Why Are Fossils Important

The Importance of Fossils Remember when you were a little kid and you thought that dinosaur bones were the coolest things ever? Well I can definitely agree to that, but that’s not what I’m here for. I’m here to tell you that there is so much more to fossils than cool dinosaur bones. Throughout this paper I will be delving into the various aspects of what fossils are, how they are formed, and most importantly, the impact they have on our knowledge of the past. In order to determine the importance of fossils we must first take a look at what a fossil actually is. When you think of a fossil, the first thing that comes to mind is probably dinosaur bones. While they are fossils, they are actually a type of fossil named body fossils. The different types of fossils are body fossils, mold fossils, cast fossils, and trace fossils. Body fossils consist of, well, the preserved bodies of …show more content…
Fossils are really just the remains of dead organisms that defied nature. We can usually find them in rocks or limestones as they are a good way of preserving the organisms, in fact if you look at the old capitol, you can see many different fossils of sea shells. It is nature’s way for bacteria, fungi, scavengers, and chemical dissolution to break down the remains of organisms (“Significance of Fossils”). Usually the only parts that remain to become fossilized are the hard parts of organisms. Because of the way nature takes its toll on the soft parts of organisms, it is very rare to find fossilized soft bodied organisms. However, there are exceptions to the laws of nature. Soft bodied organisms or the whole body of any organism can be completely preserved but their occurrences are very rare. Generally, this type of thing happens when the body is quickly preserved in an anoxic environment. The bodies can be preserved by avalanches, floods, landslides anoxic bogs, or liquids that harden like