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Fossils
This category is for questions about the bones, fragments, imprints, and other remainders from a different time. The questions and answer you will find here are history set in stone -- our past, immortalized in solid rock. You will also be able to find questions pertaining to the locations of these fossils, how you might identify them, and how they were formed.
3,454 Questions
Thin film of carbon that preserved a detailed imprint of an organisms?
A carbon film fossil is a thin layer of carbon that forms when organic material decomposes under high pressure and heat, leaving a detailed imprint of the organism's shape and structure. This type of fossilization process can occur when soft tissues are compressed between layers of sediment, resulting in a carbon residue that outlines the original organism's features. Carbon film fossils are important because they can provide valuable information about the morphology and anatomy of ancient organisms.
Where do you find a paraloph head fossil in fossil fighters?
You can find a Paraloph head fossil in Fossil Fighters by searching the Jungle Labyrinth in the Greenhorn Plains area. Look for dig spots and use your hammer to unearth fossils. Keep exploring the area until you find the Paraloph head fossil.
Are fossils fake dinosaur bones made out of plaster?
The fossils displayed in mueseums are usually plaster to prevent the originals from being damaged. The real ones are kept in a lab, most are at the American Mueseum of Natural History. There, they can be studied.
Based on the fossils of tropical fish and palm trees, it can be inferred that the environment where they formed was warm and tropical, likely indicating a climate with high temperatures and abundant sunlight. The presence of these fossils suggests a location that was once near a body of water, possibly a coastal region or a shallow sea.
How do scientist find the absolute age of a rock?
Radioisotopes are used by scientists to date rocks in a method called radiometric dating. The isotopes of an element are the atoms that have the same number of protons and electrons but different numbers of neutrons. When atoms of a radioactive isotope are included in the formation of a crystal, that crystal becomes the parent isotope. As the isotopes begin to decay, they become a daughter isotope. The convenient property of this phenomenon is that a certain parent isotope will ALWAYS decay to a certain daughter isotope. The rate of decay from parent to daughter isotope is called the half-life (time for half of the parent to become the daughter). Being familiar with and using isotopes such as Uranium-238, Uranium-235, and Carbon-14, scientists are able to calculate the age of a rock, fossil, etc. using the known half-life for each parent isotope.
Bone is made of calcium, calcium is a mineral. But animal / human bone is still not a mineral. a mineral is 1. naturally formed, 2. inorganic 3. solid 4. with a specific chemical composition and 5. has characteristic crystal structure so a bone violates the second and fith characteristics
Why is sedimentary rock important in the study of earth's history?
Sedimentary rock provides evidence of the history of rock. But how? It's very simple. There are different layers of earth piled on top of each other. They may contain fossils or other organic materails. Scientists study the layers of the Earth and do that by looking at the soil and rock. The type of sediment in different layers will, of course, be different. Therefore, scientists can figure out about the type of year or years that the occupants of the Earth had.
The deluge fossil formation theory, also known as the catastrophic burial theory, suggests that fossils are formed rapidly through catastrophic events like floods. This theory is supported by evidence showing that many fossils are found in sedimentary layers, suggesting sudden burial. However, while this theory is accepted in some cases, the process of fossilization can also occur through gradual processes like sediment accumulation and mineral replacement.
What fossil looks like a spiral or a rams horn?
The ammonite fossil has a spiral shape similar to a ram's horn. Ammonites were marine creatures that lived millions of years ago and had coiled shells. These fossils are often found in sedimentary rocks and are prized by collectors for their intricate shapes.
How is it possible that dinosaur eggs were found in Antarctica?
There are three reasons; Antarctica wasn't at the south pole in the early Jurassic and during the Cretaceous, there was more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which pushed up temperatures so that dinosaurs were able to survive. Finally, some dinosaurs were believed to be warm blooded and have feathers which are adaptations to survive colder temperatures - birds, particularly penguins, live at the south pole today and there is strong evidence that modern birds have evolved from dinosaurs.
How did climate support wegener's theory?
Climate supported Wegener's theory of continental drift because similar fossils and rock formations were found on continents that are now separated by oceans. This suggested that these continents were once connected and drifted apart over time. Additionally, Wegener noted that certain climate patterns and geological features, such as glacial striations, lined up when the continents were brought back together into Pangaea.
