Fossil

Fossil What is a fossil' The word fossil is derived from Latin and means to dig or to be dug up. A fossil is the preserved remains of a plant or animal, which lived more than ten thousand years ago. They give some idea of the size, shape, and form of the once living animal or plant. Fossils are most likely to be preserved where the conditions for decomposition are poorest and where moisture, oxygen or warmth are excluded. Fossils are usually categorized in two different ways, unaltered or altered. An example of an unaltered fossil are shells buried in the mud of the sea floor or even whole carcasses of large mammals from the Ice Age that have been found frozen and preserved in ice for as long as twenty five thousand years. Another example are insects like mosquitoes, that have been preserved by being encased in amber. Altered fossils are fossils that have been preserved as the result of alteration of the buried organism, usually its hard parts. These alterations can take place under six forms. Replacement fossilization is when part of the original material has been dissolved and some other substance has taken its place. The fossilization process fossils, fossil, years, preserved, fossilization, decay, called, been, rock, remains, process, must, study, plant, found, animal, tracks, time, space, six, radioactive, mud, insects, form, common, carbon, animals, altered, age, sometimes, soft, shells, place, new, living, ice