FOSSILS PRESERVED REMAINS OR TRACES OF AN ORGANISM THAT LIVED IN THE PAST

FOSSILS

PRESERVED REMAINS OR TRACES OF AN ORGANISM THAT LIVED IN THE PAST.

Fossils are usually from more than 10,000 years ago…Fossils give clues to:1.)The diversity of living things

over Earth’s history.

2.) The past climate and surface changes.

3.) The changes with organisms over time (adaptations).

Fossils are categorized by…HOW THEY FORM!1.) Mold Fossil:

Sediments bury an organism, and sediments change into rock; organism decays leaving a cavity.

www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es2901/es2901page01.cfm?chapter_no=29

2. Cast Fossil:

Mold is filled in with sand or mud that hardens and makes a copy.

www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es2901/es2901page01.cfm?chapter_no=29

3. Petrified Fossil (Permineralized Fossil):

Minerals soak into buried remains, replacing the remains and changing them into rock.

Quartz

4. Preserved (Original Remains) Fossil:

Decaying of organism is prevented by being trapped in rock, ice, tar or amber.

http://www.tarpits.org/la-brea-tar-pits/excavation-101

5. Carbonized Fossil:Organisms are pressed

between layers of soft mud or clay that hardens squeezing almost all the decaying organism away leaving the carbon imprint in the rock.

6. Trace Fossil:Forms when mud or sand

hardens to stone where a footprint, trail, or burrow of an organism was left behind.

What is it?

“Butterfly Shell”, shelled marine organism.

Mucrospirifer Thedfordensis

What is it?

Same family as octopus and squid

Ammonite

What is it?

Tabulophyllum….

CORAL!

What is it?

Some swam and some remained on land.

Elrathi Kingi aka trilobite

Most popular Index Fossil

What is the admetopsis subfusiformis?

SNAIL Family

What is the goniobasis tenera?

an extinct species of freshwater snails