When was the first Megalodon fossil found?
Megalodon sharks are only known from fossilized teeth. Even before the Renaissance, megalodon teeth had been found, but they were believed to be the petrified tongues of dragons or snakes. In 1667, Danish naturalist Nicolaus Steno recognized that they were shark teeth. He revealed his findings in a book called The Head of a Shark Dissected.
Sedimentary rocks are most likely to contain fossils. This is because sedimentary rocks form from the accumulation and compression of sediments that often include the remains of plants and animals. Over time, these remains can become preserved as fossils within the layers of sedimentary rock.
What is the resource formed mainly from the remains of microscopic-sized marine organism?
A resource formed mainly from the remains of microscopic-sized marine organisms buried beneath the ground petroleum. The kind of energy produced when billions of atomic nuclei from uranium are split apart in a fission reaction is nuclear.
A siliceous shell is a hard shell made primarily of silica, commonly found in diatoms, radiolarians, and certain types of sponges. These shells are composed of intricate patterns and are formed by the organism extracting silica from their surroundings and depositing it to create a protective structure.
What types of fossils does not form in sediments?
Well there are 3 types of fossils: Petrified Fossils, Molds and Cast, and Preserved Remains. Petrified Fossils are the organisms buried in the layers of sediment. Molds and Casts are the organisms, like shells, buried by sediments, in which they gradually dissolve. Preserved Remains are the organisms preserved in other substances. For example, entire organisms, such as huge elephant-like mammoths that lived thousands of years ago, have been preserved in ice. Therefore, Preserved Remains is a major type of fossil that does not form in sediments.
This can be formed by decades of being stuck in the ice age and eventually falling through the ice and never getting out. Since you cant get out you get frozen! Being frozen and preserved in another type of substance in called... Preserved Remains!
--Hope this could help. Thanks for reading.:)
The answer to Short-lived things is Ephemera which is the plural of ephemeron
In what type of rack do most fossils form?
Most fossils form in sedimentary rock, which is formed from layers of sediment that build up over time. This process preserves the remains of plants and animals, creating fossils.
What organisms form into a fossil?
Organisms that have hard parts such as bones, shells, or teeth are more likely to form fossils. Soft-bodied organisms can also be preserved in certain conditions, such as being quickly buried in sediment or trapped in amber.
What is the most common sedimentary rock formed from mud or clay?
The most common sedimentary rock formed from mud or clay is shale. Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock made up of compressed and hardened clay and silt particles. It typically exhibits a characteristic fissile (easily splitting into layers) structure.
What animals died during the ice age?
Animal life in the last Ice Age consisted of a larger diversity of animals closely related to those that live today, including relatives of bears, lions, buffaloes, sloths, and monkeys as well as species known to be extant today. The climate of the time was overall colder in average global temperature, so many types of animals existed that were adapted to the cold (e.g. many types of mammoths); others were adapted towards life on the dry interiors of continents such as North America (e.g. Smilodon cats). A small sampling of extinct species known to have lived in the Ice Age is given below:
Mammuthus primigenius (the woolly mammoth)
Mammuthus columbianii (the Columbian mammoth)
Mammut americanum (the American mastodon)
Smilodon populator (the largest Sabre-toothed cat)
Glyptotherium texanum (giant armadillo)
Megatherium americanum (giant ground sloth)
Coelodonta antiquitatis (the woolly rhinoceros)
Arctodus simus (the giant short-faced bear)
Megalodon carcharodon (the giant white shark)
Panthera Leo spelaea (the cave lion)
Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal man)
How are artificial fossils formed?
It is also known as petrified fossil. Petrified or mineralized are formed when remains absorb minerals from the surounding mateial and gradually turn to rock. Let's say it's remains and minerals that turn to stone.
What fossil represents an ancient land environment?
The 164 million-year-old reptile fossils were found on a beach in southern Skye, off the UK's west coast.
The new species forms a missing link between ancient terrestrial turtles and their modern, aquatic descendants.
