Fossilization (palaeontology): Difference between revisions
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Fossilization is the process which creates a fossil. The word ‘fossil’ is derived from the Latin fossilis, something dug up.<ref name="MacRae" | Fossilization is the process which creates a fossil. The word ‘fossil’ is derived from the Latin fossilis, something dug up.<ref name="MacRae">MacRae, C.S. 1999. Life Etched in Stone: Fossils of South Africa. The Geological Society of South Africa, Johannesburg.</ref> | ||
During the Middle Ages, the term ‘fossil’ was used for any sample recovered from the Earth, including rocks and minerals.<ref name="MacRae">.</ref> | During the Middle Ages, the term ‘fossil’ was used for any sample recovered from the Earth, including rocks and minerals.<ref name="MacRae">.</ref> | ||
Today, fossils are recognised as a record of ancient life. They can be actual remnants of an organism, or evidence of their behaviour.<ref name="MacRae">.</ref> | |||
Fossilization is not a process that only occurred millions of years ago. It has also occurred in the recent past, simply because the same geological processes that happened in the past are also taking place now. This is called the Principle of Uniformitarianism.<ref name="McCarthy & Rubidge">McCarthy, T. & Rubidge, B. 2005. The Story of Earth and Life: A southern African perspective on a 4.6-billion-year journey. Struik Publishers, Cape Town.</ref> | |||
Anna Behrensmeyer reported bones in all stages of fossilization, from organic to completely mineralised, in the Amboseli Basin of East Africa.<ref name="Behrensmeyer et al.">Behrensmeyer, A.K. 1991. Vertebrate Paleoecology in a Recent East African Ecosystem. In: Gray, J., Boucot, A.J. & Berry, W.B.N. (eds.), Communities of the Past, Stroudsburg: Hutchinson Ross Publishing Co.</ref> | |||
Bones are dated from the Holocene to the Pleistocene, negating the claim made by some that no instances of fossilization are apparent today. | |||
“Post-mortem modification is a virtually unavoidable fact of fossilization” .<ref name="Allison & Briggs">Allison, P.A. & Briggs, D.E.G. 1991. Taphonomy: Releasing the Data Locked in the Fossil Record. Plenum Press, New York.</ref> | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
===Citations=== | ===Citations=== | ||
<references /> | <references /> | ||
Revision as of 11:32, 24 September 2007
Fossilization is the process which creates a fossil. The word ‘fossil’ is derived from the Latin fossilis, something dug up.[1] During the Middle Ages, the term ‘fossil’ was used for any sample recovered from the Earth, including rocks and minerals.[1] Today, fossils are recognised as a record of ancient life. They can be actual remnants of an organism, or evidence of their behaviour.[1]
Fossilization is not a process that only occurred millions of years ago. It has also occurred in the recent past, simply because the same geological processes that happened in the past are also taking place now. This is called the Principle of Uniformitarianism.[2] Anna Behrensmeyer reported bones in all stages of fossilization, from organic to completely mineralised, in the Amboseli Basin of East Africa.[3] Bones are dated from the Holocene to the Pleistocene, negating the claim made by some that no instances of fossilization are apparent today.
“Post-mortem modification is a virtually unavoidable fact of fossilization” .[4]
References
Citations
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 MacRae, C.S. 1999. Life Etched in Stone: Fossils of South Africa. The Geological Society of South Africa, Johannesburg. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "MacRae" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid<ref>tag; name "MacRae" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ McCarthy, T. & Rubidge, B. 2005. The Story of Earth and Life: A southern African perspective on a 4.6-billion-year journey. Struik Publishers, Cape Town.
- ↑ Behrensmeyer, A.K. 1991. Vertebrate Paleoecology in a Recent East African Ecosystem. In: Gray, J., Boucot, A.J. & Berry, W.B.N. (eds.), Communities of the Past, Stroudsburg: Hutchinson Ross Publishing Co.
- ↑ Allison, P.A. & Briggs, D.E.G. 1991. Taphonomy: Releasing the Data Locked in the Fossil Record. Plenum Press, New York.