What are Fossils?
What are Fossils?
The preserved remains, impression, or traces of
any once-living thing from the past.
How do Fossils Form?
Fossils form in many different ways, including:
Permineralization
Molds & Casts
Organisms get buried in sediment and decay away, leaving a cavity (mold). If that cavity gets filled in with sediment, a cast is made. These leave 3-dimensional impressions of an organism.
Sometimes a shell gets filled in with sediment first, then the shell is dissolved away. This leaves an internal cast of the creature.
Most molds and casts do not contain the organism’s remains.
Molds: A fossilized impression made in sediment that is turned to stone. The original body parts have been decayed.
Casts: The process of minerals entering the cavity of a mold fossil, creating an image of the organism.
Impressions
Form when a plant or animal lands in mud, silt, or sand and makes an impression. The organism decays (or walks away) but the impression stays and is filled in with sediment and hardened into rock. The key difference between impressions and molds/casts is that impressions are typically 2-dimensional molds and casts.
- Imprint of an actual organism
- Leaves, insect wings, etc.
- Mazon Creek Fossils
- Trace fossils
- Footprints
Burrows, trails, etc.
Trace Fossils (Ichnofossils)
The geologic records of past animal activities and behaviors. Trace fossils typically do not include the actual organism, only signs of the organisms behavior.
- Nests
- Burrows
- Footprints
- Coprolite
- Eating Habits
