FOSSIL SCIENCE
Fossils; what they are
The fate of most organic substances produced by living systems
is to decompose at the end of their lives and transform to CO 2 and H2O and
subsequently be recycled into the biosphere (environment). The flow of
elements through biogeochemical cycles show that decomposition is indeed
efficient but the presence of organic materials such as coal, petroleum,
dispersed organic matter and fossils in sedimentary rocks suggests that some
organic matter or their traces escape these cycles to be preserved in the rock
record.
Paleontology relies on these preserved materials, aka fossils as evidence
of past life. Paleontologists learn about how life existed on earth thousands of
(millennia) years ago by excavating fossils that are buried deep in the ground
and studying them. Fossils form either as a result of cataclysmic events or
through the organism's natural life and death cycle. Studying these (fossils)
along with other types of fossils present evidence about the organisms and the
conditions in which they lived.
In the early history of modern paleontology, fossils were believed to consist of
stationary parts of the rock record. This promoted their description and
classification as the main activities of scientific paleontologists. However,
renaissance in emphasis to recognize fossils as "once living organisms"
accorded paleontology a more biological flair and more importantly, unlocked a
new world of research questions. Today, well trained paleontologists possess
extensive backgrounds and are equipped with the necessary skills in both
geological and biological sciences.
The word, fossil derived from the French and Latin words: fossile and
fossilis meaning; “dug up” and “dig” respectively can be defined as the remains
of an animal or plant preserved from an earlier era inside a rock or other
geologic deposits, often as an impression or in a petrified state. In simple terms,
it is a preserved remains/relics, impression or trace of an organism (animal or
plant) that lived in a past geological age. The totality of fossils is known
as fossil record and is generated from the investigations of bones, shells, teeth,
exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes as well as objects preserved
in amber, hair, petrified wood, oil, coal and DNA remnants.
Fossils vary in size from one-micron (1 µm) observed for
bacteria to lengths of metres, weighing many tonnes as in dinosaurs and trees. A
fossil normally preserves only a portion of the dead organism, usually the
portion that was partially mineralized during life such as the bones and teeth
of vertebrates or the chitinous/calcareous exoskeleton of invertebrates. Fossils
may also consist of marks left behind by the organism while it lived, such
as animal tracks or faeces (coprolites). A fossil layer can also include artifacts
from ancient cultures such as tools or pottery.
Paleontology is the scientific study of ancient life through the use of
fossil evidence, age of fossil as well as the method of formation
and evolutionary consequences. Specimens/samples are adjudged to be fossils if
they are over 10,000 years old. The age of the oldest fossil range between
3.48 and 4.1 billion years. The idea of a geological timescale and the relative
ages of different fossils became accredited following the 19 th century
observation of the association between some fossils and certain rock strata. The
development of radiometric dating techniques in the 20th century facilitated the
quantitative measurement of the absolute ages of rocks and the fossils in them
by scientists.
Fossilization Processes
Organisms become fossilized in a variety of ways. Each fossilization
process and preservation mode reveal distinct information about the once living
organism. Understanding of fossilization processes and the influences of
different modes of preservation on a fossil producing organism helps to
appreciate the resultant fossil.
Taphonomy is the branch of paleontology that studies how organisms
or their parts develop into fossils or become fossilized. Literally, it is everything
that happens to an organism or it’s part or member from the moment of death or
shedding until it is collected and curated for scientific study. While some
fossils consist of skeletal remains or teeth alone, others contain traces
of skin, feathers or even soft tissues. Illustrated below are some of the many
taphonomic pathways or routes an organism may take from its living
community to the museum drawer.
Schematic chart of some of the many possible fates of organisms and their parts as they enter the fossil
record
Types of Fossils
1. Index Fossils
Index fossils, aka guide, indicator or zone fossils are fossils used to
define and identify geologic periods or faunal stages. They work on the premise
that individual sediments which appear different due to the conditions of their
deposition may actually contain the remains of the same species of fossil.
2. Transitional Fossils
A transitional fossil is a fossil that exhibits traits which are common to
both an ancestor and its derived descendant group. It is especially important
where there are sharp differences in anatomy and mode of living between
ancestral and descendant groups.
3. Microfossils
Microfossil is a descriptive term for a fossil whose size is just at or
below a level at which it can be analyzed by the naked eye. A commonly
applied limit between "micro" and "macro" fossils is 1 mm. Microfossils may
either be complete or near complete organisms in themselves like the marine
plankters or component parts such as the teeth or spores of larger or vertebrate
animals or plants respectively.
4. Fossil Resin
Fossil resin, traditionally called amber is a natural polymer found in
many types of strata across the world and even the arctic. The excretion of the
resin by certain plants is thought to be an evolutionary adaptation for protection
from insects and to seal wounds. Fossil resins often contain other fossils called
‘inclusions’ that were captured by the sticky resin. These include bacteria,
fungi, plants and animals, with the later usually consisting of small invertebrates
and mostly arthropods like insects and spiders and very rarely a vertebrate like a
small lizard.
Amber: - a nature’s macromolecule. From fossilized tree resins (terpene+others)
under high pressure and millions of years. As amber matures over the years,
more polymerization takes place as well as isomerization reactions, crosslinking
and cyclization.
