{"id":5607,"date":"2020-01-13T22:43:48","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T22:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/eths101\/?page_id=5607"},"modified":"2020-01-13T22:43:48","modified_gmt":"2020-01-13T22:43:48","slug":"fossils","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/eths101\/learning-pathways\/rock-record\/fossils\/","title":{"rendered":"Fossils"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fossil<\/dt>\n
a fossil is any recognisable trace of a past living organism that is preserved in the geological record.\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

That means that all of these are fossils:\n<\/p>\n

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  • The bones of woolly mammoths\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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    • Petrified wood\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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      • Mummified leaves\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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        • Pollen grains preserved in rocks\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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          • Oil\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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            • Dinosaur footprints\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              Fossils can tell us a lot about the past. They help us understand how many species there were in the past, and when and where they lived. They tell us about what species have gone extinct. They provide us with information about what the world was like in the past (what the environment was like). They also can tell us how old rocks are.\n<\/p>\n

              But before you can use fossils to do any of these things, you really need to know how fossils are formed. One of the most important ideas about fossils is that the fossil record is incomplete \u2013 not every organism leaves a fossil. In fact, we have fossils of only a small proportion of all the species that have ever lived. This means that many species have gone extinct without us knowing they ever existed. Here is a mini-lecture explaining how and where fossils are formed.\n<\/p>\n