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Assignment 7:
Ensure that a dictionary of definitions is available in class.
1. 100 years
2. About three quarters of South Africa consisted of a large marshy bowl. These unique conditions are ideal for fossilisation.
3. When something in nature dies, it is normally eaten and scattered by scavengers. These bones, that are often scattered widely, are then covered in mud and sand.
4. True. Fossils represent people, plants and animals that lived millions of years ago. We can derive a lot from them.
5. A fossil is any remains of a human being, animal or plant that remained intact in the rock formations of the earth.
6. Shells are mostly too hard to be eaten. They are part of the invertebrates that make up a large portion of the animal kingdom. A lot of fossilisation happened in water.
7. Teeth consist of bone covered by enamel. Bone is the hardest tissue in the body. Teeth are well protected against decay, because they are already mineralised.
8. A scientist manages a specific section of knowledge that consists of systematically arranged facts based on general principles.
A scientist is a person who has expert knowledge of one or more of the natural or physical sciences. (Paperback Oxford English Dictionary 2001)
9. Paleo is a prefix meaning older or ancient. (Paperback Oxford English Dictionary 2001)
FOSSILS CAN PROVIDE IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON EARTH. WE FIND FOSSILS IN ROCK LAYERS. THEY ARE THE REMAINS OF PEOPLE AND PLANTS, AS WELL AS SKELETONS AND SHELLS OF ANIMALS THAT WERE ALIVE IN THE DISTANT PAST. THE ROCK LAYERS IN WHICH WE FIND FOSSILS ARE KNOWN AS SEDIMENTARY ROCKS. FOSSILS ARE VERY IMPORTANT FOR OUR ATTEMPTS TO RECONSTRUCT THE PREHISTORIC ENVIRONMENT OF OUR ANCESTORS BECAUSE PLANTS AND ANIMALS PROVIDE INFORMATION ABOUT NATURE.
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