™
What is a fossil? While this is a simple question, the answer can be simple or a bit more complicated.
The short and sweet answer to that question is A fossil is the remains or evidence of any creature or plant that lived on the earth in a past geologic age.
But there are so many KINDS of fossils. A more important question for a curious student is What kinds of fossils are there? The answer to that question will take a bit more 우리카지노 exploration. Youll have to dig a little deeperpun intended!
The Long Answer
There are several fossil classification systems in use today, but the one that I like the best is the one used by Peter Larson and Kristin Donnan in their book, Bones Rock! They group fossils into two categories:
Type I-the remains of the dead animal or plant or the imprint left from the remains.
Type I includes:
-> bones
-> teeth
-> skin impressions
-> hair
-> the hardened shell of an ancient invertebrate (an animal without a backbone) like a trilobite or an ammonite
-> impression of an animal or plant, even if the actual parts are missing.
So now you have one short and one long answer to the question: “What is a Fossil?” Let’s build on that.
Type II- Something that was made by the animal while it was living that has hardened into stone. These are called trace fossils.
Type II includes:
-> footprints
-> burrows
-> coprolite or animal
