WWU Fossil Collection Scavenger Hunt
Print an extra copy for the chaperone signing journals so they know the questions have been answered completely
1st Floor
1. Name the kind of rock made from 1celled plants called Diatoms? How old is it?
2. Are rocks alive? Where do soil bacteria deposit Manganese and Iron?
3. Are rocks alive? What are sea shells made of?
4. Are rocks alive? What is the cat skull made of?
5. Are rocks alive? What is coral made of? Is a coral reef a rock? What if a ship strikes a coral reef and sinks – is the ship a rock then?
6. Are rocks alive? How are Peat (peat moss) and Diamond similar? What element do they have in common with living things?
7. Ancient rivers: how old are they and where are they located? What kind of trees grew there?
8. How old are fossils from near Kendall, WA (Chilliwack group)? What kind of organisms were they?
9. What kind of animals lived in sediment that is now rock on Church Mountain? How old are they?
How old are the oldest rocks in the North Cascades? Where are they located?
10. When was the Yukon Gold Rush? Where is the Yukon? In the photo, what helps power the sleds on the ice?
11. Where was the “Gold Run” mine? When was it active? Describe the quartz vein ore. Does it contain gold?
12. Name the giant ground dwelling bird that left fossils near Mt. Baker. What are the fossils of? What led to their discovery. Name or describe 2 other fossil types preserved in the slab.
13. Name the giant ground dwelling bird that left tracks near Mt. Baker. What does the slab of rock that holds the fossils weigh? How was it recovered?
14. Name 7 types of animal tracks found in the Racehorse Creek slide. How long ago were these tracks made?
15. Where were the tapir and creodont tracks found? Which was the hunter and which was the hunted? Is it the hunter or the hunted that is now extinct?
16. Describe creodonts. What do their tracks look like? Creodont body form is similar to what kind of animals living today?
17. Ancient forests: how old is the petrified Cypress log? Where was it found? Name 4 kinds of trees found in Ancient Forests.
18. Ancient forests: Name 5 types of tree fossils displayed. Where were the Juniper and Palmetto found?
19. Ancient forests: what type of trees are the fossil logs? Name 3 types of conifers where they lived and name 5 types of leaf trees and where they lived.
20. There is a large model of a lake on the 1st floor. Name the lake and give the approximate size of the model. What carved out the lake basin and how long ago? Can you drink dinosaur bathwater? What does this say about the age of water on Earth?
21. There is a large model of a lake on the 1st floor. Name the lake and give the approximate size of the model. Compared to the rest of the lake, is it deep or shallow near Bloedel-Donovan Park? Can you drink dinosaur bathwater? What does this say about the age of water on Earth?
22. There is a large topographic model of part of Bellingham. What parts of Bellingham does the model include? What is the name of the hill near the center of the model?
23. There is a large topographic model of part of Bellingham. What is the name of the hill near the center of the model? Is Sehome HS on the model? What part of SHS missing from the model?
24. Tracks made by a rhinoceros-like animal. Where did the animal dwell? Name 3 kinds of animals that could have made the tracks.
25. Heron tracks. What is a heron (describe it)? How many tracks on the slab? How old would they be if this rock is Chuckanut sandstone?
26. Controversial discovery: When and where was the track found? What about the track makes it so it might not be a track? How large is the bird that made the track?
2nd Floor
27. What is fossil poop called? Give two examples, where they are found and ages.
28. How old is the fossil dinosaur poop and where was it found? How large is it?
29. How old is the fossil shark poop? Where was it found? Does it make sense that sharks could swim there?
30. There are 2 specimens of fossil crocodile poop. How old is each one? How large are they?
31. How old is the carnivorous mammal poop? Give an example of a carnivorous mammal. Where was it found?
32. Find fossils of insect larvae. Describe them. How old are they and where were they found?
33. Find fossil bird tracks and compare to the dinosaur print. How are the 2 tracks similar? Record the age and location of the bird tracks.