The discovery of Eileanchelys waldmani, which translates as "the turtle from the island", is reported in the Royal Society journals.
The turtles were found embedded in a block of rock at the bay of Cladach a'Ghlinne, on the Strathaird peninsula.
It contained four well-preserved turtle skeletons, and the remnants of at least two others. The team uncovered four remarkably well preserved turtle skeletons
Missing links
Together, these are the most complete Middle Jurassic turtles described to date.
The historic specimens are now being housed in the National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh.
They were uncovered by a team from London's Natural History Museum and University College London (UCL).
"Why did turtles enter the water? We have no idea. It's a mystery - like asking why cetaceans went back into the sea," said Jérémy Anquetin, of the department of palaeontology at the Natural History Museum.
"Little by little, we are filling the gaps.
"Now, we know for sure that there were aquatic turtles around 164 million years ago.
"Eileanchelys may represent the earliest known aquatic turtle.
"It is part of a new revision we are having about turtle evolution." The Isle of Skye looked very different 164 million years ago
The new species helps bridge a 65 million-year gap in the story - between the terrestrial "basal" turtles, from the late Triassic, and the aquatic "crown-group" turtles of the late Jurassic.
The former were "heavy-built" land-dwellers, with skulls which were "more reptilian", says Mr Anquetin.
The latter were lighter, and closer in appearance to the aquatic, freshwater turtles we know today. I am blown away that the team was able to recover such extraordinary material
Walter Joyce,
Yale University
What happened in between was a mystery, until very recently.
In the last two years, fossils of three new turtle species, all dating to to the Middle Jurassic, have been discovered in Russia, Argentina, and now Scotland.
"The Scottish fossils are the most complete of them all", says Anquetin.
"They tell us a lot about how the primitive 'stem turtles' diversified into the varied forms we see today."
So what would these "missing links" have looked like? Certainly nothing like the marine turtles which are occasionally seen on the Skye coastline today. The rocks at Cladach a'Ghlinne hold many ancient aquatic fossil specimens
On the outside, E. waldmani would resemble a modern freshwater turtle - "like the ones you can buy in the pet shop", says Mr Anquetin.
Head first
"The differences are on the inside - in the cranial anatomy. They are small differences but very important. There is no other turtle like this one."
The fossils have now been recognised as a new species, named Eileanchelys to incorporate "Eilean", the Gaelic word for "island".
"I liked the idea of giving it a name in Gaelic," explains Anquetin.
"So I tried to find words that sound good in Gaelic and Latin.
"I chose 'Eilean', so the whole name means 'the turtle from the island'."
However, the turtles would have lived in a land unrecognisable from the rugged, wind-battered coastlines of modern day Skye.
In the Middle Jurassic, the land mass was much further south, basking in a warm, sub-tropical climate. The fossils were discovered on the rugged shores of Skye's Strathaird peninsula
The turtles probably lived in a landscape of shallow lagoons and freshwater lakes, according to the authors.
Their claims are founded on the geology of the rocks in which the turtle fossils were found - alternating mudstones, shales and occasional limestone horizons - sediments which were laid down in closed water systems.
Other aquatic species, such as sharks and salamanders, were found alongside the turtle fossils.
But remains of terrestrial vertebrates, such as lizards and dinosaurs, were "exceptionally rare".
"If [we accept all this evidence], E. waldmani plausibly represents the first aquatic turtles." The remains are "spectacular in preservation".
Their findings are reported in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
"This new turtle is very exciting", said Dr Walter Joyce, an expert in turtle evolution, formerly of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University.
"Keep in mind that a 65 million year gap used to exist in the fossil record between the oldest known turtles from the Late Triassic and basically modern turtles in the Late Jurassic.
Jigsaw puzzle
"The new turtle is really quite spectacular in preservation, considering that several complete skeletons are preserved, instead of the usual scrap that has to be pieced together.
"The find confirms that basal turtles were a global phenomenon. It also confirms my research that the split into the primary groups that we see today did not occur until later than originally thought.
"Finally, although it is really difficult to assess the ecological habitat preferences of turtles, the authors make a compelling case that by this stage in evolution turtles had started moving into aquatic habitats."
