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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 2 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. Why record what was NOT found as well as what was?
  3. 3. What does that suggest about this place long ago?
  4. 4. How many ammonites were found?
2.Fossil sea urchins look almost like living ones. What can you say about how they lived?
  • A.They lived in deserts
  • B.They lived in the air
  • C.They probably lived on the sea floor, as living ones do
3.A fossil fern is found in a cold, dry place today. What does it suggest about the past?
  • A.The place was once warm and wet enough for ferns
  • B.Ferns like cold deserts
  • C.The fossil was carried there yesterday
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.Fossil palm leaves are found in a country with icy winters. What does that suggest?
  • A.Palms grow in snow
  • B.The climate there was once much warmer
  • C.Somebody planted them
6.Why compare a fossil with a living organism?
  • A.To make the fossil heavier
  • B.To see which is older
  • C.A living relative shows how the fossil organism probably lived
7.Fossil coral is found on a hillside far from the sea. What does that suggest?
  • A.The land was once under a warm shallow sea
  • B.The coral walked there
  • C.Coral grows on hills

LessonPrint · 3-LS4-1 · Set 2 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — What the Quarry Held

Set 2. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. No land animal bones at all. 2. The absence of land bones and fern fronds is part of the evidence. 3. It was under the sea, because only sea creatures are fossilized here. 4. 24 ammonites.
  2. 2.They probably lived on the sea floor, as living ones do
  3. 3.The place was once warm and wet enough for ferns
  4. 4.It was under water
  5. 5.The climate there was once much warmer
  6. 6.A living relative shows how the fossil organism probably lived
  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.