Evidence Chart Key

Evidence What it tells us:

Past Lives
1. growth rings in fossil trees Growth rings tell us the number of years that
or shells individual lived.
Trilobites may have curled up to avoid
2. curled up fossil trilobites
predation just as pill bugs do today.
Some dinosaurs cared for their young while
3. the contents of fossil nests
still in the nest.
4. fossils of many individuals
These animals probably lived in herds.
of the same species together
5. a change in the shape of a
The function of that feature has also changed.
feature over time
Geologic Time
The rocks were deposited at different times
1. layers in the rocks
and represent part of the history of the Earth.
These fossils can help us to date rock layers
2. index fossils
around the world.
3. fossil shells on mountain What is now the top of the mountain used to
tops be under the sea.
4. identical fossils on widely
The continents were once joined together.
separated continents
Paleoecology
1. fossil marine animals in the
There was once an ocean covering this area.
desert
The leaf edges tell us if the climate where the
2. shapes of leaf edges
plant grew was generally cool or warm.
The animal living in the shell was preyed
3. tooth marks in fossil shells
upon by another animal.
Fossil pollen tells us what kinds of plants
4. fossil pollen
lived in past ecosystems.
Biodiversity
1. fossils of organisms no Living things in the past were different from
longer alive today those of today.
2. features that are shared by These species are probably related to each
more than one species other.
3. the extinction of many This would indicate a mass extinction caused
fossil species at the same time by a wide-ranging catastrophe.
4. the extinction of one group
of organism, like corals, on The extinction of one kind of organism often
which other organisms causes the extinction of others.
depend