Archaeology is all about digging up dinosaurs

Contrary to popular belief, archaeologists actually don’t dig up dinosaurs. That is the job of palaeontologists, who specialise in really ancient creatures, such as dinosaurs. Archaeologists focus on the study of past people, and dinosaurs are not people, and so archaeologists don’t study them!

Fossils, meanwhile, are the preserved remains of animals and plants. They are usually very old and not made by people so, again, archaeologists don’t actually dig for fossils. Archaeologists are interested in the study of the past and concentrate on material culture (many periods studied by archaeology pre-date written records) to understand early societies.

Archaeologists are interested in animal and plant remains because of what they tell us about how people lived. For example, animal bones can tell us about what animals people ate. Studying plant remains can tell us about the natural environment where people lived and the impact they had on it.