Fossils are the preserved remains of plants or animals. For such remains to be considered fossils, scientists have decided they have to be over 10,000 years old. There are two main types of fossils, body fossils and trace fossils. Body fossils are the preserved remains of a plant or animal’s body. Trace fossils are the remains of the activity of an animal, such as preserved trackways, footprints, When asked what a fossil is, most people think of petrified bones or petrified wood. Permineralization is a process. For bone to be permineralized, the body must first be quickly buried. Second, ground water fills up all the empty spaces in body, even the cells get filled with water. Third, the water slowly dissolves the organic material and leaves minerals behind.
Most of the evidence for evolution comes from the fossil record. Fossils show how much, or how little, organisms have changed over time. One of the problems with the fossil record is that it contains gaps. Not all organisms fossilise well, and there will be many fossils that have been destroyed by the movements of the Earth, or simply not yet been discovered.
One of the few animals for which we have a fairly complete evolutionary record is the horse. All the main stages of the evolution of the horse have been preserved in fossil form.Over 60 million years, the horse evolved from a dog-sized creature that lived in rainforests into an animal adapted to living on the plains and standing up to 2 metres high.
For the past couple of hundred years we have come to rely more and more on fossil fuels. The powered the industrial revolution and helped to turn the Western world into what it is today. However it is becoming increasingly obvious that our reliance on fossil fuels is causing us problems that we are going to have to address.
The fact is we are running out of fossil fuels, it won’t happen tomorrow but eventually we will no longer be able to rely on them to power our economy. to happen anytime soon despite what some fear mongers would like people to believe but at some point we will run out of fossil fuels. Making sure that we are prepared.
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The main problem with fossil fuels is that there is a limited amount of them. At some point we are going to run out. Now this isn’t going to happen anytime soon despite what some fear mongers would like people to believe but at some point we will run out of fossil fuels. Unless we have a plan in place to address this issue we are going to have real problems. Although we are a long way from running out of fossil fuels it is important that we start planning for alternatives. It will likely take a long time to get the alternative energy sources to the point that they are actually a viable alternative. Making sure that we are prepared for when we run out of fossil fuels is vitally important for the good of the economy.
Fossils are evidence of ancient life forms or ancient habitats which have been preserved by natural processes. They can be the actual remains of a once living thing, such as bones or seeds, or even traces of past events such as dinosaur footprints, or the ripple marks on a prehistoric shore. Geologists can tell the age of a fossil through a variety of radiometric dating techniques. The breakdown of radioactive isotopes of certain elements, such as carbon, uranium and potassium takes place at a known rate, so the age of a rock or mineral containing these isotopes can be calculated.People have been fascinated by fossils for thousands of years, and as long ago as ancient Greek times were correctly interpreting them as the remains of long dead creatures. Palaeontology began to be formalised and treated with scientific rigour from the 17th century onwards.
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It’s not only the actual bodily remains of dead animals and plants that can become fossils. Things created or left behind by animals can also fossilise, such as their footprints, burrows and dung. These are known as trace fossils. They can often give clues as to the behaviour of the creature that made them, assuming it can be identified. Even non-living things can fossilise, such as the ripples on the seabed. On rare occasions, the remains of lightning strikes have been found - the sand fused into strange shapes by the energy of the lightning bolt.
Fossil wood is wood that is preserved in the fossil record. Over time the wood will usually be the part of a plant that is best preserved (and most easily found). Fossil wood may or may not be petrified. The study of fossil wood is sometimes called palaeoxylology, with a “palaeoxylologist” somebody who studies fossil wood. The fossil wood may be the only part of the plant that has been preserved, with the rest of the plant completely unknown:[1] therefore such wood may get a special kind of botanical name. This will usually include “xylon” and a term indicating its presumed affinity, such as Araucarioxylon (wood of Araucaria or some related genus), Palmoxylon (wood of an indeterminate palm), or Castanoxylon (wood of an indeterminate chinkapin).
Fossilisation only happens in the rarest of cases, when a plant or animal dies in the right circumstances. Animal corpses are usually eaten by something, or bacteria rots them away before fossilisation can occur, and even hard parts like
Only in very rare cases do the soft parts of animals - the flesh, skin and internal organs - become fossils. Even when buried under mud or soil, decay still takes place, though lack of oxygen does slow it down. If a skeleton is dug up at this stage,
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In other cases, minerals from the rocks gradually impregnate the bone, shell or wood, changing its chemical composition and making it capable of surviving for as long as - or sometimes longer than - the rock enclosing it. In cases where the original has dissolved away,
Even rocks have a finite lifespan. Eventually the rock enclosing a fossil is eroded away, and the fossil is revealed on the surface of the ground. With luck, a sharp-eyed fossil collector will spot and excavate it.
People have been finding dinosaur fossils for hundreds of years, probably even thousands of years. The Greeks and Romans may have found fossils, giving rise to their many ogre and griffin legends. There are references to “dragon” bones found in Wucheng, Sichuan, China (written by Chang Qu) over 2,000 years ago; these were probably dinosaur fossils. Many dinosaurs fossils have been found throughout the years. But some of the most famous are the fossils of Tyrannosaurus Rex. Some of the specimens are nearly complete, and change hands for several millions of pounds or dollars! Another famous fossil is a Velociraptor and a Protoceratops, caught in battle, The Protoceratops is biting the Velociraptor’s hand, and the Velociraptor’s sickle claw is tearing at the Protoceratops’ throat!