Fossils

How do we know about dinosaurs and plants? The answer is in fossils. Fossils are what is left of animal or plant, but turned to stone. This is how fossils are made. First the animal that is dead falls to the bottom of a lake. Next the animals skin gets eaten by probably bacteria. Years and years pass. The animal gets covered with layers of mud. Soon the animal turns into stone and becomes a fossil. Fossils are usally found by people called paleontologists. Paleontologists are people that find and study fossils. But the falling into lakes is not the only way fossils can be made. Sometimes mammoths or other animals from the Ice Age are frozen whole. That means animals from the Ice Age can freeze to death and still be found in their animal form. The only thing that has changed is that the creature can not move. Amber is also a thing that can make fossils. This is how it works. First a creature gets on a tree. Then sticky sap on a tree(amber) catches the animal and traps it inside the amber. Millions of years pass. The creature inside the amber will stay there forever. The amber hardens and tuns into a kind of fossil. Amber can be used for jewlery. Paleontologists use tools to help them get the fossils. The tools are picks, shovels,hammers,and brooms. When paleontologists try to get the fossil,they have to be very careful not to damage it. Putting the bones together is the hard part. Paleontologists have made many mistakes when they try to put the bones together. For example,once they thought a thumb claw on a Iguanodon's hand was a horn on its nose. Less than 200 years ago people did not know what dinosaurs were. They thought they were bones of a elephant. Fossils are great discoveries. They are still being found today. Someday you might be a great paleontologist.