Fossils are dead animal or plants. They are usually skeleton found embedded in rock. Sometimes fossils are footprint or poo. Small animals or insects get stuck in tree sap which hardens and traps them forever. Large animals can get trapped in ice, or their carcass gets trapped in layers of rock. Over thousand of years, pressure builds up and the skeleton is dissolved by water under the ground. Next the mould left is filled with minerals that form rock. This rock shape is the fossil -and exact replica of the dinosaur. This process takes 10,000 years. Palaeontologists find fossils when the top layer of dirt or rock washes away.

The red words

Carcass-dead body

Mammoth

Dissolved

Siberia

Climate - weather

Vital-critical-important-necessary

Mould

Erodel