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Definition: FOSSIL from A Dictionary of Entomology

Noun. (Latin fossilis = dug out, dug up. PL, Fossils.) Any traces, impressions, animals or plants that are preserved in Earth’s crust. Study of process of fossilization called Taphonomy. Fossils not limited to material preserved in stony form. Most fossils preserved in rock or amber. Fossils constitute one line of evidence used in establishing classifications. See Compression Fossil; Facies Fossil. Rel. Amber; Classification; Resins.

fossil

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
remains or imprints of plants or animals preserved from prehistoric times by the operation of natural conditions. Fossils are found in sedimentary rock, asphalt deposits, and coal and sometimes in amber and certain other materials. The scientific study of fossils is paleontology . Not until c.1800 were fossils generally recognized as the remains of living things of the past and accepted as an invaluable record of the earth's history. Conditions conducive to the formation of fossils include quick burial in moist sediment or other material that tends to prevent weathering and to exclude oxygen and bacteria, thereby preventing decay. Shells and bones embedded in sediment in past geologic time, under conditions suitable for preservation, left exact reproductions of both external and internal structures. Skeletal remains have been preserved as a result of the engulfment of an animal's body in ancient asphalt pits, bogs, and quicksand. At Rancho La Brea, near Los Angeles, Calif., asphalt…
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Full text Article fossil

From Philip's Encyclopedia
Animal fossils are not only made from their bones...
Remnant of an organism more than 10,000 years old. Fossils document evolution and enable geologic dating. The original structures, such as bones, shells, or wood, are often altered through mineralization or preserved as casts, Imprints, such as tracks and footprints are also found. Leaves are often…
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Full text Article fossil

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
remains or imprints of plants or animals preserved from prehistoric times by the operation of natural conditions. Fossils are found in sedimentary rock, asphalt deposits, and coal and sometimes in amber and certain other materials. The scientific study of fossils is paleontology . Not until c.1800…
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Full text Article FOSSIL

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
Every little fossil has a meaning all its own – Meaning that is clear to me, yes, clear to me alone; For every species or variation I have found in its own formation – Will assist my determination Of the stratigraphic zone. More or Less The Pick and Hammer Club, November 17-18, 1950 (p. 10…
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Full text Article fossil

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Cast, impression, or the actual remains of an animal or plant preserved in rock. Dead animals and plant remains that fell to the bottom of the sea bed or an inland lake were gradually buried under the accumulation of layers of sediment. Over millions of years, the sediment became sedimentary rock…
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Full text Article fossil

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Remnant, impression, or trace of an animal or plant of a past geologic age that has been preserved in the Earth’s crust . The data recorded in fossils, known as the fossil record, constitute the primary source of information about the history of life on the Earth. Only a small fraction of ancient…
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Full text Article fossil

From Science Encyclopedia: Encyclopedia of Marine Science
A fossil is any remains, impression, or trace of a living organism from some past geologic age, such as a skeleton, footprint, or insect preserved in amber. Fossils are made, while remains are said to be fossilized, a process by which mineral substances by means of chemical reactions replace the…
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Full text Article fossil

From Penguin Dictionary of Biology
Remains of an organism, or direct evidence of its presence, preserved in rock, ice, amber, tar, peat or volcanic ash. Animal hard parts (hard skeletons) commonly undergo mineralization , a process which also turns sediment into hard rock (both regarded as diagenesis). The aragonite (a form of CaCO 3…
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Full text Article Fossils Introduction

From Guide to Minerals, Rocks and Fossils
Fossils are the remains of animals or plants that are preserved in the rocks. It is very unusual for complete organisms to be preserved and fossils usually represent the harder parts of organisms, since these are the most resistant to decay and erosion. Most fossils therefore consist of the bones, …
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Full text Article The Fossil Record

From The Princeton Guide to Evolution
Plate 1. The 2009 geologic timescale accepted by...
The fossil record documents the history of life over the course of the past 3.5 billion years, demonstrates that evolution has occurred, and provides otherwise inaccessible insights into the evolutionary process. This chapter outlines briefly how the fossil record has been formed, and explores the…
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Full text Article Fossil Record

From Encyclopedia of Insects
Various kinds of fossil insects, modes of...
Insects are the most evolutionarily successful group of organisms in the 4-billion-year history of life on earth, with perhaps 5 million species alive today and untold millions of extinct species. Although fossils of insects are not as abundant as has been found for some other types of organisms, …
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