34. Find track of an ancient horse from Death Valley. What is the name of the horse? Does it tell you how old the tracks are? If so, give the age.
35. Find the horse-hoof bone. Do you think it is smaller or larger than a modern horse hoof bone? Where was it found and what is the age?
36. Find the dinosaur track. How large are they? How old are they? Where were they found?
37. What made the mystery fossil tracks? How old are they and where were they found? Who found them?
38. How old are the oldest tracks on display between rooms 202 & 205 and what probably make them? Where were they found?
39. Allosaurus is a relative the Tyrannosaurus rex. Are the Alosaur tracks as large as you expected? How old are the Allosaur tracks and where were they found?
40. Name a small meat-eating dinosaur that walked on its hind legs and left tracks for us to find as fossils.
41. What made the 190 million year old reptile tracks and where were they found? When were they found?
42. Dinosaur tracks are sometimes found in coal mines – where in the coal mine are they found. What states are they found in?
43. What was Charcaradon megalodon? How large was it and when did it live?
44. What are the 2 bones of the largest living mammal? Name the mammal. Name the smallest living mammal? About how long is it without its tail?
45. There is an animal called the cow shark that does not eat cows. How old are the cow shark teeth? How deep do cow sharks dive? How would you know that from teeth?
46. How long is the fossil record for sharks? (In other words how old are the oldest shark fossils. Not 27my.)
47. How old are the tiger shark teeth? How long can tiger sharks grow? (Give both feet and meters.)
48. Name 3 flying reptiles of the Mesozoic. What years does the Mesozoic include? How many hanging models of flying reptiles are there?
49. Pteranodon is a pterodactyl. Pteranodon means “wing without teeth”, whereas pterodactyl means “wing finger”. How long ago did they live? What are the models made of? How big were pteranodons? (Give both wingspan and weight.)
50. Herring are saltwater ocean fish. How old is are the Herring fossils from Wyoming? Today Wyoming is land-locked, how would Herring fossils get there?
51. Look for a slab of rock with many fish fossils. How many fish on the slab? When did they die?
52. The fossil of the primitive ray-finned fish is how old? Where was it found?
53. What is the name of the armored fish from Quebec? What does it look like? How old is it?
54. Name 3 places in China where fossil fish were found and there ages?
55. Where was the Columbian Mammoth tusk found? (in hallway.) How old is it? Why is it drying slowly?
56. Name 5 Washington state animal fossils and give there ages and where they were found.
57. Name 5 Washington state plant fossils and give there ages and where they were found.
58. How old is the New Meteorite Discovered? Where was it found? Where did it probably originate?
59. Asteroids and meteorites: What is impact glass and how old are the 2 specimens?
60. Asteroids and meteorites: What are tektites? Explain carefully. Are they well understood?
61. Asteroids and meteorites: Where and when was the Haughton Impact? Is the impact crater still visible?
62. Asteroids and meteorites: What year did the nickel-iron meteorite fall on China? Describe the specimen.
63. List the dates and locations for 5 meteorites shown in the display.
64. Name 5 ice age mammals in the case above the Mommoth tusk and give the locations the fossils were found.
65. How long was the Columbian Mammoth tusk originally? How old was the boy that found it? Where was it found?
66. Describe a Mammoth. What part of one was found on Camano Island?
67. Potted plant. Norfolk Island Pine is a living fossil and its ancestors formed large forests during what Era? What are the years for that Era?
68. How deep was the ice at Bellingham 15,000 years ago? Was it deeper or shallower than Sehome Hill?
69. Modern mammals: What type of skull was found eroding out of a cliff on Whidbey Island? What other types of animals were found? How old were they?
70. How old were the fossils found at Ebey State Park on Whidbey Island? What animals are represented in the display of Whidbey Island fossils?
71. What is the age of the wasp in amber from Tanzania? Name 4 more insects found trapped in amber. What is amber?
72. Two pieces of amber are from Washington State. Describe them. Where were they found and what age are they?
73. List 5 locations and ages for amber specimens. List 5 insects found in amber specimens.
74. What is “Western Washington’s oldest fossil” a fossil of? How old is it? Where was it found? Where was it probably formed?
