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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 23 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 would you expect in a layer that was once a forest?
  3. 3. What kinds of living thing are in this layer?
  4. 4. How many land animal bones were found?
2.Fossil sea urchins look almost like living ones. What can you say about how they lived?
  • A.They probably lived on the sea floor, as living ones do
  • B.They lived in deserts
  • C.They lived in the air
3.Mammoth bones are found with thick woolly hair. How was a mammoth unlike a living elephant?
  • A.It lived in the sea
  • B.It had thick hair for a much colder climate
  • C.It could fly
4.Some fossils are of organisms with no living species at all. What does that tell you?
  • A.Fossils are not real
  • B.Some kinds of living thing that once lived have died out
  • C.Every kind of living thing is still alive
5.A layer has fossils of fish but no land animals. What was this place like then?
  • A.It was a forest
  • B.It was a dry desert
  • C.It was under water
6.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
7.Fossil palm leaves are found in a country with icy winters. What does that suggest?
  • A.Somebody planted them
  • B.Palms grow in snow
  • C.The climate there was once much warmer

LessonPrint · 3-LS4-1 · Set 23 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — What the Quarry Held

Set 23. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The absence of land bones and fern fronds is part of the evidence. 2. Fern fronds and land animal bones rather than sea urchins. 3. Sea creatures: ammonites, sea urchins and fish. 4. No land animal bones at all.
  2. 2.They probably lived on the sea floor, as living ones do
  3. 3.It had thick hair for a much colder climate
  4. 4.Some kinds of living thing that once lived have died out
  5. 5.It was under water
  6. 6.The place was once warm and wet enough for ferns
  7. 7.The climate there was once much warmer

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