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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 18 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. What would you expect in a layer that was once a forest?
  2. 2. How many land animal bones were found?
  3. 3. What does that suggest about this place long ago?
  4. 4. Why record what was NOT found as well as what was?
2.Some fossils are of organisms with no living species at all. What does that tell you?
  • A.Every kind of living thing is still alive
  • B.Some kinds of living thing that once lived have died out
  • C.Fossils are not real
3.Fossil sea urchins look almost like living ones. What can you say about how they lived?
  • A.They lived in deserts
  • B.They probably lived on the sea floor, as living ones do
  • C.They lived in the air
4.A fossil footprint has three toes and is the size of a dinner plate. What does it tell you?
  • A.The rock is new
  • B.A bird is still nesting here
  • C.A large animal once walked across soft ground here
5.Fossil palm leaves are found in a country with icy winters. What does that suggest?
  • A.Somebody planted them
  • B.The climate there was once much warmer
  • C.Palms grow in snow
6.Ammonites have no living species, but they look like today's nautilus. What does that suggest?
  • A.Ammonites are still alive
  • B.Ammonites lived in trees
  • C.Ammonites lived in the sea, as the nautilus does
7.Fossil coral is found on a hillside far from the sea. What does that suggest?
  • A.The coral walked there
  • B.The land was once under a warm shallow sea
  • C.Coral grows on hills

LessonPrint · 3-LS4-1 · Set 18 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — What the Quarry Held

Set 18. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Fern fronds and land animal bones rather than sea urchins. 2. No land animal bones at all. 3. It was under the sea, because only sea creatures are fossilized here. 4. The absence of land bones and fern fronds is part of the evidence.
  2. 2.Some kinds of living thing that once lived have died out
  3. 3.They probably lived on the sea floor, as living ones do
  4. 4.A large animal once walked across soft ground here
  5. 5.The climate there was once much warmer
  6. 6.Ammonites lived in the sea, as the nautilus does
  7. 7.The land was once under a warm shallow sea

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