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Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

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Fossils - Digging into Minnesota Minerals: Minnesota DNR

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An article on fossils and collecting fossils in Minnesota from the publication, Digging Into Minnesota's Minerals. This educational publication is produced by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Division of Lands and Minerals and is meant for el

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When you hear the word fossil, you probably think of dinosaur bones, but the term fossil encompasses many types of once-living organisms. Knowing more about fossils and how they form is an important part of natural history.

What Are Fossils?

Fossils are the preserved remains, or traces, of animals or plants that were once living. There are two main types of fossils, body fossils and trace fossils. Body fossils are the remains of plants or animals that were once living. The most common examples are dinosaur bones. Trace fossils are signs of once-living organisms such as a footprint.

How Do Fossils Form?

Fossils form in a variety of ways.

Mold and Cast Fossils (Stone Fossils)

The majority of fossils are formed by a method called mold and cast. Mold and cast fossils are formed in the following manner:

1. An animal, such as a dinosaur, dies and falls to the bottom of a riverbed.

2. The flesh of the animal rots away or is eaten by smaller creatures, leaving only the bones (skeleton) behind.

3. Mud and sand (sediment) cover the skeleton.

4. Over many years, layers of soft mud and sand are pressed into hard rock.

5. The bones slowly wash away by little trickles of ground water, leaving open spaces (natural molds) in the exact shape of the old dinosaur bones.

6. After millions of years, tiny pieces of rock flowing in ground water fill the mold.

7. Over time, the entire skeleton mold becomes solid rock.

8. The rock surrounding the skeleton eventually rises to Earth's surface during earthquakes or the natural rising of mountains.

9. Top rock layers wear away by rain and wind, revealing the fossils.

10. Or, paleontologists (scientists who study fossils) dig deep down into Earth's surface to find these fossils.

The following video animates the process:

Whole Animal Fossils

Paleontologists have also found whole animal fossils. Animals like woolly mammoths can get trapped in ice for thousands of years. When this occurs, the whole animal is preserved and changes very little by the time paleontologists find it. Insects can get stuck in tree sap, which hardens to form a material called amber. When this happens, insects found in amber millions of years later look just like they did when they first entered the tree sap.

Petrified Wood

Petrified wood is wood that has turned to stone. The process of petrifaction isn't entirely understood, according to Northern State University. However, it likely occurs when oxygen is absent when plants typically decay after dying. These plants are then buried by sediments in water such as riverbeds. Minerals from the water get into openings in the wood, which preserves the wood's tissues (or replaces woody tissue) to form fossils over millions of years.

How Long Do Fossils Take to Form?

Many times, fossils form over periods of millions of years. This is often the case with mold and cast stone fossils, insects stuck in amber, and petrified wood. However, whole-animal fossils frozen in ice form as soon as the water around the animal is completely frozen. Frozen fossils might be found within hundreds or thousands of years, depending on when paleontologists discover them.

Where and How Fossils Are Discovered?

Fossils are found in a variety of places. Generally, they are discovered after they rise to the Earth's surface and are exposed due to wind, earthquakes, and rain. Sometimes they are found by paleontologists who are looking for them.

Near Water

Fossils generally can be found near sedimentary rocks, which are rocks formed in swamps, rivers, lakes, and oceans when clay, silt, mud, and sand harden over millions of years. So, many fossils are found near bodies of water or spaces water bodies used to occupy. For example, the first dinosaur fossil discovery in North America was in 1854 when Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden explored the Missouri River, according to the University of California Museum of Paleontology.

In Ice

Palomar College says whole wooly mammoths from the ice age were found in Siberia's tundra, and the oldest human remains were discovered frozen in the Alps in Italy in 1991.

In Forests

Forests are places you may find insects fossilized in tree sap or petrified wood. For example, in 2007 in Mexico, a miner found a tree frog preserved in amber that may be 25 million years old. And in 2014, archaeologists discovered an ancient village in Petrified Forest National Park dating back 1,300 years; artifacts found include those made from petrified wood (spears, knives, and stone tools).

Discover the Past

Learning about fossils is fun and interesting, especially when you can find real life fossils near your home or while traveling. Fossils show what animals used to look like, where they lived, and why they may have become extinct (died off).

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Explaining Fossils for Kids | LoveToKnow

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When you hear the word fossil, you probably think of dinosaur bones, but the term fossil encompasses many types of once-living organisms. Knowing more about fossils and how they form is an important part of natural history. Fossils are the preserved remains, or traces, of animals or plants that were once living.

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A history of research into Georgia's fossils

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The Cenozoic: Sea level fluctuated during the early part of the Cenozoic (Tertiary), but much of the southern half of the state still consisted of coastal and shallow marine environments. Erosion of the Appalachian Mountains to the north supplied mud and sand to the shallow sea.

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Georgia Rocks - by the authors of Roadside Geology of Georgia

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co-author Dr. Bill Witherspoon of Fernbank Science Center (FSC), during more than 15 years of working with students in DeKalb County Schools. These lessons have been presented at meetings of the National Science Teachers Association, the Georgia Science Teachers Association, and/or the Geological Society of America, and are posted here by request.

