Subject: Geology

Institute: Science
Class: B.Sc. Semester IV
Paper: GLB401: PALEONTOLOGY AND STRATIGRAPHY
Topic: Conditions for fossilization, Incompleteness of fossil
records

Dr. Dinesh Kumar Naik

Assistant Professor
Department of Geology
Institute of Science
Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221 005
Email: dnaik.geo@bhu.ac.in
 Conditions for fossilization
Possession of Hard parts:
The soft, fleshy tissues of organisms are preserved in
certain exceptional circumstances because the soft
parts are quickly decomposed. The possession of hard
parts vastly increases an animal’s chances of being
successfully preserved as fossils.

Example: a jelly fish is far less likely to be fossil than a sea urchin.
Structure and Composition of Hard parts:
the structure and mineral composition of the skeleton play significant role in
the process of fossil preservation. These vary considerably in different
groups of plants and animals.

a. Hard parts consist thin and delicate shell which easily gets broken up and
hence
the complete shells are only rarely preserved

b. Common preservable skeletal substances include

Silica (a highly resistant material forming the skeletal elements of

sponges),
Calcite (a stable crystal forming the skeleton many organisms),
Aragonite (less stable out of sea water than calcite very common shell
material in mollusks),
Chitin (a polysaccharide, a complex insoluble organic substance made up
of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen) ,
Chitinophosphate (made of chitin and phosphate etc.)
Quick burial under sediments:
For preservation, organisms must be quickly covered by some
deposits after death; otherwise it will soon crumble to pieces.
Rapid sedimentation encourages better preservation.

Fine grained sediments are also suitable for good preservation.

Obviously, organisms living in sea water always have the best

preservation potential. Animals and plants living on land stand
the poorest chances of preservation.
Prevention from normal Decomposition:
the preservation by protective covering is of great importance in
the process of fossilization. animals and plants which live in
water have a much better chance for becoming a fossil than
terrestrial organisms.

Decomposition of organisms may be prevented by burial in soft

mud or volcanic ash or low temperature or very dry air or sea
water or by covering of tar or resin.
Incompleteness of
fossil records
 INCOMPLETENESS OF FOSSILS RECORD
The fossil record is quite incomplete. It was identified during the
study of evolutionary history of organisms. It is believed that
number of species known through fossil record is less than 1% of all
the species that have been ever lived.
Why?

To become a fossil, an organism needs to have hard parts, die and

be buried in an anaerobic environment very quickly, and then be
preserved through geological time, without being destroyed by
tectonism or metamorphism, or removed by erosion.

These are pretty rare circumstances, so organisms becoming

fossilized are the exceptions rather than the rule.
Important factors responsible for incompleteness of fossil
record:

A. Preservation failure

B. Other Geological factors

C. Collection failure
Important factors responsible for incompleteness of fossil record

A. Preservation failure

1. Lack of Hard Parts

Animals with soft parts usually not preserved while animals with hard parts
are preserved more easily.

2. Environment (Lack of favourable environments)

(i) Lack of Anaerobic environment (Most organisms decompose before
becoming a fossil)
(ii) Low temperature regions (High Latitudes, High Altitudes snow cover)
(iii) Tar, Peat
(iv) Amber (fossilized resin)
3. Failure in Quick burial
• Destroyed or eaten by scavengers
• Sediment has to cover an organism's remains in order for the
long fossilization process to begin.
• Terrestrial environment hardly permit the preservation as fossils
• Coastal (littoral zone) is also not favorable for preservation due
to repeated high tide and low tide condition

4. Nature of Sediments
• Lack of fine, steaky, soft sediment
• preservation of fossils has least chances in coarser and porous
sediments
B. Other geological factors:
1. Denudation and Depositional break (unconformity)
• Sediments containing fossils are continually being eroded and
removed along with their fossil content
2. Reworking of sediments
• Recrystallisation
• Decay or dissolution in acidic environment
3. Deformation caused by earth movements and Tectonic activities
• Orogenic Epeirogenic movements, Folding, Faulting, Shearing
4. Metamorphism
• Metamorphic process (high temperature, high pressure)
5. Igneous activities
• Melting by volcanic activities and subduction of sediments are
also responsible.
6. Migration to other region
• Descendants of animals not found in the same succession in the
same area.
C. Collection failure:
1. Scarcity of outcrops.

2. Inaccessibility of potential regions

3. Ice covering over a large area of mountains