Jackie, Ali, and Jon

 Paleontology is the study of fossils and the remains of life before.

 1799,  engineer, William Smith  Fossils and layers of rock  Order I oldest to youngest  The fossil record is useful for finding evidence of evolution because the fossil layers shows fossils from oldest to youngest, so we can see how they have changed over time and we can now see their similarities and differences from past to present time.

 Some organisms have structures that record their ages.  For example, annual wood rings are formed as a tree trunk grows.  Some fossil animals show growth rings as well. The growth rings in fossil oyster shells tell us how old the animals were when they died. As with the fossil tree, one ring equals one year of growth for these oysters.  By comparing fossil trilobites to animals like pill bugs, paleontologists can infer that trilobites rolled up for protection from predators.

 Some fossils give us information about how adults took care of their young  By comparing the nests of living animal's, scientists can infer that the baby dinosaurs stayed in the nest after hatching and were cared for by their parents just like some birds.