Skip to content
LessonPrint

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

Next set

One paper per student

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425

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 does that suggest about this place long ago?
  2. 2. What would you expect in a layer that was once a forest?
  3. 3. What kinds of living thing are in this layer?
  4. 4. Why record what was NOT found as well as what was?
2.Why compare a fossil with a living organism?
  • A.A living relative shows how the fossil organism probably lived
  • B.To see which is older
  • C.To make the fossil heavier
3.Mammoth bones are found with thick woolly hair. How was a mammoth unlike a living elephant?
  • A.It could fly
  • B.It lived in the sea
  • C.It had thick hair for a much colder climate
4.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
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.A fossil footprint has three toes and is the size of a dinner plate. What does it tell you?
  • A.A bird is still nesting here
  • B.The rock is new
  • C.A large animal once walked across soft ground here
7.Ammonites have no living species, but they look like today's nautilus. What does that suggest?
  • A.Ammonites lived in trees
  • B.Ammonites lived in the sea, as the nautilus does
  • C.Ammonites are still alive

LessonPrint · 3-LS4-1 · Set 20 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — What the Quarry Held

Set 20. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. It was under the sea, because only sea creatures are fossilized here. 2. Fern fronds and land animal bones rather than sea urchins. 3. Sea creatures: ammonites, sea urchins and fish. 4. The absence of land bones and fern fronds is part of the evidence.
  2. 2.A living relative shows how the fossil organism probably lived
  3. 3.It had thick hair for a much colder climate
  4. 4.The land was once under a warm shallow sea
  5. 5.The climate there was once much warmer
  6. 6.A large animal once walked across soft ground here
  7. 7.Ammonites lived in the sea, as the nautilus does

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