At the top of Mount Everest, you would find fossils of what?

• A. Fossils of marine organisms
• B. Active coral reefs
• C. Dinosaur bones in igneous rock
• D. Glacial ice deposits only

Answer: (A)

Rocks at high mountain peaks preserve records of environments that existed long before the mountains formed. The rocks that make up Everest’s summit were once laid down on the floor of ancient oceans. When the Indian plate collided with Asia, these seabed rocks were uplifted into the mountains, so they carry fossils of marine life. Coral reefs couldn’t survive up there in today’s conditions, and dinosaur bones are found in sedimentary rocks from land or sea sediments, not typically in igneous rocks that form from melted magma. Glacial ice deposits don’t hold marine fossils from ancient seas. So the fossils you’d expect at the top are marine organisms from ancient ocean environments.