fossil
Sign in to savethumb|300px|Examples of animal fossils. Clockwise from top left: Onychocrinus, [[Palaeosinopa, Gryphaea, and Harpactocarcinus]]
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A fossil is the preserved remains or traces of an ancient organism, such as bones, shells, or imprints left in rock. Fossils matter because they provide evidence of past life on Earth and help scientists understand how organisms and environments have changed over time.
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45 sectionsContents
- History of study
- Ancient civilizations
- Early modern explanations
- Linnaeus and Darwin
- After Darwin
- Modern era
- Dating/Age
- Stratigraphy and estimations
- Limitations <span class="anchor" id="Fossil record limitations"></span>
- Sites
- Lagerstätten
- Fossilization processes
- Recrystallization
- Replacement
- Permineralization
- Phosphatization
- Pyritization
- Silicification
- Casts and molds
- Authigenic mineralization
- Adpression (compression-impression)
- Carbonization and coalification
- Soft tissue, cell and molecular preservation
- Bioimmuration
- Types
- Index
- Trace
- Transitional
- Microfossils
- Resin
- {{anchor|derived|reworked}}Derived or reworked
- Wood
- Subfossil
- Chemical fossils
- Stromatolites
- Pseudofossils
- Astrobiology
- Art
- Trading and collecting
- As medicine
- Gallery
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|300px|Examples of animal fossils. Clockwise from top left: Onychocrinus, [[Palaeosinopa, Gryphaea, and Harpactocarcinus]]
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the fossil record. Though the fossil record is incomplete, numerous studies have demonstrated that there is enough information available to give a good understanding of the pattern of diversification of life on Earth. In addition, the record can predict and fill gaps such as the discovery of Tiktaalik in the arctic of Canada.