The next time you go outside, pick up a rock. Turn it over in your hand. Do you see any spots or dark lines? Does the rock have any colors like yellow or pink?
Believe it or not, rocks can tell a story. The rocks you see on the ground were there before you were born. Have you ever wondered where they came from and what story they have to tell?
Our home, planet Earth, is very, very old. We want to learn what happened a long time ago. One of the ways we can learn is to read the stories in the rocks.
Let’s say a frog has lived a long life and dies. If it falls in a place away from wind, rain, heat, and cold, its body stays in good shape.
Years later on a walk in the woods, you might find that frog’s body. Now the frog feels hard, like a rock. That means it still looks like it once did in life. It will be like that from now on. The frog has now become a fossil.
What if you find a rock that looks like a seashell? What if you’re miles away from the seashore? What then?
Believe it or not, that rock was a seashell a long, long time ago. The seashell lay in dirt away from wind, rain, heat, and cold. The seashell, like the frog, is saved for all time by turning to stone. The seashell, too, became a fossil.
But what happened to the sea? If the sun gets too hot, water can dry up. Long ago in hot weather, the sea water dried up. The animals that lived in the sea didn’t go anywhere. They fell into the dirt on the ground.
Have you ever seen a dinosaur? Today dinosaurs can be found only in books or at museums. Why? Like the frog and seashell, dinosaurs lived a long, long time ago. Luckily for us, dinosaur bones became fossils over time.
Like other fossils, dinosaur bones can tell us a lot about what the creatures looked like, where they lived, and what they ate for dinner.
So today, look down at the ground as you walk. You might find a fossil—a seashell or a bone of a creature that lived long ago. Look closely and see if you, too, can read the creature’s long-ago story of life.
Photograph Copyright © 2010 Wikipedia
Copyright © 2010 by Linda Wilson