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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.

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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 does that suggest about this place long ago?
  2. 2. What claim does this record support?
  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.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 the sea, as the nautilus does
  • C.Ammonites lived in trees
3.Why compare a fossil with a living organism?
  • A.To make the fossil heavier
  • B.A living relative shows how the fossil organism probably lived
  • C.To see which is older
4.Some fossils are of organisms with no living species at all. What does that tell you?
  • A.Some kinds of living thing that once lived have died out
  • B.Every kind of living thing is still alive
  • C.Fossils are not real
5.Fossil sea urchins look almost like living ones. What can you say about how they lived?
  • A.They lived in the air
  • B.They lived in deserts
  • C.They probably lived on the sea floor, as living ones do
6.Mammoth bones are found with thick woolly hair. How was a mammoth unlike a living elephant?
  • A.It could fly
  • B.It had thick hair for a much colder climate
  • C.It lived in the sea
7.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

LessonPrint · 3-LS4-1 · Set 25 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — What the Quarry Held

Set 25. Prints on its own sheet.

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

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