Mississippi Science ESS.3.8

ScienceGrades 9–12Earth and Space Science

The Standard

ESS.3: Students will develop an understanding of Earth’s systems and cycles.

Analyze and interpret the record of shared ancestry, evolution, and extinction as related to natural selection using fossils.

2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Earth’s Systems and Cycles

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students compare fossils from dated rock layers to find shared features and changes over time. They use those patterns to discuss common ancestry and possible extinction. They explain how natural selection might account for a change.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can order fossils by age and point to shared structures as evidence of common ancestry. They can describe a trait that becomes more common, suggest how it might help survival, and distinguish possible extinction from a gap in the fossil record.
Common Misconceptions: Students may assume fossils in nearby layers are parent and offspring. They may think a trait changed because an animal needed it, or that a species is extinct because its fossils are missing from one layer.
How to Assess It: Give students dated fossil sketches: older layers have smooth and ribbed shells, middle layers have mostly ribbed shells, and newer layers show only ribbed shells. Ask what suggests relatedness, how selection might explain the change, and whether the smooth shells are proven extinct.

Lesson moves

Have pairs sort fossil sketches by rock layer, then draw a branching tree showing shared features and where a branch might end.
Ask students to write: Does a fossil missing from one rock layer prove extinction? What else could explain its absence?
Play Evidence Match: students pair claims about ancestry, change, or extinction with dated fossil cards and defend each match.
Compare dated horse tooth photos from a museum collection with grassland habitat maps, then discuss which teeth might handle tough grass.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to ESS.3.8, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

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