Fossil Vocabulary

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Fossilization

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When organic material is replaced with mineral substances and thus fossilized.

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Amber

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hard translucent fossilized resin produced by extinct coniferous trees of the Tertiary period, typically yellowish in color.

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Igneous Inclusions

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Inclusion rocks where lava has fallen in cracks and cooled into rocks.

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Canonization

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Formation of carbon from organic matter

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Replacement Fossilization

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When organic matter is replaced by rocks

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Lithification

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the process or processes by which unconsolidated materials are converted into coherent solid rock, as by compaction or cementation.

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Petrifaction

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In geology, petrifaction or petrification is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals.

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Remineralization

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the breakdown or transformation of organic matter (those molecules derived from a biological source) into its simplest inorganic forms.

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Tectonic Activity

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When the tectonic plates of the Earth's crush move around

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Zoolith

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Another name for zoolite: paleontology on a fossilized animal

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Ichnofossil

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Preserved products of an ancient animal such as tracks, burrows, footprints, and feces

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Microfossil

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a fossil or fossil fragment that can be seen only with a microscope.

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Scolecodont

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A scolecodont is the jaw of a polychaete annelid, a common type of fossil-producing segmented worm useful in invertebrate paleontology. Scolecodonts are common and diverse microfossils, which range from the Cambrian period to the present.

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Mold

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the upper soil of cultivated land, especially when rich in organic matter.

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Gastroliths

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When an animal swallows a rock to aid digestion

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Cast

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A product made from a mold

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Boring and Burrows

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When animals make tubes in the ground for living and breeding.

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Coprolites

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Fossilized fecal matter

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Anatomical Features

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A branch of morphology that studies the structures of creatures

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Transitional Fossil

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Any fossilized remains of a life form that exhibits traits common to both an ancestral group and its derived descendant group

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Concentric

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Having a common center, as circles or spheres

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Fossil Beds

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Remains or imprint of an organism from a previous geological time

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Archaeopteryx

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Transitional fossil between dinosaurs and modern birds

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Paleontology

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The branch of science that studies fossils

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Organism

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A living thing made up of one or more cells.