Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Life · Unit 14
Reading the Evidence
Tracks, dung, bonebeds and everything that happens after death
Bones are only one kind of evidence. Footprints, burrows, dung and the arrangement of a bonebed can say things about behaviour that a skeleton cannot.
The unit covers trace fossils, trackways, coprolites and gut contents, taphonomy - what happens to a body between death and discovery - and death assemblages.
This unit breaks down into 18 short steps and 106 questions, starting at difficulty 3 and building to 4. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.
- Steps
- 18
- Questions
- 106
- Difficulty
- 3-4
What this unit covers
- Trace Fossils
- Trackways and Footprints
- Coprolites and Gut Contents
- Taphonomy
- Bonebeds and Death Assemblages
Where this fits
Best after How Palaeontology Works.
Where people slip
Trackways record behaviour, which bones do not. Speed, gait and whether animals moved in groups all come from footprints rather than from skeletons.
How the unit is structured
Reading the Evidence runs as 18 short steps that unlock in order. 13 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 3 and climb to 4 as you progress.
Challenge rounds
Example questions
30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 106 in the unit altogether.
Bonebeds and Death Assemblages
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
1. Which events can create bonebeds? Pick all that apply.
- Flash floodscorrect
- Droughts around shrinking waterholescorrect
- Volcanic ashfallcorrect
- Gentle daily rainfall
Floods, droughts, volcanic ash and predator traps all concentrate remains.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
2. What is a bonebed?
- A layer packed with many individuals' bonescorrect
- A single complete skeleton
- A bed made of bone
- A museum storeroom
A rock layer containing the bones of many individuals concentrated together.
- True or falseLevel 3
3. Bones in a bonebed can be sorted by size and shape if water carried them.
Answer: True
True. Current sorting is a classic taphonomic signal.
- Type the answerLevel 3
4. What word describes a bonebed formed by a single sudden disaster?
Answer: catastrophic
A catastrophic assemblage captures a whole population at once.
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
5. Which questions can a well-studied bonebed answer? Pick all that apply.
- Did the animals live in groups?correct
- How did individuals grow?correct
- What was the environment like?correct
- What were the animals called?
Group behaviour, growth, and the environment of death are all accessible.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
6. What is an attritional assemblage?
- Bones building up gradually over timecorrect
- A herd killed at once
- A single skeleton
- A nest of eggs
Bones accumulate gradually from animals dying at different times.
Coprolites and Gut Contents
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
7. Which have been found inside dinosaur coprolites? Pick all that apply.
- Crushed bonecorrect
- Plant tissuecorrect
- Fragments of woodcorrect
- Metal tools
Crushed bone, plant tissue and even wood fragments have all been reported.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
8. What is a coprolite?
- Fossilised dungcorrect
- A fossil egg
- A stomach stone
- A fossil footprint
It is fossilised dung.
- True or falseLevel 3
9. It is often difficult to say for certain which animal produced a coprolite.
Answer: True
True. Size, shape and contents give clues, but not certainty.
- Type the answerLevel 3
10. What are the stones swallowed by some animals to help grind food called?
Answer: gastroliths
Gastroliths are polished by grinding inside the gut.
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
11. Which methods reveal ancient diet? Pick all that apply.
- Coprolite analysiscorrect
- Preserved gut contentscorrect
- Tooth microwearcorrect
- Fossil shopping lists
Coprolites, gut contents, tooth wear and isotopes all contribute.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
12. What can coprolite contents reveal?
- What the animal had eatencorrect
- How fast it ran
- Its exact species always
- Its colour
Bone fragments, plant tissue and scales show exactly what an animal ate.
Taphonomy
- Build the sentenceLevel 3
13. Build a sentence about traces of behaviour.
Answer: Footprints record what animals were doing
Footprints record what an animal was doing.
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
14. Which factors bias what enters the fossil record? Pick all that apply.
- Whether the habitat collects sedimentcorrect
- How robust the skeleton iscorrect
- The animal's body sizecorrect
- How popular the animal is today
Body size, environment, skeleton robustness and habitat all skew preservation.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
15. What is taphonomy?
- The study of what happens between death and discoverycorrect
- The study of living animals
- The study of rock chemistry only
- The study of museum design
It is the study of everything that happens to remains between death and discovery.
