Famous Features of Fantastic Fossils

“Paleontologists figure out the relationships between extinct plants and animals that once lived on Earth and their living connections/ relatives today.”

Famous Features of Fantastic Fossils

“DinosaurFossils.” Adventure Experience , 31 Aug. 2018, https://adexperience-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2018/08/shutterstock_114610390-1200x766.jpg.

Fossils have fascinated scientists for thousands of years and provide some of the earliest evidence about the existence of living organisms. They have stood the test of time because they do not disappear, leaving an imprint of their structure for modern scientists to use as they explore the evolution of our planet.

As stated in“BBC Bitesize” a fossil is the remains of a dead organism that can be identified by the remnants of bones and shells. As time passes by layers of sediment accumulate on top of the organism’s structure and eventually, this hardens and becomes rocks in the shape of the original organism. Fossils are found in rocks and sometimes the remains of animals and plants can be found in amber, peat bogs, tar pits, and ice.

People can also identify organisms from imprints like footprints. Preserved traces of organisms such as burrows and rootlet traces become covered with layers of sediments which in the end become rock. This is what we call a fossil. Fossils can be sources of information because us as scientists are able to tell the approximate ages of organisms through them by comparing them to others and also rocks of a similar known age. This is called relative dating. Another example of relative dating is comparing depth of discovery; the deeper in the ground the fossil is, the older it is so if there are two fossils and one is deeper than the other we will know that that fossil is older. According to“Khan Academy”, relative depth/dating can only be used when we know the age of one fossil because we need to use the age of that fossil to compare it with another.

We can also do something called absolute dating which means finding the precise age of fossils using ways to look at the chemicals found in them. Radioactive dating is one method that scientists use to date a fossil to find the precise age.

The scientists that study these fossils are called paleontologists. “Career Explore”claims that paleontologists study the fossilized remains of all kinds of organisms (plants, animals, fungi, bacteria and other single-celled living things), and are interested in knowing the history of organic life on earth. Paleontologists figure out the relationships between extinct plants and animals that once lived on earth and their living connections/relatives today. The main function that these scientists perform is the study of fossils. They use fossils to try to find out why some animals became extinct. Paleontologists may use those methods that we discussed above to figure out the ages of these fossils. There are 7 areas in which paleontologists can study and explore. These are Biostratigraphy, (“the study of vertical disturbances of fossils in rock”), Invertebrate Paleontology (“the study of animals without a backbone”), Paleobotany (“the study of plant fossils”), Micropaleontology (“the study of fossils of single-celled organisms”), Vertebrate Paleontology (“the study of fossils of animals with backbones”), Paleoecology (“the study of ancient ecosystems and how they developed”) and Taphonomy (“the study of how fossils form and are preserved.”)

All these areas of fossil research are important because in order to really get an understanding of fossils it is very useful to know about all kinds of fossils and the ecosystems that they may have lived in. Paleontologists usually inquire into the location of fossils, look into the layers of sediments of rock to locate the fossil. They use specific tools like drills, picks, shovels, brushes, and chisels. They may also find new discoveries by using specialized computer programs, comparing new with existing data, and can identify time periods of fossil finds.

To summarize, we can see that there are a variety of ways to identify fossils and their way of living. Some of these include relative dating and radioactive dating. Paleontologists are experienced experts in this field and the information they provide us with is crucial in helping us to appreciate the past especially living organisms. All these methods of identifying fossils have made them as important as pieces of art admired by millions around the world today.

Full reference list:

“Evidence of Evolution - Rock Fossils - Evolution - AQA - GCSE Biology (Single Science) Revision - AQA - BBC Bitesize.” BBC News, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zcqbdxs/revision/7.

Boundless. “Boundless Biology.” Lumen, courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-biology/chapter/evidence-of-evolution/.

Khan Academy, Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/science/in-in-class-10-biology/in-in-heredity-and-evolution/in-in-evoluti on-classification/v/fossil-dating-heredity-evolution-biology-khan-academy.

CareerExplorer, sokanu. “What Does a Paleontologist Do?” - CareerExplorer, CareerExplorer, 14 Nov. 2019, www.careerexplorer.com/careers/paleontologist/.

Image Reference list:

“Microscope .” Netclipart , 2019, https://pp.netclipart.com/pp/s/113-1139015_science-clipart-microscope-science-clip-art.png.

Sisson, Robert. “Palaeontologist .” National Geographic , https://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/photos/000/283/28322.jpg.