Preserved remains or traces of ancient life

The Fossils Quiz – Facts Worth Knowing

Take the fossils quiz to learn how fossils form, body and trace fossils, fossils in amber and ice, index fossils, Mary Anning's discoveries and the oldest signs of life. Ten questions with facts worth knowing about the preserved remains of ancient life.

Start the Fossils Quiz

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Definition
What is a fossil?
Formation
In which type of rock are most fossils found?
Trace
Which of these is a trace fossil?
Amber
What can be preserved in amber?
Ice
Which ice age animals have been found frozen in permafrost?
Anning
Who discovered ichthyosaur and plesiosaur fossils at Lyme Regis?
Index
What are index fossils used for?
Oldest
What are some of the oldest fossils on Earth?
Petrified
How does petrified wood form?
Trilobites
What were trilobites?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: What is a fossil?
Answer: Preserved remains or traces of ancient life
Fossils are usually over 10,000 years old.
Q2: In which type of rock are most fossils found?
Answer: Sedimentary
Sediment buries remains quickly.
Q3: Which of these is a trace fossil?
Answer: A dinosaur footprint
Trace fossils show activity, not bodies.
Q4: What can be preserved in amber?
Answer: Insects
Amber is fossilized tree resin.
Q5: Which ice age animals have been found frozen in permafrost?
Answer: Woolly mammoths
Some still have hair and skin.
Q6: Who discovered ichthyosaur and plesiosaur fossils at Lyme Regis?
Answer: Mary Anning
She was largely self-taught.
Q7: What are index fossils used for?
Answer: Dating rock layers
They lived for short, known periods.
Q8: What are some of the oldest fossils on Earth?
Answer: Stromatolites
Some are about 3.5 billion years old.
Q9: How does petrified wood form?
Answer: Minerals replace wood tissue
Arizona's Petrified Forest is famous.
Q10: What were trilobites?
Answer: Ancient sea arthropods
They lived for about 270 million years.

The Fossils Quiz – Windows Into the Past

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of ancient living things. Most form when organisms are quickly buried in sediment, and minerals gradually replace bones, shells or wood, turning them into stone.

Fossils come in many forms: body fossils like bones and shells, trace fossils like footprints and burrows, insects trapped in amber and mammoths frozen in ice. Index fossils help geologists date rock layers.

Fossil hunters like Mary Anning helped found paleontology. Fossils show how life evolved over billions of years, from early microbes to dinosaurs and early humans, and reveal past climates and environments.

What This Quiz Teaches

This quiz is for students learning about fossils.

How fossils form
What trace fossils are
What amber preserves
Who Mary Anning was
What index fossils do

Did You Know?

Coprolites are fossilized dung.
The La Brea Tar Pits trapped animals.
Fossil fuels formed from ancient life.
Feathered dinosaurs were found in China.
Fossil collecting rules vary by place.