EASC 104

HISTORICAL GEOLOGY
FOSSILIZATION

JUNE, 2024
What are fossils?
 Fossils are the remains, impression or traces of
organisms that have been preserved by natural causes
in the Earth's crust
 A fossil is anything that provides evidence of life in
past ages
 They include:
 Body Fossils - the remains of organisms (such as bones or shells)
 Trace fossils - the traces of organisms (such as tracks, trails, and
burrows)

 Where can fossils be found ?

 Do fossils exist in all rock types or forms ? 2
 Sedimentary rocks are the richest sources of fossils
 Sedimentary rocks form from layers of sand, silt and clay that
settle to the bottom of seas and swamps.
 As deposits pile up, they compress older sediments below them
into rock.
 The bodies of dead organisms settle along with the sediments,
but only a tiny fraction are preserved as fossils.
 Rates of sedimentation vary depending on a variety of
processes, leading to the formation of sedimentary rock in
strata.

 Fossils are almost never found in igneous rocks because magma is

found deep within Earth where no living thing exists, and lava at
the surface burns organisms before fossils can form.

 Fossils are rarely found in metamorphic rocks because heat,

pressure, and/or chemical activity that causes a rock to change,
also destroys or damages the fossils.
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Source - http://www.discoveringfossils.co.uk/what-is-a-fossil/
What conditions favour preservation of
fossils?

 Have preservable parts: Hard parts (e.g. bones, shells,

teeth, wood) have a much better chance at being
preserved than do soft parts (muscle, skin, internal
organs)

 Be buried by sediment: Burial protects the organism from

decay.

 Escape physical, chemical, and biological destruction

after burial: The remains of organisms could be destroyed
by burrowing (bioturbation), dissolution, metamorphism,
or erosion.
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Types of fossilization
 PRESERVATION OF UNALTERED HARD PARTS (original material)
 May be composed of silica, phosphate, calcite,
organic material (e.g., chitin, cellulose)
 CHEMICAL ALTERATION OF HARD PARTS
 with some change in composition or structure:
Permineralization, replacement, recrystallization,
carbonization
 PRESERVATION OF UNALTERED SOFT PARTS
 they retain their original composition and structure,
e.g., by freezing, mummification, in amber, in tar,
etc
 IMPRINTS OF HARD PARTS IN SEDIMENT
 TRACE FOSSILS OR ICHNOFOSSILS
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 PRESERVATION OF UNALTERED HARD PARTS

 The organic material in a dead organism usually decays rapidly, but

hard parts (such as bones, teeth, shells) that are rich in minerals
may remain as fossils.

1 inch

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 CHEMICAL ALTERATION OF HARD PARTS
 Permineralization is the filling of pores (tiny holes) in wood, shell,
or bone by the deposition of minerals from solution. The added
mineral matter makes the permineralized fossil much heavier than
the original material.

A permineralized wood fossils from the Road Canyon Formation (Middle

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Permian of Texas) have been silicified (replaced
with silica)
 Replacement: Under the right conditions minerals dissolved in
groundwater seep into the tissues of dead organisms, replace its organic
material, and create a cast in the shape of the organism. Minerals that
replace hard parts include silica and pyrite

Pyritized brachiopods

 Petrification: process by which organic material is converted into stone

through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the
original pore spaces with minerals
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 PRESERVATION OF UNALTERED SOFT PARTS
 If an organism dies in a place where decomposition cannot occur, then the entire
body, including soft parts may be preserved as a fossil.
 These organisms have been trapped in resin, tar, frozen in ice, or preserved in
acid bogs.
40,000-year-old
frozen baby
mammoth
found in
Siberia in
1971. Hair
around the
feet is still
visible

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Insects in amber Preservation in tar

 "In order for a body to be
completely mummified as
in this case, the body must
first dry completely then
covered in ice and snow."
The mummy was a male
adult remarkably well
preserved. The condition
of his equipment and
organic material were also
preserved in good
http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/ condition. The age of the
dept/d10/asb/anthro2003/lega body is about 3,300 BC or
cy/iceman/iceman.html late Stone Age.
Imprints of hard parts in sediment
 Many fossils are simply imprints with no shell material present at all
 Hard parts are commonly destroyed by decay or dissolution after burial, but
may leave a record of their former presence in the surrounding sediment
 Molds are the imprints of an organism in the sediment.
 A cast may be produced if a mold is filled with sediment or mineral matter

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The depression in the image is an external mold of a
Imprint of an ammonite discovering inside of a bivalve from the Logan Formation, Lower
boulder Carboniferous, Ohio
 Some fossils form when their remains are compressed by high pressure.
This can leave behind a dark imprint of the fossil. Compression is most
common for fossils of leaves and ferns but also can occur with other
organisms.
 Carbonization: Carbonization is the conversion of organic matter like
plants and dead animal remains into carbon
 These are sometimes discovered as thin films between layers of sandstone
or shale.
 As an example, plant leaves millions of years old have been discovered
that are still green with chlorophyll.
 The most common fossilized material is pollen, which has a hard
organic case that resists degradation.

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 Trace Fossils
 Indications of organic activity including tracks, trails, burrows, and
nests are called trace fossils

 A coprolite is a type of trace fossil consisting of fossilized faeces

that may provide information about the size and diet of the animal
that produced it

Fossilized feces (coprolite) of a carnivorous

mammal.
Specimen measures about 5 cm long and contains
small fragments of bones
 Trace fossils consist of footprints, burrows, or other impressions left in
sediments by the activities of animals. These rocks are in essence
fossilized behaviour.

These dinosaur tracks provide

information about its gait

Foot prints
Snake Trails

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Worms Burrows
In which environments are fossils most
readily preserved?
 Environments covered by water. Particularly environments with a
high sedimentation rate or anoxic waters.
 Examples: swamps, deep lakes, tar pits, oxygen-minimum zone in
the oceans.
 In general, marine and transitional (shoreline) environments are
more favourable for fossil preservation than are continental
environments, because the rate of sediment deposition tends to be
higher

 One reason that preservation is an uncommon event has to do with

the environments in which the species inhabit.
 For example, the vast majority of living species are insects.
Insects are rarely preserved as fossils because they generally
live on dry land, and are unlikely to be buried by sediment
after death.
 Another reason that so few species are represented by fossils is that
many organisms are soft-bodied and lack hard parts. 17
Interpreting Fossils
1. Fossils indicate that many different kinds of life forms existed
in Earth’s history

2. When fossils are arranged according to age, they show that

certain living things have changed or evolved over time
3. Fossils indicate how the Earth’s surface has changed with
time
For example, fossils of marine organisms can be found in
rocks that are presently high above sea level.
 Example

Since coral today live in the warm waters of equatorial regions,

between 30° N and 30° S latitude, we can infer that NY State
had a warm climate in the past
4. Fossils tell about the appearance and
activities of past life

For example, fossil teeth give clues about the kind

of food the animal ate.
SIGNIFICANCE OF FOSSILS
They tell us:
 What type of organisms were alive at different times
during Earth’s history
 What types of environments were present at different
times and places
 What stayed alive and what went extinct during major
extinction events in the past
 What type of food was eaten and what feeding styles
were employed
 What lifestyle was lived by the organisms