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A derived, reworked or remanié fossil is a fossil found in rock that accumulated significantly later than when the fossilized animal or plant died. [98] Reworked fossils are created by erosion exhuming (freeing) fossils from the rock formation in which they were originally deposited and their redeposition in a younger sedimentary deposit.
The fossils created through this process tend to contain a large amount of the original material of the specimen. This process occurs when groundwater containing dissolved minerals (most commonly quartz , calcite , apatite (calcium phosphate), siderite (iron carbonate), and pyrite ), [ 2 ] fills pore spaces and cavities of specimens ...
The history of paleontology traces the history of the effort to understand the history of life on Earth by studying the fossil record left behind by living organisms. Since it is concerned with understanding living organisms of the past, paleontology can be considered to be a field of biology, but its historical development has been closely tied to geology and the effort to understand the ...
Unlike other plant fossils, which are typically impressions or compressions, petrified wood is a three-dimensional representation of the original organic material. The petrifaction process occurs underground, when wood becomes buried in water or volcanic ash .
Fossil preparation is a complex of tasks that can include excavating, revealing, conserving, and replicating the ancient remains and traces of organisms. It is an integral part of the science of paleontology, of museum exhibition, and the preservation of fossils held in the public trust.
Fossils of organisms' bodies are usually the most informative type of evidence. The most common types are wood, bones, and shells. [57] Fossilisation is a rare event, and most fossils are destroyed by erosion or metamorphism before they can be observed. Hence the fossil record is very incomplete, increasingly so further back in time.
Most fossils that have been silicified are bacteria, algae, [3] and other plant life. Silicification is the most common type of permineralization. Silicification is the most common type of permineralization.
Unlike body fossils, which can be transported far away from where an individual organism lived, trace fossils record the type of environment an animal actually inhabited and thus can provide a more accurate palaeoecological sample than body fossils. [7] Trace fossils are formed by organisms performing the functions of their everyday life, such ...