Activity Summary: Students will be able to observe images of microfossils from cores taken from the seafloor to describe the distinguishing characteristics used by paleontologists to identify microfossils, and graph data from cores taken from the seafloor to show the depth and age correlation of the core.

This lesson has students analyze fossil evidence to provide context for an ocean sediment core relative to the geologic time scale. Students will examine specific foraminifera, then analyze data to understand how the abundance of these fossils within a core shows change over time. This lesson could be included in a unit on fossils and/or geologic time, especially to introduce biostratigraphy.

This lesson has been revised and updated based on How old is it?