Trilobites are related to the present day arthropods, but they are now extinct as a group. They use to be very abundant in shallow marine environments and are a symbol of ancient life in the Paleozoic.

Mollusks are not only abundant today, but were in the past. However, the forms that were abundant in the Mesozoic like ammonites and nautiloid cephalopods look different from the clams and snails that are abundant today. One of the fossils, a gastropod resembles the snails of today. 

Trilobite

Orthoceras, a nautiloid cephalopod

Fossil gastropods