taphonomy
Sign in to savethumb|350px|Fossilization process of a pair of sauropod dinosaurs, illustrating their preservation into [[fossils]]
Article
22 sectionsContents
- Description
- Research areas
- Paleontology
- Forensic science
- Archaeology
- Microbial mats
- Taphonomic biases in the fossil record
- Physical attributes of the organism itself
- Characteristics of the habitat
- Mixing of fossils from different places
- Temporal resolution
- Gaps in time series
- Consistency in preservation over geologic time
- Human biases
- Preservation of biopolymers
- Disintegration
- Distortion
- Significance
- Fluvial taphonomy
- See also
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|350px|Fossilization process of a pair of sauropod dinosaurs, illustrating their preservation into [[fossils]]
Taphonomy is the study of how organisms decay and become fossilized or preserved in the paleontological record. The term taphonomy (from Greek , 'burial' and , 'law') was introduced to paleontology in 1940 by Soviet scientist Ivan Efremov to describe the study of the transition of remains, parts, or products of organisms from the biosphere to the lithosphere.