AQA · Biology · 8461
GCSE Biology: Fossils
Inheritance, variation and evolution · AQA GCSE Biology (8461), specification point 4.6.3.5. Cards are generated from the exam board's own specification for "Fossils", and every card links back to the page it came from. Specification © AQA — used with attribution.
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What are fossils?
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The 'remains' of organisms from millions of years ago, found in rocks.
Fossils are the remains of organisms from millions of years ago, which are found in ?.
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rocks
Why can parts of an organism survive as a fossil without decaying?
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Because one or more of the conditions needed for decay (e.g. oxygen, moisture, warmth) are absent.
What replaces parts of an organism as they decay to form a fossil?
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Minerals.
Give an example of a preserved trace fossil.
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A footprint, burrow or rootlet trace.
Why have many early forms of life left few fossil traces?
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They were soft-bodied, so they rarely fossilised.
What has destroyed most of the fossil traces left by early life forms?
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Geological activity.
Why cannot scientists be certain about how life began on Earth?
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Early life was soft-bodied and left few fossils, and most of those traces have been destroyed by geological activity, so the fossil record is incomplete.
What can fossils tell us about organisms as life developed on Earth?
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How much or how little different organisms have changed over time.
Many early forms of life were ?, which means they have left few traces behind.
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soft-bodied
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