He added: "I am blown away that the team was able to recover such extraordinary material from the icy cold shores of Scotland, an area generally not known for its turtle fossils!" The fossilised turtle shell reveals the transition from land to sea
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The 164 million-year-old reptile fossils were found on a beach in southern Skye, off the UK's west coast.
The new species forms a missing link between ancient terrestrial turtles and their modern, aquatic descendants.
The discovery of Eileanchelys waldmani, which translates as "the turtle from the island", is reported in the Royal Society journals.
The turtles were found embedded in a block of rock at the bay of Cladach a'Ghlinne, on the Strathaird peninsula.
It contained four well-preserved turtle skeletons, and the remnants of at least two others. The team uncovered four remarkably well preserved turtle skeletons
Missing links
Together, these are the most complete Middle Jurassic turtles described to date.
The historic specimens are now being housed in the National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh.
They were uncovered by a team from London's Natural History Museum and University College London (UCL).
"Why did turtles enter the water? We have no idea. It's a mystery - like asking why cetaceans went back into the sea," said Jérémy Anquetin, of the department of palaeontology at the Natural History Museum.
"Little by little, we are filling the gaps.
"Now, we know for sure that there were aquatic turtles around 164 million years ago.
"Eileanchelys may represent the earliest known aquatic turtle.
"It is part of a new revision we are having about turtle evolution." The Isle of Skye looked very different 164 million years ago
The new species helps bridge a 65 million-year gap in the story - between the terrestrial "basal" turtles, from the late Triassic, and the aquatic "crown-group" turtles of the late Jurassic.
The former were "heavy-built" land-dwellers, with skulls which were "more reptilian", says Mr Anquetin.
The latter were lighter, and closer in appearance to the aquatic, freshwater turtles we know today. I am blown away that the team was able to recover such extraordinary material
Walter Joyce,
Yale University
What happened in between was a mystery, until very recently.
In the last two years, fossils of three new turtle species, all dating to to the Middle Jurassic, have been discovered in Russia, Argentina, and now Scotland.
"The Scottish fossils are the most complete of them all", says Anquetin.
"They tell us a lot about how the primitive 'stem turtles' diversified into the varied forms we see today."
So what would these "missing links" have looked like? Certainly nothing like the marine turtles which are occasionally seen on the Skye coastline today. The rocks at Cladach a'Ghlinne hold many ancient aquatic fossil specimens
On the outside, E. waldmani would resemble a modern freshwater turtle - "like the ones you can buy in the pet shop", says Mr Anquetin.
Head first
"The differences are on the inside - in the cranial anatomy. They are small differences but very important. There is no other turtle like this one."
The fossils have now been recognised as a new species, named Eileanchelys to incorporate "Eilean", the Gaelic word for "island".
"I liked the idea of giving it a name in Gaelic," explains Anquetin.
"So I tried to find words that sound good in Gaelic and Latin.
"I chose 'Eilean', so the whole name means 'the turtle from the island'."
However, the turtles would have lived in a land unrecognisable from the rugged, wind-battered coastlines of modern day Skye.
In the Middle Jurassic, the land mass was much further south, basking in a warm, sub-tropical climate. The fossils were discovered on the rugged shores of Skye's Strathaird peninsula
The turtles probably lived in a landscape of shallow lagoons and freshwater lakes, according to the authors.
Their claims are founded on the geology of the rocks in which the turtle fossils were found - alternating mudstones, shales and occasional limestone horizons - sediments which were laid down in closed water systems.
Other aquatic species, such as sharks and salamanders, were found alongside the turtle fossils.
But remains of terrestrial vertebrates, such as lizards and dinosaurs, were "exceptionally rare".
"If [we accept all this evidence], E. waldmani plausibly represents the first aquatic turtles." The remains are "spectacular in preservation".
Their findings are reported in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
"This new turtle is very exciting", said Dr Walter Joyce, an expert in turtle evolution, formerly of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University.
"Keep in mind that a 65 million year gap used to exist in the fossil record between the oldest known turtles from the Late Triassic and basically modern turtles in the Late Jurassic.
