The Fossils in the ID Activity

In this activity there are four tables, each of which has several specimens of a certain type of fossil - ammonites, trilobites, plants, and corals. In their small teams children visit each table in turn, and select one of the fossils. They identify the fossil using a picture guide, write the name of the fossil on their sheet, and draw a picture of it. They have about 6 minutes to do this.

 

The fossils are shown below. They are all real - no copies are used.

  
Ammonites - these are all Jurassic, between 190 and 150 million years old, and all from the UK.

Hildoceras
 
Harpoceras
 
Dactylioceras tenuicostatum
 

Dactylioceras commune
 
Kosmoceras
 		  
 
Trilobites - sea creatures, arthropods (like insects and crustaceans), which lived around 530-250 million years ago.

Elrathia
 
Hollardops
 
Scutellum
 

Phacops
 
Diacalymene
 
Hollardops - in unusual flexed pose, climbing
 
 
Plants - these are all Carboniferous (around 330-312 million years old) and from the UK.

Horsetails (or calamites)
 
Alethopteris (a sort of tree-fern)
 
Neuropteris
 

Stigmaria - the root of a club moss tree
 
Sigillaria - bark of a tree