Development and Practice of a Lesson Using Trace Fossils

Abstract

I developed a lesson for students to estimate the behavior of the paleontological organisms that formed the Ophiomorpha by using the trace fossil Ophiomorpha and a candidate for its trace-makers, the Callianassa japonica, as teaching materials. Students observed these and estimated the behavior of the trace-makers that formed the Ophiomorpha. As a result of the class practice, 5 of 8 students could estimate the rotational behavior of the trace-makers that formed the Ophiomorpha. In addition to studying the combination of Ophiomorpha and Callianassa japonica, the use of three types of teaching materials—fossil trace morphology, the behavior of the present organism, and trace morphology of the present organism—can be used to estimate the behavior of trace-makers.