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

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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. Why record what was NOT found as well as what was?
  2. 2. What does that suggest about this place long ago?
  3. 3. What kinds of living thing are in this layer?
  4. 4. What claim does this record support?
2.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
3.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
4.Mammoth bones are found with thick woolly hair. How was a mammoth unlike a living elephant?
  • A.It lived in the sea
  • B.It could fly
  • C.It had thick hair for a much colder climate
5.Ammonites have no living species, but they look like today's nautilus. What does that suggest?
  • A.Ammonites lived in the sea, as the nautilus does
  • B.Ammonites are still alive
  • C.Ammonites lived in trees
6.A layer has fossils of fish but no land animals. What was this place like then?
  • A.It was a dry desert
  • B.It was under water
  • C.It was a forest
7.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.Fossils are not real
  • C.Some kinds of living thing that once lived have died out

LessonPrint · 3-LS4-1 · Set 22 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — What the Quarry Held

Set 22. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The absence of land bones and fern fronds is part of the evidence. 2. It was under the sea, because only sea creatures are fossilized here. 3. Sea creatures: ammonites, sea urchins and fish. 4. Fossils give evidence of the organisms and the environments of long ago.
  2. 2.A living relative shows how the fossil organism probably lived
  3. 3.The land was once under a warm shallow sea
  4. 4.It had thick hair for a much colder climate
  5. 5.Ammonites lived in the sea, as the nautilus does
  6. 6.It was under water
  7. 7.Some kinds of living thing that once lived have died out

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