Be a junior paleontologist! A paleontologist is a scientist who studies fossils. Print the kit: a dig log, two skeletons to color and name, and a page about fossils near you.
The fossil hunter’s rule
Look, draw, photograph, and leave it there. In national parks and on other public land, fossils stay where they are found, so the next person and the scientists can see them too. If you find something special, tell a ranger or a museum.
For National Fossil Day each October, a library or classroom dinosaur program, or a park visit. The National Park Service’s own pages open in a new tab after a two-second hold.
Draw what you found, as big as it really is if it fits.
Is it a fossil? Tick the clues.
☐ It is hard, like stone.
☐ It has the shape of a shell, a leaf, a bone or a tooth.
☐ It has lines, ridges or patterns.
☐ It was in rock, not just lying on the grass.
I think it is: ☐ a shell ☐ a leaf ☐ a bone ☐ a tooth ☐ a footprint ☐ something else: __________
☐ I left it where I found it, and took a photo or a drawing home.
Whose bones? Color them and name them
Find and color the skull, the backbone, the ribs, the leg bones, the tail bones. Then write whose skeleton it is. A simple picture of where the bones go, not a museum’s.
1. Whose bones? ______________________ (Hint: its name starts with “T”.)
2. Whose bones? ______________________ (Hint: its name starts with “T”.)
Fossils near me
A fossil is what is left of a living thing from long ago: a bone, a tooth, a shell, a leaf, or a footprint pressed into mud that turned to stone. Most fossils are found in rock that was once the bottom of a sea, a lake or a river. Many national parks have fossils, and rangers lead walks to see them.
Ask a grown-up to help you find the parks with fossils at nps.gov/subjects/fossils.
A park or museum with fossils near me: ______________________________
A fossil I want to see: ______________________________
