Talk:Fossilization (palaeontology)

Carbonate preservation

I am reading this article, which is indeed good - one of the finest among Earth Science I should say. I have some questions about carbonate preservation, though.

• Ideal conditions for carbonate preservation are normally found in organic-rich shelf sediments

Why organic-rich? Organic matter decay usually lower the pH, leading to dissolution. Or, do you mean "rich in living organisms" which shells may be fossilized? If so, this concept could be expressed more clearly.

• Sulfate reduction is required for cementation to occur

Not sure about that. Do you have a reference for this? Note that seawater is naturally supersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate. Also, cementation in continental environments (e.g., caves, travertines) do not need sulphur to take place.

Just two minor notes. Keep on going with the good job! --Nereo Preto 09:37, 27 September 2007 (CDT)

Ok, I saw the changes. Thanks, great job! --Nereo Preto 13:21, 2 October 2007 (CDT)

Overview

Another note. Could you add some lines in the overview where you explain the steps one dead part should pass through to get fossilized? Like, deposition, burial, diagenesis... I believe this is important, because there are terms used in the text (e.g., diagenesis, but you may also want to write about biostratinomy or taphonomy somewhere) which need to be defined. (BTW, parhaps, there are such lines already - I admit I couldn't find the time to read all text carefully...) --Nereo Preto 09:43, 27 September 2007 (CDT)

Good job

Good job, Natasha. I wonder, however--will we have another article, with a different focus, titled fossil? The title, and the article so far, describes mainly the process. Will it concern only the process, or will it concern fossils generally speaking? If so you should link the first instance of fossil. --Larry Sanger 12:11, 27 September 2007 (CDT)

Developed, kind-of

This article is substantially developed in my view... save that it is mostly about fossilization in continental environments rather than marine environments. This is because the main author is a student of Dinosaurs, so she is continental-oriented. Which is ok, of course, the contents are rich and really good. In fact, if not for the fact the marine stuff is underrepresented, this article could be driven to approval in a reasonable time perhaps.

So, first of all, my compliments to User:Natasha Barbolini. You did a great work so far!

Second: if anyone wish to work on fossilization in marine environments, I'm ready to take care of this article's approval. Most fossils and rocks are marine, though, so the marine part is essential.

--Nereo Preto 05:51, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

Metadata

This article appears to be in British English, with -ize endings [i.e. Oxford English] so I have inserted that as the language variant. I have also promoted it to category 1, as it seems to be fully developed. Apologies if that is not correct, and revert if needed.--Martin Baldwin-Edwards 06:51, 6 October 2007 (CDT)

Mmm... ok, sure enough is one of the most complete in Earth Sciences. Let's keep it in category 1, this is correct with respect to the average of the workgroup, though see above: we need text about fossilization in marine environments. Compliments to the author(s): this is the first developed article of this workgroup! --Nereo Preto 06:59, 6 October 2007 (CDT)

endocranial cast

the illustration shows an endocranial cast of a. africanus. ; the text in the paragraph next to talks about casts as being external. this needs to be clarified. (And unless am mistaken, isn't "cast' used also for one prepared in the museum from a specimen to make a copy of it? )

Towards Approval

I see that this article is certainly close to approval. Is there an Earth Sciences or Anthropology editor that can take a look and let Natasha know if there is anything else needed. Otherwise, Natasha, your next step is to contact the editors of these workgroups and see if someone is ready to nominate this article for approval. Good luck, let me know if I can help with the mechanics of how to do nominate this article. --Matt Innis (Talk) 19:35, 28 October 2007 (CDT)/constable

As a side note, this is a student project article, so time is critical. Also note that Professor Berger is teaching a collaborative process and wants Citizendium authors and editors to go ahead and make any appropriate changes on the article they feel are necessary (content or style), so jump in wherever. Treat this just like any other article on Citizendium. --Matt Innis (Talk) 19:43, 28 October 2007 (CDT)

I started going through the article. The first thing I note is we have a summary here, which is great. I suggest to move it to the top (see my edit), it gives the reader motivation to continue and makes the function of the abstract of scientific papers. Not sure my layout is the best possible, though...

Second point is also about easy-reading. Where the steps to fossilization are listed (overview chapter), it would be GREAT to have a small table giving the names of these steps (i.e., death, deposition, biostratinomic processes and so on) and, in a second column, a brief definition (copy-and-pasted from main text?).

Further comments as I'll read more carefully. Great job so far, hope we can really approve! --Nereo Preto 09:07, 5 November 2007 (CST)