Fossils - General Info
Remnants or traces of living organisms now preserved in rock
What is a fossil?
Younger fossils of whole bodied organisms, often frozen or "mummified"
What is a frozen or dried body fossil?
When minerals precipitate and seep into a pourous material, such as petrified wood
What are permineralized organisims?
Processes that may help expose fossils to paleontologists
What is erosion and uplift?
The group of fossil species
What is fossil assemblage?
The study of fossils
What is paleontology?
When amber or tar act as a preservative of an organism
What are body fossils preserved in amber or tar?
Fossils from footprints, feeding traces, or dung left behind in sediment
What are trace fossils?
The likelihood of an organism being preserved into a fossil
What is preservation potential?
Different fossil species always appear and disappear in the same order
What is the principle of fossil succession?
Biologists or geologists who specialize in studying the fossil record
What is a paleontologist?
Bones, teeth, and shells, consisting of durable minerals that survive in rock or tar
What are preserved or replaced bones, teeth, and shells?
Destinctive chemicals derived from an organism and preserved in rock
What are chemical fossils?
A carcass that has a better chance of being preserved when it settles in an oxygen poor environment
What is death in an anoxic environment?
The result of using fossil succession to order fossils based on approximate date
What is determining the relative ages of fossils?
When organisms die and become covered by sediment and ash
What is the way the way fossils form?
When a sediment compacts around a body and conforms to the shape of that body
What are molds and casts?
The study of something's form or shape
What is morphology?
When an organism dies in a depositional area where sediment collects quickly, and is thus has a better chance of being buried before disintigrating
What is rapid burial?
A theory that explains fossil succession
What is the theory of evolution?
The process of fossil formation
What is fossilization?
What are carbonized impressions of bodies?
Identification through recognizing the amount of ridges on a shell
What is an example of a way to classify a fossil specifically?
A better chance of fossilization of an organism with durable shells or skeletons
What is the presence of hard parts?
Periods of relative stability in the number and identity of species alternate with times of rapid change, during which many species go extinct and many new species appear
What is punctuated equalibrium?