Jigsaw puzzle
"The new turtle is really quite spectacular in preservation, considering that several complete skeletons are preserved, instead of the usual scrap that has to be pieced together.
"The find confirms that basal turtles were a global phenomenon. It also confirms my research that the split into the primary groups that we see today did not occur until later than originally thought.
"Finally, although it is really difficult to assess the ecological habitat preferences of turtles, the authors make a compelling case that by this stage in evolution turtles had started moving into aquatic habitats."
He added: "I am blown away that the team was able to recover such extraordinary material from the icy cold shores of Scotland, an area generally not known for its turtle fossils!" The fossilised turtle shell reveals the transition from land to sea
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- Digg
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What are these?E-mail this to a friendPrintable version Print SponsorAdvertisementAdvertisement
SEE ALSOWashed up turtle set to jet out
18 Apr 06 | ScotlandRescued turtle flown to new home
11 Oct 06 | Highlands and IslandsMalaysia's fight to save rare turtle
11 Aug 08 | Asia-PacificTurtle diary: Return to the wild
30 Jun 08 | Science & EnvironmentEndangered turtle born at zoo
11 Aug 08 | Bristol/SomersetBaby turtle gives species hope
16 Dec 04 | Science & EnvironmentMap: Biodiversity hotspots
01 Oct 04 | Science & Environment
RELATED INTERNET LINKSNatural History MuseumRoyal SocietyPeabody Museum of Natural HistoryThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
TOP SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT STORIESObama to revise US space vision
States renew carbon emissions vow
Rotting fish yield fossil clues
| News feeds
- SHARED
- READ
- WATCHED/LISTENED
- Why do people vote against their own interests?
- In pictures: Beautiful birds
- Who said it never rains in Southern California?
- Shoes may have changed how we run
- Google phases out support for IE6
What is a fossil? The answer to this question is largely a matter of what a person thinks it should be. People that work with fossils, called paleontologists, use them to obtain an understanding of ancient environments and life processes, and from this understanding can better describe the history of the earth. Thus fossils, in whatever form they appear, may be regarded as evidence of past life. Fossils may be preserved shells or bone or wood, or they may consist of material that has replaced the original organic substance, while preserving its original form. They may be the hard parts of the organism itself, or simply an impression left by the organism. Organic activity such as the footprints left by the dinosaurs or the trails of crawling insects, or burrows of worms, may be preserved in the rock and be regarded as fossils.
Will the footprints of astronauts on the moon be regarded as fossils someday?Fossils may be very large, as most persons know from pictures they have seen of large dinosaurs, or very, very small, detectable only through the study of rocks under electron microscopes. Fossil spores and pollen of plants millions of years old are commonly studied, as are minute sea organisms dating back to the dawn of life. These small fossils are not noticeable in the field, but can be seen only by examining the rocks with a microscope in the laboratory.
We think of fossils as being in rocks, or at least as being objects that are dug up, or unearthed. This is appropriate, for the word fossil means something dug up. They are also most commonly considered as part of the rock or earth from which they are extracted, and therefore are the same age, or as old as the rocks within which they are found. This is a very important point, because it is the idea that the fossils are of the same age as the rocks that contain them that makes fossils the valuable tools with which the geologist works. Why is this so? In simple terms, the animals and plants that existed at any one time in the history of the earth, have not existed before or since. Sometimes, unique forms of life existed over very short spans of time, and simply by finding one such unique form one may determine the age of the rock in which it is found. Most commonly, however, we find a number of different kinds of fossils which, taken all together, occurred at only one time, although the individuals may have existed with no observable change over longer spans of time.
Brachiopods, small-shelled marine animals, were abundant in Kansas seas more than 250 million years ago.An example of the former method may be where a person was born and died within a year, and simply by seeing his name as being present, we know what year that was. An example of the latter method is where we see a list of a family gathering, with great grandmother and great grandchild, each of who lives to 100 years. We cannot pinpoint with accuracy the time of the gathering knowing only that the great grandmother lived, say from 1772 to 1872, or only that the great grandchild lived from 1871 to 1971, but taken together, we may pinpoint the time of the gathering at the years 1871-1872, the only time during which the lives overlapped. Thus, when we find several fossils in one place whose time spans of existence overlap, the group can tell us how old the enclosing rock must be. The geologist may find similar assemblages of fossils in rocks separated by considerable distances, even oceans, and thus be able to say that rocks from different localities in different states, or even on different continents, are of similar age. This is called correlating the age of the rocks.
