Although fossils are most commonly found in sedimentary rocks, some fossils have been found in amber. Amber fossils are formed when resin (similar to sap) from trees is preserved with a plant or animal trapped inside.

Fossils, the preserved remains of animal and plant life, are mostly found embedded in sedimentary rocks. Of the sedimentary rocks, most fossils occur in shale, limestone and sandstone. Earth contains three types of rocks: metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary.

Most fossils “hide out” in sedimentary rock . When tiny bits of rocks and minerals (called sediment) join together over millions of years, they become sedimentary rock. Plants and animals that become sandwiched in this sediment eventually turn into fossils. Two examples of sedimentary rocks are sandstone and shale.

Fossils are formed in different ways, but most are formed when a plant or animal dies in a watery environment and is buried in mud and silt. Soft tissues quickly decompose leaving the hard bones or shells behind. Over time sediment builds over the top and hardens into rock.

A fossil bone is heavier than a normal bone, noticeably so. So, if your object is heavy, it might be a fossil. usually not a fossil unless it has an obvious fossil imprint in it. Fossil shells in limestone are an example.

How old are fossils? The oldest known fossils are the remains of unicellular organisms dating back, about 3.4 billion years. Although most fossils are a lot younger, when talking about the age of fossils, we often tend to speak about millions, tens of millions or even hundreds of million years ago.

But carbon-14 dating won’t work on dinosaur bones. The half-life of carbon-14 is only 5,730 years, so carbon-14 dating is only effective on samples that are less than 50,000 years old. To determine the ages of these specimens, scientists need an isotope with a very long half-life.

There are two ways to determine the age of a dinosaur fossil. One is called relative geologic time, which involves deciding whether one dinosaur fossil is older or younger than another. The other is often called absolute geologic time, which involves estimating how many millions of years old a dinosaur fossil is.

The fish fossil and dinosaur skull couldn’t be dated with either C14 or U238 because carbon can only back date up to 50,000 years and U238 can only back date up to 4.5 billion years. Both the fish fossil and dinosaur skull were older.

The chances of becoming a fossil are enhanced by quick burial and the presence of preservable hard parts, such as bones or shells. Fossils form in five ways: preservation of original remains, permineralization, molds and casts, replacement, and compression.

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the past. Fossils are important evidence for evolution because they show that life on earth was once different from life found on earth today.

Fossil molds and casts preserve a three-dimensional impression of remains buried in sediment. The mineralized impression of the organism left in the sediment is called a mold. The mineralized sediment that fills the mold recreates the shape of the remains. This is called a cast.

Shells, bone, and wood often form as molds or casts. Some trace fossils (ichnofossils), such as tracks and burrows can form as casts or molds. Tracks and burrows can provide clues to the behavior and biomechanics of an organism while it was alive. Concretions often encapsulate a fossil mold and cast.

Different kinds of fossils

• Paleontologists deal with two basic kinds of fossils: body fossils and trace fossils. Body fossils.
• Molds and casts. Body fossils include molds and casts.
• Casts are replicas of the shell or bone that are formed from external or internal molds.

trace fossils

Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood, oil, coal, and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the fossil record.

Scientists categorize fossils into three main groups – impression fossils, trace fossils, and replacement fossils. Amber is also often looked at as a fourth type of fossil. Although a chunk of amber can contain insects that were trapped in resin long ago, technically it is still categorized as a gemstone.

By studying the fossil record we can tell how long life has existed on Earth, and how different plants and animals are related to each other. Often we can work out how and where they lived, and use this information to find out about ancient environments. Fossils can tell us a lot about the past.

What are the uses of fossils

• to determine the history of plants and animals.
• this give us an idea about evolution.
• this gives us an idea about climatic conditions of earth in the past.
• it helps us to analyse the Geological Time Scale.

Tagalog. fossils. posil; abok sa bato; Probably related with: English.