Fossil and Mineral Identification

Thank you for being a scientist with us today! Take a look at what you took home and see if you can match them to the picture!

If you went sifting through the ocean sands with us today, you may have found a few of these ocean fossils!

Crinoids, also known as sea lilies, are marine animals related to starfish and sea urchins!The soft tissues of crinoids decompose quickly after death, but the durable, calcium carbonate skeletons, including the columnals, often fossilize.

Gastropods, including snails and slugs, first appeared in the Late Cambrian Period (around 500 million years ago)!

If you went on an excavation to find precious minerals today,

you may have found some of these!

If you take a magnet and stick it to your tiger’s eye, it may stick! That means that one has lots of iron in it!

If you take your pyrite and scrape it on a white and hard surface, you will produce a streak! If that streak is yellow, it means it’s REAL GOLD! If it is brown, it means it’s just fool’s gold ( pyrite).