Fossils Store A Wealth Of Information

by Ashley Luse, age 12

You can learn a lot from a dinosaur fossil. For instance, you can learn how old the living creature was before it died and became a fossil. You can even learn where a creature lived and what it ate based on its fossilized remains.

Fossils take millions of years to fossilize. Most fossils form in seas, lakes or rivers, where sand and mad can easily cover and begin to preserve the object. Before a fossil of a creature is formed, its soft parts must first rot away. The remaining shell becomes buried in mud. This mud turns into rock, which also turns the shell into rock, thus forming a fossil.

Materials that decompose slowly are most likely to become fossils. Body parts such as bones, teeth, horns, claws, and shells are the slowest decomposing parts of a creature. Plant materials can even decompose slowly. These materials include bark, seeds and cones.

Although most fossils come from the body parts of a creature, there are also some that come from the signs, traces or remains that they left while alive. These include nests, tunnels, eggshells, footprints, and claw and teeth marks on food.

Even fossilized dinosaur droppings have been discovered. They have broken bits of food inside, revealing what the dinosaur ate. These fossilized dinosaur droppings have helped scientists to learn more about what dinosaurs consumed.

Scientists are continuously discovering new information from fossils. With this information, they can learn many interesting facts about various creatures that roamed the Earth millions of years ago.

[Source: 11 Things You Should Know About Dinosaurs ]

Very interesting Ashley! – Taylor , UW-Madison (2014-06-17 21:06)
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