what is a fossil? a fossil is the remains or evidence of any plant or creature that once lived on...
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HOW ARE FOSSILS FORMED?
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What is a fossil?
A fossil is the remains or evidence of any plant or creature that once lived on the
earth.
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Type I Fossils
The remains of the dead animal or plant or the imprint left of them
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Teeth
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Skin impressions
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Hair
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The hardened shell of an ancient invertebrate
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The impression of a plant or an animal
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Type II Fossils
Something that was made by the animal while it was living, that has hardened into stone
Also called a Trace Fossil
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Footprints
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Burrows
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Coprolite (poop!)
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So, how are fossils formed?
No matter how it occurs, fossilization takes a lot of luck to happen.
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Fossils are formed by…Freezing (refrigeration)
• Best means to preserve ancient materials
• Happens only rarely
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This baby woolly mammoth died 37,000 years ago. She was 4 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 110 pounds. She was unearthed in
Siberia.
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Fossils are formed by…Drying (desiccation)
• Soft tissues are preserved for thousands of years if completely
dried
• Happens mostly in arid areas
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This Saker Falcon was found in Egypt.
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Fossils are formed by…Asphalt
• Tar pits are formed by crude oil that leaks through fissures in the earth.• The oil evaporates and leaves sticky asphalt.• Asphalt is an excellent
preservative.
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This is Pit 91 at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. Scientists
have recovered over 50,000 fossils from this pit.
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Fossils are formed by…Amber
• Insects and other things become trapped in sticky tree
sap.
• The tree sap hardens into amber, with the insect entombed inside of it.
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Some of the best preserved fossils of insects are found
in Amber.
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Fossils are formed by…Carbonization (distillation)
• Plant leaves and soft animal body parts decompose leaving
behind only carbon.
•The carbon creates an impression in the rock, outlining the
fossil.
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The imprint of this fish
shows carbonization
.
This fern leaf decomposed and left a detailed
imprint.
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Fossils are formed by…Perimineralization
• This is the most common form of fossil preservation.
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• A trilobite dies on the bottom of the
sea.
• Bacteria decompose the soft body parts.
• The hard exoskeleton is left
intact.
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• Sediments bury the exoskeleton.
• The faster this happens, the more
likely that fossilization will
occur.
• The type of sediments influences what the fossil will
look like.
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• Over time, the pressure turns the sediments into rock.
• Minerals stick to the exoskeleton.
• The molecules of the exoskeleton are slowly replaced with minerals.
• In time, the entire exoskeleton is replaced with rock in the exact
shape of the exoskeleton.
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• The continental plates on the
Earth’s crust move around.
• The trilobite moves closer to the surface due to this
uplift.
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• The fossil trilobite is
slowly revealed by erosion.
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Trilobite
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Ammonite
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Brachiopod
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Gastropod
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Horn Coral
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Questions?