5. Derived Fossil
A derived, reworked or remanié fossil is one found in a rock that
accumulated a long time after the death of the fossilized organism. Reworked
fossils are created through the process of erosion exhuming (unearthing or
freeing) fossils from the rock formation where they originally deposited and
their re-deposition in a younger sedimentary deposit.
6. Wood Fossils
Fossil wood is wood that is preserved in the fossil record. Wood is
usually the best part of a plant to preserve and most easily found. Fossil wood
may or may not be petrifying. When a fossil wood is the only part of the plant
that has been preserved, such a wood may get a special kind of botanical name
that normally includes ‘xylon’ and a term that specifies its presumed affinity.
For example, Araucario-xylon would mean wood of Araucaria or some related
genus while Palmo-xylon would suggest wood of an indeterminate palm.
7. Subfossil
Sub-fossils are used to refer to remains like the bones, nests or
defecations whose fossilization process is incomplete, either because the animal
involved had died recently (the animal ceased to live less than 10,000 years ago)
or because the conditions in which the remains were buried were not optimal for
fossilization. Frequently found in caves or other shelters, subfossils are useful
for studying the evolutionary history of an environment and important in studies
about paleoclimatology. They are also found in deposition prone environments
like soil, lakes and oceanic sediments. Once deposited, physical and
chemical weathering can alter the preservation state of a subfossil.
8. Chemical Fossils
Chemical fossils or chemofossils are chemicals found in rocks and
fossil fuels (petroleum, coal and natural gas) which provide an organic signature
for ancient life. Molecular fossils and isotope ratios represent two types of
chemical fossils.
8.1. Isotope ratios
The oldest traces of life on Earth are fossils of this type, including carbon
isotope anomalies found in Zircons that imply the existence of life as early as
4.1 billion years ago. There are also biochemical fossils, which are called
biosignatures.
8.2. Molecular Fossils
Molecular fossils are molecules that survive in the geologic
record albeit without traces of the organism that left them. Examples include the
biochemical breakdown products of chlorophyll, flavonoids, collagen, DNA,
lipids and proteins. With advances in the knowledge of the phytochemistry and
chemistry of modern plants and animals, palaeontologists examine the fossil
record for corresponding chemical data.
For instance, characteristic breakdown products of chlorophylls and lignins
have been found in preserved fossil leaves. Lipids and their derivatives have
also been recovered from sediments. Some carbohydrate breakdown products
are also thought to survive in sediments. A special class of these, oleananes are
synthesized by flowering plants, some ferns and lichens. An increase in the
abundance of oleananes in sediments of mid to Late Cretaceous age has been
used to document the increasing abundance of flowering plants during this
interval. Molecular fossils are recovered and studied using chromatography,
mass spectrometry and other spectrophotometric techniques.
9. Trace Fossils
Trace fossils are also called ichnofossils and are any sign or
indication that an organism had been present other than its actual body or body
parts. They are fossils that contain evidence about the existence or reality of an
organism where its body is missing. Trace fossils may be burrows, footprints,
casts of roots in soil, the soil itself, trails, bite marks, borings etc. They are
particularly interesting because they not only represent an unlimited data source
for animals with easily fossilized hard parts, but they offer insights about the
behaviour of animals to paleontologists. E.g., the first suggestion that some
dinosaurs may have lived in family groups or herds and migrated came from
track ways in which many footprints of the same species travelled in the same
direction. Trace fossils suggest who may have preyed upon whom, in what
densities some invertebrates lived and in some extraordinary cases, captured
moments in the Earth’s past.
In one particularly compelling example from the Triassic, a small, bipedal
dinosaur approached a larger, lizard−like quadruped (tetrapod, four-footed
animal) from the rear on a muddy river bank. The dinosaur circled the
quadruped who apparently paused, swished or rustled its tail and bobbed its
head (marks of both head and tail are clearly visible on the shale rock). The
dinosaur then trotted off. While fascinating/convincing for the stories they tell,
trace fossils can also be frustrating because the identity of the maker is often
unclear. For instance, a coelom is required for a multi-cellular animal to burrow
through sediment. In the latest Precambrian, trace fossil evidence for such
burrowing appeared first but gives no idea of the identity of these first coelom
bearing burrowers. The dates of many trace fossils are significantly earlier than
the body fossils of animals that are thought to have been capable of making
them. Whilst exact assignment of trace fossils to their makers is generally
impossible, traces may for example provide the earliest physical evidence of the
appearance of moderately complex animals (comparable to earthworms).
Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils as they give
evidence of the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology.
Trace fossils were first described by William Buckland in 1829, before they
became known as "fossil fir cones" and "bezoarstones." They serve a valuable
purpose in paleontology because they provide direct evidence of the predation
and diet of extinct organisms. Coprolites may range in size from a few
millimetres to over 60 centimetres.
Each fossil type carries different types of anatomical and biological
information. Consequently, to piece together the most complete picture of an
ancient organism, paleontologists hope for the same organism to be preserved in
several different styles. Fossil preservation takes place at many levels including
microstructural or cellular, tissue, organ, organism and environmental level.
