Check It Out
The Fossils from Your Kit
FACT SHEET:
SNAIL AGGREGATE
Snail shells are often very small.
When the snails living inside them
die, they can form a layer of various
shell types on the ocean floor. If this
sediment as a whole becomes a
fossil, you can recognize many
different sizes and shapes of snail
shells within it. Your specimen is cut
in such a way that you can even see
the spiral hollow space inside some
of the shells.
FACT SHEET:
STONY CORAL
This fossil is a tiny part of a long
-lost
coral reef. Corals are without a d
oubt the
greatest master builders in the w
orld.
These are the little creatures tha
t are
responsible for creating mighty c
oral
reefs, thus building a habitat for a
n
incredibly diverse array of specie
s. Corals
have been around for many m
illions of
years. They form a limestone s
keleton
that stays behind after they die, w
hich is
clearly visible in your fossil. And w
hen
billions of these
limestone
skeletons have
accumulated,
they become
reefs.
FACT SHEET:
FOSSILIZED RESIN
When the resin of a tree d
ripped into
marshy water, it formed a d
rop or clump
that occasionally becam
e preserved as
a fossil. Very old resin s
ometimes
formed amber, which ca
n be up to 50
million years old. Young
er tree resin is
called “copal”
—
which you will find in
your excavation block. Y
ou can polish
its dull surface to a brig
ht shine with a
piece of cotton cloth. Us
e a drop of
household vinegar to he
lp it along.
Sometimes, the resin be
came a deadly
trap for smaller animal
s
—
such as
insects or spiders
—
that became caught
in its sticky mass. In tha
t way, the resin
sometimes preserved sm
all creatures
that would otherwise h
ave left no trace
behind.
FACT SHEET: ATRYPA
SHELL
Although this fossil looks like the
shell of a mussel — which is a kind o
f
mollusk called a bivalve — it is
actually the shell of a brachiopod, a
completely different phylum. In
prehistoric times, brachiopods such a
s
atrypas lived together on the ocean
floor with mussels and snails.
Protected by the shell was a soft
body with fine tentacles that filtered
food out of the seawater. Atrypas
were attached to the ocean floor by a
fleshy stalk, keeping them in place.
Your specimen is a type of atrypa
that first appeared 485 million years
ago. Most of the brachiopods lived
well through the Jurassic period, but
only comparatively few species of
brachiopods are still live today.