75. Tracks: What is Batrachopus? What is different about the 2 slabs of rock with the Batrachopus tracks?
76. How is a tortoise different than other turtles? Name and describe the tortoise fossil. In what other state might this tortoise be found?
77. The oldest turtle fossils appear how long ago? When did Archelon live? How big is the Archelon fossil shown in the photo?
78 Turtles: Describe the skeletal changes that resulted in a turtle shell. Eontosaurus was not a turtle, but how is it turtle-like?
79. Name locations and ages of 5 stromatolite fossils. What makes stromatolites? Name 2 locations for modern stromatolite- like formations. Record the ages and locations of the oldest 2 stromatolite fossils
80. How old are the Ediacara fossils? What Eon is this on the timescale? Are they plants or animals? Name 2 locations they were found.
81. When did banded iron formations form and what organisms probably caused them? What Eon is this on the time scale?
82. What is the range of ages for banded iron formations? Explain why they did not form before and after this time.
83. Between what years were Bellingham coal mines active? Name the streets where they were located. Where was the Blue Canyon coal mine located?
84. Name the Bellingham coal mine that closed in 1955. What were 50 million years old and found at this mine? What is coal made of?
85. What is the probable age for the petrified log from Utah? Describe how big it is.
86. How old are the petrified logs from Yakima Canyon? Describe them.
87. How old is the fossil log from Black Diamond near Seattle? Describe how big it is. What is coal made of?
88. Drill-core sample: When was the K/T boundary (years ago)? Where is the core sample from?
What made the sandy zone in the Texas drill core?
89. How old are the marine fossils near room 227? What phylum are they, probably? (What are they related to?)
90. What kind of forest was Bellingham 50 million years ago? How many species of plant fossils have been found in the Chuckanut formation?
91. List 5 fossils from the Chuckanut formation and where they were found.
92. Name 2 species of palm trees that lived in Bellingham 50 million years ago. Name the Tree Fern found in Bellingham 50 million years ago.
93. How many species of plant fossils are found in the Chuckanut formation? Name 2 animal fossils found in the Chuckanut formation.
94. Living fossils: How long have “horsetails” been around? How tall are horsetails today? How tall are their fossils?
95. Name 5 types of cactus plants. What kind of evolution is responsible for the similarities of cactus plants?
96. List the names and ages for 5 cephalopod mollusks (squid relatives) shown in the display.
97. Brachiopod display: List the ages for the fossils of brachiopods and mollusks and the locations where the fossils were found.
98. List the name, age, and location for 5 fossil corals. What phylum would coral belong to (clue – they have stinging tentacles and are related to jellyfish.)
99. List the name, age, and location for 5 trilobite fossils. What phylum would trilobites belong to (clue – they have exoskeletons.)
100. What is the “very old flower”? Have you seen them in people’s yard? Where were the 2 fossils found?
101. What is a “sea lily” Is it plant or animal? Look at the larger slab and describe what it looks like.
102. Concretions: Name 4 types of organisms preserved in concretions (look in both cases). Which is oldest?
103. How old is the fossil pine cone concretion? Describe how concretions form.
104. Fossils in siltstone near window. What find of animal is fossilized? Where were the fossils found?
105. Ancient animals: describe mosasaur’s shape and what they ate. Did they breathe air or have gills?
106: Ancient animals: How many teeth are displayed? Name and give age of the oldest. Which is the largest tooth? How many of the teeth are replicas?
107: Ancient animals: what is a sauropod (describe size and shape)? How many sauropod bones are displayed? What is the age and location of the sauropod limb bone?
108: Ancient animals: Describe the hyracodon skull specimen. Describe the animal and its teeth. Age and location.
109: Ancient animals: Describe a hadrosaur. How many hadrosaur fossils are on display? Give 2 or more dates for these fossils. Name all the states where hadrosaur fossils are found.