- Put in orderLevel 3
16. Put the taphonomic journey in order.
Answer: The animal dies -> Decay and scavenging -> Burial by sediment -> Minerals replace the bone -> Erosion exposes the fossil
Death, decay and scavenging, burial, mineralisation, then exposure by erosion.
- Fact or fibLevel 4
17. Understanding taphonomy is essential before drawing conclusions about ancient ecosystems.
Answer: True
True. Otherwise preservation bias can be mistaken for biology.
- Match the pairsLevel 4
18. Match each observation to what it tells you.
Answer: Articulated skeleton = Rapid burial; Bones aligned in one direction = Water transport; Cracked, flaking bone surfaces = Long exposure; Tooth marks on bone = Scavenging or predation
Different taphonomic signals answer different questions.
Trace Fossils
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
19. Which of these are trace fossils? Pick all that apply.
- Footprintscorrect
- Burrowscorrect
- Nestscorrect
- A fossil skull
Footprints, burrows, nests and coprolites all record behaviour.
- Fill the blankLevel 3
20. Because traces record behaviour, they are sometimes called ____ fossils.
- behaviourcorrect
- mineral
- marine
- modern
Behaviour fossils is an informal way of describing them.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
21. What is the study of trace fossils called?
- Ichnologycorrect
- Geology
- Ecology
- Etymology
Ichnology studies tracks, burrows and other traces of behaviour.
- True or falseLevel 3
22. Trace fossils are usually preserved where the animal actually lived.
Answer: True
True. Unlike bones, traces cannot be transported far without being destroyed.
- Type the answerLevel 3
23. What is the general term for fossilised evidence of behaviour?
Answer: trace fossil
Trace fossils, or ichnofossils, record what animals did.
- Choose all that applyLevel 4
24. Which conditions favour track preservation? Pick all that apply.
- Firm but damp sedimentcorrect
- Rapid burial by new sedimentcorrect
- Little disturbance afterwardscorrect
- Loose dry sand blowing constantly
Firm damp sediment, rapid covering and low disturbance all help.
Trackways and Footprints
- Choose all that applyLevel 3
25. What can trackways reveal? Pick all that apply.
- Speed of travelcorrect
- Whether animals moved in groupscorrect
- Limb posture and gaitcorrect
- Skin colour
Speed, group behaviour, limb posture and even injuries can be inferred.
- Fact or fibLevel 3
26. Trackways can preserve better in fine, damp sediment that later dries and hardens.
Answer: True
True. The right consistency is crucial for a clear print.
- Fill the blankLevel 3
27. Estimating hip height from footprint length uses a rough multiple of about ____ times.
- fourcorrect
- forty
- one hundred
- a half
A factor of roughly four is often used for bipedal dinosaurs.
- Multiple choiceLevel 3
28. What can stride length help estimate?
- How fast the animal was movingcorrect
- Its exact age
- Its colour
- Its diet
Combined with an estimate of hip height, stride length allows a calculation of speed.
- True or falseLevel 3
29. A trackway can show that an animal was limping.
Answer: True
True. Uneven step lengths and depths can reveal an injury.
- Type the answerLevel 3
30. What is the distance between successive prints of the same foot called?
Answer: stride
Stride length is measured from one print to the next by the same foot.
Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.
How you practise
This unit mixes 9 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.
- Build the sentence
- Choose all that apply
- Fact or fib
- Fill the blank
- Match the pairs
- Multiple choice
- Put in order
- True or false
- Type the answer
Practise Reading the Evidence
106 questions across 18 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.
Play this unitMore units in Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Life
- What Is a Dinosaur?What dinosaurs were, when they lived and how we name them
- Famous DinosaursTyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus and the other stars
- Meat Eaters and Plant EatersTeeth, claws, defences and what dinosaurs ate
- Fossils and Fossil HuntingWhat fossils are, how they form and how they are found
- The Age of DinosaursTriassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous, and how deep time works
- Eggs, Nests and Growing UpDinosaur eggs, nests, babies and family life
- Flying and Swimming ReptilesPterosaurs, plesiosaurs and the sea monsters that were not dinosaurs
- The Great ExtinctionThe asteroid, the volcanoes and who survived