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On our way to the ship's interactive area where you'll spend the day, we will be passing the Great Room. I want to stop there briefly to show you one of the scariest things on this ship; the preserved head of a great white shark that was caught by one of our passengers on a previous cruise. Here he is ... Smiley. The sign underneath Smiley says that sharks are called "living fossils" because they have not changed much over the years. Hmm ... fossils—that's today's topic. Our crew has modified the Lido deck, and has set up a fossil display under the direction of our on-board paleontologist Dr. Mitchell. The Study of FossilsPaleontologists are scientists who study ancient life. They're like detectives because they must decipher and interpret clues about the history of life on Earth from the extinct organisms they are studying. Fossils are their clues to the past. Fossils are any evidence or remains of plants or animals from the past. The paleontologist usually specializes in the study of one particular type of organism, for instance dinosaurs or fossil horses. Then from the evidence they find about their fossil group, they can reconstruct where the organism lived, what it might have looked like, and even the niche and habitat of the organism. Types of Fossils Have you ever found a fossil? Lots of people have. If you've picked up a sea shell at the beach, you have found a fossil. Today we have all types of cameras and computers to record information about living things in the present. Fossils are our pictures of the past.
Grab your Travel Log and let's record some of the different types of fossils by clicking on each of the names of fossils displayed in the case below. When you click on a name, the fossil and a description of it will appear. As you can see, fossils come in many different forms.
These are the main types of fossils. What is totally amazing is that fossils in amber still contain DNA material. Knowing what DNA does and knowing that scientists have successfully cloned complex animals, like Dolly, the sheep, do you think it might be possible to clone these extinct organisms from their DNA? Maybe. There has been real talk about trying to clone a wooly mammoth. Could this be Jurassic Park all over again? Take a minute to watch a video clip of the discovery of a frozen wooly mammoth and how it might use parts of the specimen for cloning.
What can we learn from Fossils?Fossils can tell us about how man has changed over time. Over 20 man-like species have been identified from fossils. Scientists call these types of species hominids. Fossils of what we call modern man have been found in Africa that date back approximately 100,000 years. All hominid species are extinct but the Homo Sapien. Learn more about each hominid species below or view the text version.
Other fossils and artifacts near fossils have helped scientists discover about the use of tools, fire, and language. All this information helps support the scientific theory of evolution.
Note: This site requires the Adobe Shockwave Player. You can download the player for free at the Adobe Shockwave download site.
Now it's time to make a fossil of your own. Take the Laboratory Side Trip where you will be comparing a mold and a cast fossil. All that's left for this activity is to submit your report! Images © clipart.com 2006 with the exception of the notebook © Paul Anderson 2006
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Look at those teeth! Maybe you will get to swim with the sharks at our port of call in the Bahamas; though I don't think I will be joining you on that excursion. Even though they feed those sharks well, I am not fond of being bait!
The shape of the head was one major change that lead us to the discovery that the brain increased in size with time. The change in jaw shape, teeth size, and the placement of the spinal cord gave us clues about when hominids walked upright, and how their diet changed.
Want a 3 Dimensional look at the process of human evolution? Visit the
