Fossils

thumb|right|Bust of the paleontologist Georges Cuvier (left) and a cast skeleton of [[Palaeotherium magnum (named by Cuvier in 1804, right), Cuvier Museum of Montbéliard]]

thumb|300px|Examples of animal fossils. Clockwise from top left: Onychocrinus, [[Palaeosinopa, Gryphaea, and Harpactocarcinus]]

organismic taxon that closely resembles an extinct entity, with few related living taxa

Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy which focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of rock strata by using the fossil assemblages contained within them. The primary objective of biostratigraphy is correlation, demonstrating that a particular horizon in one geological section represents the same period of time as another horizon at a different section. Fossils within these strata are useful because sediments of the same age can look completely different, due to local variations in the sedimentary environment. For example, one section might have been made up of clays and marl

thumb|upright=1.25|These ammonite fossils serve as a non-anthropomorphic symbol of Vishnu.

REDIRECT Fossil#Subfossil

multi-layered sheet of microorganisms

flint arrowheads and axes, turned up by farmer's plows, considered to have fallen from the sky and worshiped as gods

right|thumb|222px|Diagram showing the location of the Cephalon (arthropod head)|cephalon, [[thorax and pygidium of a trilobite.]] The pygidium (: pygidia) is the posterior body part or shield of crustaceans and some other arthropods, such as insects and the extinct trilobites. In groups other than insects, it contains the anus and, in females, the ovipositor. It is composed of fused body segments, sometimes with a tail, and separated from thoracic segments by an articulation.

thumb|Collection of a Toadstone, illustrated in Hortus Sanitatis, published in [[Mainz in 1491.]] thumb|Lower jaw fragment of Scheenstia, showing the teeth in situ The toadstone, also known as bufonite (from Latin , "toad") and crapaud-stone, is a mythical stone or gem that was thought to be found in the head of a toad. It was supposed to be an antidote to poison and in this it is like batrachite, supposedly formed in the heads of frogs. Toadstones were actually the button-like fossilised teeth of Scheenstia (previously Lepidotes), an extinct genus of ray-finned fish from the Jurassic and Cret

geological stratum or deposit containing bones

Wikimedia list article

thumb|Limestone of crinoids Bioclasts are skeletal fossil fragments of once living marine or land organisms that are found in sedimentary rocks laid down in a marine environment—especially limestone varieties around the globe, some of which take on distinct textures and coloration from their predominate bioclasts—that geologists, archaeologists and paleontologists use to date a rock strata to a particular geological era.

Curling ram horns in Egyptian mythology

paleontological site in Germany

creationist term for a fossil that extends through more than one geological stratum

Macrofossils, also known as megafossils, are the preserved remnants of organic beings and their activities that are large enough to be visible without a microscope. Microfossils, by contrast, require substantial magnification for evaluation by fossil-hunters or professional paleontologists. As a result, most fossils observed in the field and most specimens are macrofossils. Macrofossils come in many varieties and form in various ways depending on their environment and what is being fossilized including plant, fungi and animal remnants.