• Question: How do fossils form?

    Asked by Jessica109 to Maria on 12 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Maria McNamara

      Maria McNamara answered on 12 Nov 2019:

      Short answer: Creature dies, gets transported, laid down on the seafloor / a lake floor / river bed, is covered by sediment, sediment is buried and lithified (turned into rock), brought back to the Earth’s surface.

      In reality there are lots of different ways in which each of these steps can happen, so there are lots of ways of becoming a fossil. All of these, however, require:
      (1) decay to be stopped before completion
      (2) the remaining body parts to be made non-reactive
      (3) the rocks to not be buried too deep
      (4) the rocks to be brought back to the Earth’s surface.

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