As well as the age of the rocks, fossils may be used to tell us about the environments in which the organisms lived and thus in which the rocks were deposited. We observe organisms every day that live in certain areas and not in others, and we can readily understand that at any one time we will find different kinds of organisms that are typical of different environments. For example, the plants that grow in open meadows merge with different plants that grow on the woodland borders, and these in turn are different from those that grow deeper in the forests. Similarly, if one were to picture an ocean shoreline such as that of the Gulf of Mexico, there are certain organisms that live at considerable depths far offshore, a somewhat different assemblage of organisms that live near the shore, another on the shore between high and low tide lines, another well up on the beach or sand bar, another in the shallow lagoon that may be present behind the sand bar, and so on. By studying the rock and the assemblage of fossils within it, it is commonly possible to describe the ancient environment. Importantly, and this is a difficult concept, we may be able to describe different environments that existed at the same time but in different areas. We shall not go into this here, except to mention that the Kansas rocks are very important in giving the geologist information about ancient shallow-sea environments by virtue of the plentiful and well-preserved fossils of different kinds easily found over much of the state. Platecarpus was a mosasaur, a very large marine lizard that flourished in the Upper Cretaceous seas. Note how the paddle-like limbs, ending with webbed feet, adapted this large reptile to a life of swimming in the deep sea. This specimen was one of the earliest collected by the Museum of Natural History at The University of Kansas and is now on display there. It was located in 1890 in Graham County, west of Hill City in the Niobrara Formation.
On the following pages are illustrations and brief descriptions of many of the common fossils found in Kansas. No attempt has been made to use the most perfect of specimens, for they are not the most common. The fossils shown here, on the other hand, are typical of what one may expect to find on a casual outing.
Where may one find fossils in Kansas? Over much of the state, one must merely look at the ground to find them. Do not search on vegetated surfaces, but rather look where the rock is exposed, or nearly so. Look at rocks where the highway has been cut through, or along river banks or in fields where the rocks crop out. Commonly, the action of rain, frost, and wind etches the rock matrix away from the fossil and leaves it exposed in relief, or sometimes frees the fossil entirely so that it simply lies loose on the surface.
A note of caution. One should not carelessly gather fossils, separate them from the rocks, and then discard them. Fossils are important tools to the researcher and are of value to the serious collector. If you find specimens that you wish to collect, they should be wrapped and labeled. You should keep a notebook assigning a number to each specimen and describing with the greatest amount of accuracy the exact location from which the specimens are taken. A description of the rock strata should be included, referring to the rocks above and below, the thickness of the rock layer and its color, other fossils in the same rock, the date and so forth. The same specimen number should be written on the specimen in indelible ink. In this fashion, you will always have a record of the specimen, and this record can be passed on should you wish to trade or donate your find. The exact name of the fossil is not the most important, because the name may change as our knowledge increases, but the locality where it was found will not.
PHOTO HERE of FOSSIL HUNTERS?
Never remove or destroy fossils if you are not interested in them. If you feel that your find is particularly important, especially with regard to fossils of animals with bones or unusually large exposures of delicately preserved specimens, note the locality with precision and contact the nearest college or university natural history museum, or contact the Kansas Geological Survey. In this fashion, the specimen may be properly extracted for the greatest benefit to all. Never disturb remains or artifacts that you may suspect to be of human origin. (It may even be against the law!)
Whether you are on a picnic and discover a fossil, or are a student exploring the curiosities of nature, or are just having some fun in the field trying to find fossils, it is hoped that the following pages will help you gain an idea of what to look for, or what it is that you have found.
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Do many Christians believe in the Blank Theory of fossil formation?
The theory of fossil formation does not conflict with beliefs held by many Christians. Christians generally believe that God created the world and its processes, so the formation of fossils over millions of years can be seen as part of God's creation. The theory does not necessarily challenge core theological beliefs.
