● Dead animals don’t last very long if they sit around at earth’s surface rotting

away; to preserve this animal is be not easy task

○ Bones need to be buried or they will be completely destroyed

over time; to preserve a fossil, it really needs to be buried

● Fossils are the preserved remains of organisms including tissues, bones,

teeth, and shells; if it preserved, it can become a fossil in time

○ Anything younger than 10,000 years old is often considered recent

and is not yet a fossil; Anything older than 10,000 can be
considered a fossil

● Consider the entire body of a wooly mammoth; what part of this wooly
mammoth are most likely to be preserved as fossils?

○ Tusks, bones, and skulls are likely to preserve; Fur, flesh, and any
soft internal anatomy will likely be lost to decay and will not
preserve

● In order for an animal to be preserved in the fossil record, it typically

needs hard parts; These would be the parts made of minerals

○ There are 3 three common minerals in fossils; The presence of

these within an animal or its parts will make preservation more likely

■ 1 Calcite
● Calcite is the most common minerals of shells; Nearly all
seashells found in the ocean today are made of the
mineral calcite
 ■ 2. Quartz
● Quartz commonly preserves trees and wood; Petrified
wood consists primarily of quartz, which has replaced
the original wood

■ Apatite
● Apatite is the mineral bones and teeth; Apatite is the
calcium-based minerals that makes teeth and bones
strong and durable

● There are 6 six different ways a fossil may be preserved within the
fossil record; Preservation can vary for each fossil group

○ Unaltered remains: fossils that have not changed much since the
death of the organism; the remains have not been altered significantly

■ The unaltered remains of shells will be as shiny and pearly

as when the animal was alive; it counts, even if the soft tissue
has decayed

○ Permineralization: refers to when a fossil’s vacant space has been

filled-in with minerals; New minerals come in, but nothing is
removed
 ■ During Permineralization, vacant spaces within a fossil
are slowly replaced with minerals; petrified wood is
typically infused with quartz
■ Sometimes fossils dissolve away, leaving behind a space that can
be filled with new minerals;

■ Why might a fossil made from the mineral calcite dissolve away
so easily?
● Calcite is one of the easiest mineral to dissolve; any
Fossils made of the mineral Calcite will dissolve in
acidic rainwater Shells made from calcite with
dissolve in acidic water or disintegrated in sand made
of quartz because quartz is very hard and calcite very
soft
○ Replacement:
○ Cast:
○ Carbonization: Occurs when a fossil is preserved as a thin film of
carbon on the surface of a rock; The carbon comes from the
plant of animals

■ Coal forms from the compaction of swamp plants that fail to

decay under oxygen-poor water

■ Coal forms primarily in swamps where stagnant water loses

its oxygen almost immediately; oxygen is necessary to break
down organic matter
○
■ More often, Carbonization preserves carbon remains of soft-
bodied animals and plants; it occurs as a black film of
carbon on rock
 ○ Trace fossils: represent fossilized behavior; They can consist of
impressions, burrows, tubes, tunnels, and track ways

■ Trace fossils do not preserve the animal itself, and can

sometimes be ambiguous in their origin; the behavior may be
known, but not the maker

■ Coprolites, “Deposits”ft behind by animals le after

digesting their meals, are also trace fossils

■ Sometimes it is really quite easy to determine what animal made

a specific trace fossil; most of the time, however, it’s not easy
at all

● When a fossil dissolves, it leaves behind a mold, which is the space the
fossil used to occupy; this mold can be filled in one of two ways

○ New minerals fill-in the mold, the fossilization process is called

replacement; Replacement preserves the fossil’s fine
detail

○ If sediment, like sand or mud, fills the mold then the resulting
fossil is called cast; casts are built of sediment like a sandcastle