Lesson 8

Fossils
ENV 1203
Fundamentals of Earth Science
 Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRuSmxJo_iA
 Fossils
• Fossils are the preserved remains of plants and animals whose
bodies were buried in sediments, such as sand and mud, under
ancient seas, lakes and rivers.
• Fossils also include any preserved trace of life that is typically
more than thousand years old.
• Fossils are not the remains of the organism itself. They are
rocks.
• A fossil can preserve an entire organism or just part of one.
• Bones, shells, feathers, and leaves can all become fossils.
 Types
• Microfossils are only • Macrofossils can be
visible with a several meters long and
microscope. weigh several tons.
• Bacteria & Pollen • Petrified trees &
Dinosaur bones.
Types
 • Soft body parts decay soon after
death. In very exceptional cases, soft
parts like feathers, plant ferns or
other evidence of life, such as
footprints or dung, may also be
preserved.
• But the hard parts, such as bones,
Fossilization shells and teeth can be replaced by
minerals that harden into rock.
• Remains can include microscopically
small fossils, such as single-
celled foraminifera or pollen grains, as
well as more familiar fossils such
as ammonites and trilobites.
 • Fossils are typically found in sedimentary rocks and
occasionally some fine-grained, low-grade
metamorphic rocks.
• Sometimes the fossils have been removed, leaving
moulds in the surrounding rock, or the moulds may
have later been filled by other materials, forming casts
of the original fossils.
Condition • Rapid burial by sediments that were previously
suspended in water is required for fossilization to
for Fossil occur.
• The burial process isolates the remains from the
Formation biological and physical processes that would
otherwise break up or dissolve the body material.
• Fossils are more likely to be preserved in marine
environments for example, where rapid burial by
sediments is possible. Less favorable environments
include rocky mountaintops where carcasses decay
quickly or few sediments are being deposited to bury
them
Types of Preservation
 • After a shell, bone or tooth is
buried in sediment, it may be
exposed to mineral-rich fluids
moving through the porous rock
material and becomes filled with
preserving minerals such as
Petrification calcium carbonate or silica.
• Eventually, the minerals entirely
replace the organic material and
the remains are literally turned
into stone or ‘petrified’.
(Petra was the Latin word for
rock or stone.)
 • Some fossils form when
their remains are
compressed at depth.
• A dark imprint of the
Compression fossil is produced as a
result of high-pressure
forces exerted by the
weight of overlying
sediments and perhaps
sea water.
 • In cases where the original shell
or bone is dissolved away, it
may leave behind a space in the
shape of the original material
called a mould.
Moulds & • At some point in the future,
sediments may fill the space to
Cast form a matching cast.
• Soft-bodied sea creatures such
as snails are commonly found
as moulds and casts because
their shells dissolve easily.
 • The rarest form of
fossilization is the
preservation of
original skeletons and
soft body parts.
Preservation • Insects that have been
trapped and preserved
perfectly in amber
(fossilized tree resin)
are examples of
preserved remains.
 • Useful insight into the history of life on
Earth.
• They can teach us where life and
humans came from, show us how the
Earth and our environment have
changed through geological time, and
how continents, now widely separated,
were once connected.
Importance • Provide important evidence for
evolution and the adaptation of plants
and animals to their environments.
• Fossil evidence provides a record of how
creatures evolved and how this process
can be represented by a ‘tree of life’,
showing that all species are related to
each other.
 • Used to date rocks. Through the process
of evolution, different kinds of fossils
occur in rocks of different ages, enabling
geologists to use fossils to understand
geological history.
• Fossils are one of the most important
tools for age correlation. Ammonites for
example, make excellent guide fossils for
Importance stratigraphy; they can be used to
determine the relative age of two or
more layers of rock, or strata, that are in
different places within the same country
or somewhere else in the world.
• Recreate different worlds like worlds
populated by dinosaurs or dragonflies
with a two-meter wingspan.