WGS 1001 Final: Study Guide Final (94 in class).docx
11 Dec 2014
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Fossil- remnant or trace of past life; naturally preserved in earth"s crust. Trace fossil- gastroliths (gizzard stones), coprolites (fossil dung), eggs and nests, tracks, gnaw marks. Soft parts: freezing, pickling (salt, oil, tar), mummification, distillation. Hard parts: permineraliztion, recrystallization and replacement, casts and molds. Yes, sexually dimorphic features can be preserved in the fossil record. They can be preserved in any aged fossil. Be able to explain biases of the fossil record. Animals with hard parts and animals living on floodplains have higher chances of fossilization than those without hard parts or those living in mountains. Taphonomy- science of the laws of burial; what happens from death to discovery . Biases exist towards hard parts and animals with hard parts. Transport- sorting (river can sort bones, displacing them) Burial- upland animals are less likely to be fossilized than lowland animals. We can"t transport everything back, so we take the biggest and most impressive fossils.
