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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 3 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. What does that suggest about this place long ago?
  2. 2. What claim does this record support?
  3. 3. Why record what was NOT found as well as what was?
  4. 4. What kinds of living thing are in this layer?
2.A fossil fern is found in a cold, dry place today. What does it suggest about the past?
  • A.Ferns like cold deserts
  • B.The place was once warm and wet enough for ferns
  • C.The fossil was carried there yesterday
3.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
4.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
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 under water
  • C.It was a dry desert
6.Fossil coral is found on a hillside far from the sea. What does that suggest?
  • A.Coral grows on hills
  • B.The land was once under a warm shallow sea
  • C.The coral walked there
7.Fossil sea urchins look almost like living ones. What can you say about how they lived?
  • A.They lived in the air
  • B.They probably lived on the sea floor, as living ones do
  • C.They lived in deserts

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

Answer key — What the Quarry Held

Set 3. 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. The absence of land bones and fern fronds is part of the evidence. 4. Sea creatures: ammonites, sea urchins and fish.
  2. 2.The place was once warm and wet enough for ferns
  3. 3.Ammonites lived in the sea, as the nautilus does
  4. 4.It had thick hair for a much colder climate
  5. 5.It was under water
  6. 6.The land was once under a warm shallow sea
  7. 7.They probably lived on the sea floor, as living ones do

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