INDEX FOSSIL

Definitions
*Faunal Stages- it is a stage where all the animals
that live in a particular area , time , period or
environment.
*Correlated- either one of two things are closely
connected or correlated with each other.
*Conodonts- a paleozoic toothlike fossil that is
probably like remains of an extinct eelllike marine
animal that may be an invertibrate on premitive.
*Macro-Large, thick
*Micro-very small
Index fossil- a fossil
that is useful for
dating and
correlating the
strata in which it is
found.
Is also a fossil remains
of an organism that
lived in a particular
geologic age,used to
identify or date the
rock layer in which it is
found.
 Index fossils (also known as guide fossils, indicator
fossils or zone fossils) are fossils used to
define and identify geologic periods (or
faunal stages). They work on the premise
that, although different sediments may
look different depending on the
conditions under which they were laid
down, they may include the remains of
the same species of the fossil..
 If the species concerned were short-lived (in
geological terms, lasting a few hundred
thousand years), then it is certain that the
sediments in question were deposited within
that narrow time period. The shorter the
lifespan of a species, the more precisely
different sediments can be correlated, and so
rapidly evolving types of fossils are particularly
valuable. The best index fossils are common,
easy-to-identify at species level, and have a
broad distributionotherwise the likelihood of
finding and recognizing one in the two
 Ammonites fit these demands well, and
are the best-known fossils that have been
widely used for this. Other important
groups that provide index fossils are the
corals, graptolites, brachiopods, trilobites,
and echinoids (sea urchins). Conodonts
may be identified by experts using light
microscopy such that they can be used to
index a given sample with good
resolution. Fossilized teeth of mammals
have also been used.
 Geologists use both large fossils (called
macrofossils) and microscopic fossils
(called microfossils) for this process,
known as biostratigraphy. Macrofossils
have the advantage of being easy to see
in the field, but they are rarer, and
microfossils are very commonly used by
oil prospectors and other industries
interested in mineral resources when
accurate knowledge of the age of the
rocks being looked at is needed.
The series of deposits that spans
the occurrence of a particular
index fossil, is often referred to
as that fossil's zone, enabling to
relate different faunas through
time. An example would be to
say that Mesolenellus
hyperborea occurs in the late
Nevadella-zone.
Fossil Scientific Name Time Period Million Years Ago

Pecten gibbus
Quaternary Period 1.8 million years ago
Argopecten gibbus

Calico Scallop

Neptunea tabulata Quaternary Period 1.8 million years ago

Tiglian (Early
Viviparus glacialis 0.5 million years ago
Pleistocene)

Calyptraphorus velatus Tertiary Period

Venericardia planicosta Eocene

Scaphites hippocrepis Cretaceous Period 145 to 66 million years ago

Scaphites

Inoceramus labiatus Cretaceous Period

 Inoceramus labiatus Cretaceous Period

Inoceramus

Perisphinctes tiziani Jurassic Period

Perisphinctes

Nerinea trinodosa Jurassic Period

Tropites subbullatus Triassic Period

Monotis subcircularis Triassic Period

Leptodus americanus Permian Period

Leptodus

Parafusulina Parafusulina bosei Permian Period

Dictyoclostus americanus Pennsylvanian Period

Lophophyllidium proliferum Pennsylvanian Period

Cactocrinus multibrachiatus Mississippian Period

Prolecanites gurleyi Mississippian Period

Mucrospirifer mucronatus Devonian Period 416 to 359 million year

Mucrospirifer
Tetragraptus fructicosus Ordovician Period

Paradoxides Cambrian Period 509 to 500 million years ago

Billingselia corrugata Cambrian Period

Archeocyathids Lower Cambrian 529 to 509 million years ago

QUESTIONS:
What is Index Fossil?
How it is used?
What is another term of Large
Fossil?
Give atleast two important group
that provide index fossils.
Give atleast two example of common
index fossils.