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Grade 3

Grade 3 · Printables

Reading the layers

What rock remembers. Part of looking closely.

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Reading the layers

What rock remembers · Alberta Grade 3 · maddyhelps.com

Name
Date

Colour or label the layers from oldest to newest, then answer the questions. Alberta's badlands are one of the best places on Earth for this, and they are a couple of hours from Calgary.

Two fossils, in different layers
Which layer is oldest, and how do you know?
Which fossil lived first?
What could the layers tell us that a single fossil could not?

For the grown-up

Reading the layers

The bottom layer is oldest, because layers are laid down on top of what is already there. So the lower fossil lived first. The layers give an order — which is why a fossil found loose on the ground is far less useful than one still in the rock.

Why this matters is on the looking closely page. More sheets