How Are Fossils Formed
Fossils are important evidence that most paleontologists and anthropologists present when trying to prove how evolution took place millions of years. As a fossil enthusiast, it is important for you to know how fossils are formed. You should also know that most animals when they die do not fossilize. They simply decay away. |
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How are fossils formed? Well, fossils are basically hard mineral parts of animals, insects or plants, and mostly consist of bones and teeth. They are formed in the following manner:
When animals die, some of the bodies get buried without having an option to decay completely. If an animal carcass decays completely, it cannot turn into a fossil. Over a period of time, the half decayed body gets buried further as more and more mud, sand etc covers it. The hard parts of the carcass gradually get enveloped by the mud or sand and a slow chemical process begins wherein the bones start decaying and the where the bones were originally present get filled with minerals. These minerals harden over time and end up being an exact copy of the bones or other hard parts of the body, which is known as fossil.
A plant, animal or insect can fossilize under proper external circumstances that facilitate the formation. Usually fossil formation can occur in six different ways, namely preservation, petrification, replacement, carbonization, recrystallization, and mold or casts of organisms that have decayed. In order for fossils to form, the temperature and mineral content of the surrounding sediments have to be just right or else the organism will just decay and disappear without a trace. Usually it takes many years, if not hundreds, for fossil formation to occur.
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Many people world over have found fossils every where, even in their backyard! What many people do not know is that fossils are actually two types -- one is where the body parts get fossilized and these can be bones, teeth, skin, eggs or embryos; while the other are fossilized molds or casts of things like footprints or teeth marks. 