Observation and Inference

Background:

Modern science is based on observation and inference. Observation is seeing and noting facts. Inference is a proposed reason or assumption based on observation. Paleontologists use these two principles to form theories, or put together a picture of what the past was like. By making observations of fossils they can make inferences about the animals or plants they represent. Also, by making observations of modern day plants and animals that are similar to the fossils, they can make inferences about the past.

Dinosaur Scene:

A time machine has been invented that travels into the past and takes pictures, sending

them to the present. You are asked to look at one of the pictures and interpret what you

see. Put an “O” before the statements that are observations and an “I” before the

statements that are inferences.

____ 1. The volcano is erupting.

____ 2. The camptosaurus is going to eat the stegosaurus.

____ 3. The stegosaurus will run into the water to escape.

____ 4. The camptosaurus is leaving tracks in the ground.

____ 5. The ground where the camptosaurus is walking is wet.

____ 6. There are plants growing in the water.

____ 7. The camptosaurus is going into the water to eat the plants.

____ 8. There is a tree growing next to the river.

____ 9. The tree looks like a palm tree.

____ 10. The climate is warm.

____ 11. The stegosaurus is eating the plant.

____ 12. The stegosaurus is an herbivore.

____ 13. There are bones from a dead animal by the shore.

____ 14. The camptosaurus killed the animal.

____ 15. Some more bones are in the water.

____ 16. The camptosaurus can’t swim and will drown.

____ 17. Lava is corning down the sides of the volcano.

____ 18. The camptosaurus has sharp teeth for eating meat.

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Suppose you are a paleontologist and you have just discovered a layer of rock

with many fossils in it, both petrified bones and tracks. Decide whether the following

statements are observations or inferences.

______ There are tracks from three different animals in the rock.

______ One animal was chasing another animal.

______ Two different animals died in this spot.

______ When the animals walked here the ground was wet.

______ One of the animals that died here had bony plates.

______ One of the animals that died here had sharp teeth.