Fossil Notes

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• Fossil Notes

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• Part One What is a Fossil?

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• A fossil is the preserved remains or prints of an
  organism that lived in the past.

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• Paleontologists are scientists that study
  fossils.
• They try to figure out when, where, and how
  organisms lived.

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• Fossils give clues to
• diversity of life over Earths history
• past climate changes
• surface changes of Earth
• changes within species of plants and animals

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• Conditions needed for fossil formation
• quickly buried by sediment or soft mud
• Hard body parts- ex shell, skeleton, etc.

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• Part Two Types of Fossilization?
• There are 6 types!

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• Mold fossil sediments bury an organism and the
  organism decays leaving a cavity/hole in the
  shape of the organism.

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• Cast fossil forms when a mold fossil is filled
  with sand or mud that hardens into the shape of
  the organism. It creates a 3D image of what the
  organism looked like.

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• Petrified fossil turning to stone this
  fossil forms when minerals soak into the buried
  remains and change them into rock.
• Ex Petrified Wood

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• Preserved fossil when an entire organism or
  parts of organisms are trapped in ice, tar, or
  amber and are prevented from decaying.

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• Carbonized fossil carbon film fossil -forms
  when organisms or parts, like leaves, stems,
  flowers, fish, are pressed between layers of soft
  mud or clay that hardens squeezing out the
  decaying organism and leaving the carbon imprint
  in the rock.

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• Trace fossil forms when the mud or sand hardens
  to stone where a footprint, trail, or burrow of
  an organism was left behind.