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What the Quarry Held is a free printable Grade 3 science worksheet on comparing fossil organisms with living ones to infer a past environment, aligned to NGSS performance expectation 3-LS4-1. It prints 7 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 17 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

What the Quarry Held

3-LS4-1

NameDate

Read the record, then answer the questions.

1.Read the record, then answer the questions.

What the Quarry Held

A list of fossils found in one rock layer at a quarry, from the museum's record card. FOSSILS IN ONE LAYER Ammonites ............ 24 Sea urchins .......... 11 Fish scales .......... 7 Fern fronds .......... 0 Land animal bones .... 0 The rock is a fine gray limestone.

  1. 1. How many land animal bones were found?
  2. 2. What would you expect in a layer that was once a forest?
  3. 3. Why record what was NOT found as well as what was?
  4. 4. What claim does this record support?
2.Fossil palm leaves are found in a country with icy winters. What does that suggest?
  • A.The climate there was once much warmer
  • B.Somebody planted them
  • C.Palms grow in snow
3.Why compare a fossil with a living organism?
  • A.A living relative shows how the fossil organism probably lived
  • B.To make the fossil heavier
  • C.To see which is older
4.A layer has fossils of fish but no land animals. What was this place like then?
  • A.It was under water
  • B.It was a forest
  • C.It was a dry desert
5.Mammoth bones are found with thick woolly hair. How was a mammoth unlike a living elephant?
  • A.It had thick hair for a much colder climate
  • B.It could fly
  • C.It lived in the sea
6.A fossil footprint has three toes and is the size of a dinner plate. What does it tell you?
  • A.A large animal once walked across soft ground here
  • B.A bird is still nesting here
  • C.The rock is new
7.A fossil fern is found in a cold, dry place today. What does it suggest about the past?
  • A.The fossil was carried there yesterday
  • B.Ferns like cold deserts
  • C.The place was once warm and wet enough for ferns

LessonPrint · 3-LS4-1 · Set 17 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — What the Quarry Held

Set 17. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. No land animal bones at all. 2. Fern fronds and land animal bones rather than sea urchins. 3. The absence of land bones and fern fronds is part of the evidence. 4. Fossils give evidence of the organisms and the environments of long ago.
  2. 2.The climate there was once much warmer
  3. 3.A living relative shows how the fossil organism probably lived
  4. 4.It was under water
  5. 5.It had thick hair for a much colder climate
  6. 6.A large animal once walked across soft ground here
  7. 7.The place was once warm and wet enough for ferns

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to 3-LS4-1 of the Next Generation Science Standards.