0
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
What battery goes in a fossil blue am-3920 watch?
Not all Fossil watches carry the same battery, so you'll need to verify the make of your watch and see what battery type is compatible. Replacing batteries yourself can be tricky and could harm the watch internally. Your best bet is to send the watch into Fossil for a replacement. It will cost you $18.50, which includes return shipping and handling fee.
What is the definition of an impression fossil?
Sometimes a fossil is formed when the organic matter is impressed in clay or some similar substance. The organic substance rots away, but the impression it left remains, and if the clay which holds the impression petrifies, it becomes a fossil.
1/5
Describe the four types of fossils?
Usually the remains of dead plants and animals quickly decay and are
destroyed. When the remains are protected from scavengers and
micro-organisms, however, they can become fossilized.
If a carcass is in water and sinks to the bottom, the body can be
buried by sediment. Soft parts, such as skin, muscle, or organs decay
rapidly and are rarely found as fossils. The hard parts (bones, shells,
or teeth) may be altered to become fossilized remains. When water
penetrates the bones of a dead animal, the water dissolves the calcium
carbonate in the bones. A deposit of another very hard mineral, silica
(quartz) remains, turning the bones into a petrified (rock-like) substance.
When an organism is buried under many layers of sediment,
pressure and heat may build up, leaving a thin film of carbon residue
on rock surfaces. The residue forms an outline of the organism. The
outline is called a carbonaceous film.
By wind and water erosion, and activities of men, such as building.
What are remains of organisms in tar amber or ice?
A. carbonaceous films
B.molds and casts
C.petrified remains
D.original fossil remains
Which fossil would most likely make the best index fossil?
A good index fossil is one of an organism that rapidly evolves and is widespread throughout a geologic time period or periods. This makes it useful in determining the age of the rock formation in which it is contained.
How does the study of fossils represent the evolution of species over geological time?
The study of fossils represent the evolution of species by the time period between when they became fossils and what the ancestory line is
Why do some dead animals not become fossils?
The vast majority of dead animals are not fossilised. For something to become a fossil it has to die under very special circumstances.
If an animal living in a forest dies it will quickly be absorbed by the other life around it, insects, fungi, bacteria all play their part in recycling the energy provided by the dead animal.
The same happens on the plains and under the seas, though the organisms doing the recycling will be different.
What organism alive today is related to the trilobite?
Trilobites are thought to have been a marine organism because the fossils are found in rocks that contain other salt-water animals. Trilobites are thought to be one of the earliest groups of arthropods.
Who was the first to discover fossil fuel?
There is no definitive answer to who first discovered fossil fuels, as their use dates back thousands of years. However, evidence suggests that ancient civilizations such as the Chinese, Greeks, and Romans were using coal and oil for various purposes. The Industrial Revolution marked a significant increase in the extraction and use of fossil fuels.
Which organism is least likely to become a fossil- a snail or dandelion?
Of the three organisms it is the snails that has the least chance of becoming a fossil since it has no skeleton.
Your answer is in your categories. Its paleontology, or biogeography.
What makes a species a good index fossil?
An index fossil is used as an indicator of which era/epoch was preserved. The major characteristic necessary to be an index fossil include abundance, widely distributed, but lived for a short period of time.
Do fossils relate to living organisms?
No. Fossils are chemicals like stone that have replaced organisms after they die.
Where can you find tons of fossil shark teeth in the US?
Fossil shark teeth can be found in abundance along the coast of states like Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Popular fossil hunting spots include Venice Beach in Florida and the Peace River in Florida. Additionally, sites like Calvert Cliffs State Park in Maryland and Aurora, North Carolina are known for yielding large quantities of fossil shark teeth.
What does the fossil preservation mean?
Fossils are preserved in two main ways: with and without alteration. Preservation with alteration includes carbonization, petrifaction, recrystallization and replacement. Preservation without alteration includes the use of molds and the collection of indirect evidence.
Carbonization
Carbonization often occurs in the preservation of plants and soft organisms. The remains of the plant or animal are crushed beneath the weight of the rock. The gases, including hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, are off gassed through the process of heat and compression. What is left behind is a carbon film, an impression of the former living thing.
Petrifaction
Sometimes referred to as permineralization, petrifaction occurs when a porous material such as a bone or shell becomes filled with preserving material such as calcium carbonate or silica. The original shell or bone becomes buried below the ground and water penetrates the surface. The groundwater contains the calcium carbonate that fills the empty spaces in the material, which over time, hardens and fills the pores full of minerals that preserve the item.
Recrystallization
Recrystallization often occurs in shell fossils and is the process by which the small molecule crystals inside a shell often formed of one type of calcium carbonate can transform to another type of calcium carbonate. This stabilizes the shell and turns it into a fossil.
Replacement
Occurring in both shellfish and wood, replacement is when the atomic composition of the original living thing is replaced cell by cell by a new chemical structure. Typically, the chemical that replaces the original is determined by the groundwater the fossil is lying in. A common type of replacement is silification. This is when the original living remains are replaced with silica as in the case of petrified forests.
Casting
Casting and molding are an indirect way of preserving fossils. In this case, indirect means that the chemical composition of the organic matter does not change, rather it lays in a substance that makes an impression of the matter. Common examples include castings of fern leaves and snail shells.
Trace Fossils
Trace fossils are another type of indirect preservation of fossils. Examples of trace fossils are footprints and trails. Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals moved through the undergrowth and along top soil that was later covered with other debris. In some cases their tracks were preserved and can be dug up and cut out of the ground. Another example of a trace fossil is animal dung. Preserved, fossilized dung provides fossil experts with evidence of ancient food sources and the structure of prehistoric digestive system.
Which is not a reason for the lack of a fossil record from the precanbrian time?
The fossil records have eroded due to lack of proper preservation.
How do you explain a mold from a cast?
Molds formed on the surface of mud or clay, then, rarely are fossilized, because they are likely to erode more quickly than the mud or clay in which they were formed can harden.
The answer is quite simple. Millions and billions of years ago, the Earth was one land. This was called Pangea. However, due to plate techtonics, they move the land around and over time, these lands split apart. After enough time has elasped, these gaps would become oceans. For example, when the continents were together as pangaea the animals roamed freely, but when they split apart the animals were split up. So a plant or animal fossil may be the same on the eastern coast of South America as it is on the western coast of Africa.
Where was the most recent fossil found?
Fossils can be found anywhere at any time. Theyre still found today.
Why were so few fossils found from the precambrian period?
There are many fossils from the Pre-Cambrian but most are microscopic, single celled organisms. Later life forms became larger but were soft bodied which did not fossilise except under certain conditions.
