EARTH 7 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Depositional Environment, Lithification, Permineralization
Document Summary
Igneous rocks primary rock type, directly form from melt/liquid/hot earth material, cannot form fossils because a lot of magma (except for organic ash). Sediments often bury organisms and preserve their remains. As sediments become rock, there remains become fossils. We can often determine the relative ages of these rocks. How fossils form: death, decay (less decay makes for better fossils, most remains decay before they become a good fossil. Fossils can form either way, but of both: lithification=turning into rock, erosion and exposure (older fossils are deep in the rock) Types of fossils: body fossil-part of organisms e. g. bone leaf trace fossils-evidence of activity e. g. trackways (footprints), feces (coprolites=fossilized feces), eggs/nests, burrows. Where to look for dinosaur fossils the right type of rock sedimentary: areas with good exposure (the tropics are bad examples) the right paleoenvironment (paleoenvironment is the environment in which the remains were buried.
