FOSSILS AND PALEONTOLOGY

(1) Notwithstanding their extreme age, some

lossils preserve traces 01 the organic mate-
rial 01 which they were lormed. An example
is this ammonite Irom the Mesozoic in Eng-
land, which displays its original shell.

(2) The preservation 01 soft parts during the lossilization process is exceptionally rare. This
pyritized cephalopod lrom the Jurassic in France, complete with its body and tentacles, is
thus a truly rare specimen. (3) An exceptional example 01 preservation in amber: a small
gecko enclosed in a Iragment 01 Tertiary amber Irom Santo Domingo. (4) Though extremely
delicate, bird leathers have been almost perlectly preserved in some deposits. The example
shown here is Irom Oligocene deposits 01 Luberon, France. (5) In exceptional cases, even
details 01 an animal's internal anatomy may be preserved in the lossil state. In this brachiopod
01 the genus Spiriferina the delicate internal brachial apparatus has been preserved.

of an organismo Two examples of the Anatosaurus, a dinosaur
of the Cretaceous period, were found complete with their
wrinkled skin pressed against the bones of their skeletons as
if they had undergone a powerful dehydration at death. This
is believed to be the result of the animals being buried in sand
that isolated them from the action of circulating water and that,
because of its mineral content, led to the almost perfect pres-
ervation of the skin.
As has been seen, water permeating the sediment often leads
to the destruction of organic rernains, including the impreg-
nation of the remains with mineral substances. If the sediment
is already in an advanced state of consolidation, the dissolu-
tion of the organic matter leaves an empty cavity that is filled
with other substances; thus is created an external model or
mold that reflects perfectly the outside form of the organismo
An internal mold results when a shell of an organism be-
comes filled with sediment and then dissolves, leaving on the
mold an impression of the surface of the inside of the shell.

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