21.4.2: Fossil Formation

Fossils can form under ideal conditions by preservation, permineralization, molding (casting), replacement, or compression.

Learning Objectives

• Predict the conditions suitable to fossil formation

Key Points

• Preservation of remains in amber or other substances is the rarest from of fossilization; this mechanism allows scientists to study the skin, hair, and organs of ancient creatures.
• Permineralization, where minerals like silica fill the empty spaces of shells, is the most common form of fossilization.
• Molds form when shells or bones dissolve, leaving behind an empty depression; a cast is then formed when the depression is filled by sediment.
• Replacement occurs when the original shell or bone dissolves away and is replaced by a different mineral; when this occurs with permineralization, it is called petrification.
• In compression, the most common form of fossilization of leaves and ferns, a dark imprint of the fossil remains.
• Decay, chemical weathering, erosion, and predators are factors that deter fossilization.
• Fossilization of soft body parts is rare, and hard parts are better preserved when buried.

Key Terms

• amber: a hard, generally yellow to brown translucent fossil resin
• permineralization: form of fossilization in which minerals are deposited in the pores of bone and similar hard animal parts
• petrification: process by which organic material is converted into stone through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals

Fossil Formation

The process of a once living organism becoming a fossil is called fossilization. Fossilization is a very rare process, and of all the organisms that have lived on Earth, only a tiny percentage of them ever become fossils. To see why, imagine an antelope that dies on the African plain. Most of its body is quickly eaten by scavengers, and the remaining flesh is soon eaten by insects and bacteria, leaving behind only scattered bones. As the years go by, the bones are scattered and fragmented into small pieces, eventually turning into dust and returning their nutrients to the soil. As a result, it would be rare for any of the antelope’s remains to actually be preserved as a fossil.

Fossilization can occur in many ways. Most fossils are preserved in one of five processes:

• preserved remains
• permineralization
• molds and casts
• replacement
• compression

Preserved Remains

The rarest form of fossilization is the preservation of original skeletal material and even soft tissue. For example, some insects have been preserved perfectly in amber, which is ancient tree sap. In addition, several mammoths and even a Neanderthal hunter have been discovered frozen in glaciers. These preserved remains allow scientists the rare opportunity to examine the skin, hair, and organs of ancient creatures. Scientists have collected DNA from these remains and compared the DNA sequences to those of modern creatures.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Amber: The image depicts a gnat preserved in amber. A lot of insects have been found to be perfectly maintained in this ancient tree sap.

Permineralization

The most common method of fossilization is permineralization. After a bone, wood fragment, or shell is buried in sediment, it may be exposed to mineral-rich water that moves through the sediment. This water will deposit minerals, typically silica, into empty spaces, producing a fossil. Fossilized dinosaur bones, petrified wood, and many marine fossils were formed by permineralization.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Permineralization: These fossils from the Road Canyon Formation (Middle Permian of Texas) have been silicified (replaced with silica), which is a form of permineralization.

Molds and Casts

In some cases, the original bone or shell dissolves away, leaving behind an empty space in the shape of the shell or bone. This depression is called a mold. Later, the space may be filled with other sediments to form a matching cast in the shape of the original organism. Many mollusks (bivalves, snails, and squid) are commonly found as molds and casts because their shells dissolve easily.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Molds: The depression in the image is an external mold of a bivalve from the Logan Formation, Lower Carboniferous, Ohio

Replacement

In some cases, the original shell or bone dissolves away and is replaced by a different mineral. For example, shells that were originally calcite may be replaced by dolomite, quartz, or pyrite. If quartz fossils are surrounded by a calcite matrix, the calcite can be dissolved away by acid, leaving behind an exquisitely preserved quartz fossil. When permineralization and replacement occur together, the organism is said to have undergone petrification, the process of turning organic material into stone. However, replacement can occur without permineralization and vice versa.

Compression

Some fossils form when their remains are compressed by high pressure. This can leave behind a dark imprint of the fossil. Compression is most common for fossils of leaves and ferns but also can occur with other organisms.

Conditions for Fossilization

Following the death of an organism, several forces contribute to the dissolution of its remains. Decay, predators, or scavengers will typically rapidly remove the flesh. The hard parts, if they are separable at all, can be dispersed by predators, scavengers, or currents. The individual hard parts are subject to chemical weathering and erosion, as well as to splintering by predators or scavengers, which will crunch up bones for marrow and shells to extract the flesh inside. Also, an animal swallowed whole by a predator, such as a mouse swallowed by a snake, will have not just its flesh but some, and perhaps all, its bones destroyed by the gastric juices of the predator.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the typical vertebrate fossil consists of a single bone, or tooth, or fish scale. The preservation of an intact skeleton with the bones in the relative positions they had in life requires a remarkable circumstances, such as burial in volcanic ash, burial in aeolian sand due to the sudden slumping of a sand dune, burial in a mudslide, burial by a turbidity current, and so forth. The mineralization of soft parts is even less common and is seen only in exceptionally rare chemical and biological conditions.