This booklet, one of a series developed by the Frederick County Board of Education, Frederick, Maryland, provides an instruction module for an individualized or flexible approach to 7th, 8th, and 9th grade science teaching. Subjects and activities in this series of booklets are designed to supplement a basic curriculum or to form a total curriculum, and relate to practical process oriented science instruction rather than theory or module building. Included in each booklet is a student section with an introduction, performance objectives, and science activities which can be performed individually or as a class, and a teacher section containing notes on the science activities, resource lists, and references. This booklet introduces the student to the methods of interpreting the distant past through the study of fossils. The estimated time for completing the activities in this module is two weeks. (SL)