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The Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals of GA

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The Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals of GA

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The Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals of Georgia

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A list of the most notable dinosaurs and prehistoric animals discovered in the state of Georgia, including Deinosuchus, Georgiacetus, Megalodon, and more.

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Kids Dinosaurs

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Educational Games, Worksheets, and More for Kids

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An Educational platform for parents and teachers of pre-k through 7th grade kids. Support your kids learning journey with games, worksheets and more that help children practice key skills. Download, print & watch your kids learn today!

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How Stuff Works

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Imagine the scene of a crime that happened years ago. There's not much to go on -- a few bones, an exposed rock face and a couple of bullets. But to a crime-scene investigator, these clues tell a story. The size and shape of the bones reveal whether the victim was a man or a woman. Chipped bones indicate the bullet's point of entry. A gouge on the rock face traces the path of a bullet that missed its target.

You can think about fossils in much the same way. They tell a story, just like the clues at the scene of a crime. It may seem odd to imagine Earth as a giant crime scene, but in a way, that's exactly what paleontologists are doing when they search for and study fossils. First, researchers are looking for evidence, much like crime-scene investigators do. Second, paleontologists and forensics experts alike study this evidence to answer, in one way or another, one basic question: What happened?

This question has a lot of angles. One of the most obvious -- what happened to the dinosaurs -- is really one of the smallest. By studying fossils, you can explore questions like:

What were the first life forms on our planet?

Where did these life forms come from? What happened to them?

How has life on Earth changed over time?

How has the Earth's climate changed over time?

Where have new species of plants and animals come from, and how do they relate to species that died out?

These questions are complex, and to a lot of people, they're extremely important. They attempt to address the history of our planet, including where life came from and how it developed or evolved. Because they provide a physical record of life on Earth, fossils are a great source of insight when studying questions like these.

But fossils don't tell the whole story. They usually preserve only part of an organism -- the part that was hard and sturdy to begin with. There are also trace fossils, which preserve evidence that an organism existed, like tooth marks or footprints, but don't preserve the organism itself. Fossils also form only in very specific conditions, regardless of whether they're petrified, carbonized, mummified, frozen or encased in a substance like tar or amber. For this reason, only a fraction of the organisms that have existed on Earth appear in the fossil record, or the combined total of the fossils discovered on Earth and the information learned from them. On top of that, there are gaps in the fossil record, although the ongoing discovery of new fossils and fossil beds that may one day fill these gaps.

To understand all this, you need to know a little about geology, decomposition and the fossilization process itself. In this article, we'll explore each of these, and we'll delve into exactly what goes on at a fossil dig. We'll start with a look at two of the processes that are central to fossil formation -- building up the Earth's layers and breaking down its waste.

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Imagine the scene of a crime that happened years ago. There's not much to go on -- a few bones, an ex­posed rock face and a couple of bullets. But to a crime-scene investigator, these clues tell a story. The size and shape of the bones reveal whether the victim was a man or a woman.

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DK Find Out! | Fun Facts for Kids on Animals, Earth, History and more!

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Visit DK Find Out! to learn about dinosaurs, space, animals, nature & more. Fun learning activities for kids with videos, quizzes & galleries at DKFindOut.com

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Paleontology of the Coastal Plain Province

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Paleontology of the Coastal Plain Province

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Paleontology of the Coastal Plain Province

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Sedimentary deposits of Georgia's Coastal Plain cover more than half the state and contain abundant fossils of both vertebrates and invertebrates. The ages of these fossils range widely, from the Late

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eLearning.com

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Science - Exploring Fossils and Fossil Records

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Fossils

Series:

Rocks and Minerals

Authors:

Fretland VanVoorst, Jenny

Publication Information:

Minneapolis, MN : ABDO Publishing. 2015

Resource Type:

eBook.

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Fossils : Uncovering The Past

Series:

Let's Explore Science

Authors:

Greve, Tom
McKenzie, Precious
Rourke Publishing

Publication Information:

Vero Beach, Fla : Rourke Educational Media. 2012

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Figuring Out Fossils

Series:

Searchlight Books. Do You Dig Earth Science?

Authors:

Walker, Sally M.

Publication Information:

Minneapolis : Lerner Publications. 2013

Resource Type:

eBook.

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What Are Fossils?

Series:

Let's Rock

Authors:

Hyde, Natalie

Publication Information:

St. Catharines, Ontario : Crabtree Publishing. 2012

Resource Type:

eBook.

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Station #1 Intro to Fossils on Discovery Education

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Station #1 Intro to Fossils on Discovery Education

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Watch this 5 minute video on how fossils are formed.

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Station #1(a) The Types of Fossils & How they are formed

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Station #1(a) The Types of Fossils & How they are formed

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Video from Discovery Ed

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Copyright © 2018 Discovery Education. All rights reserved. Discovery Education is a subsidiary of Discovery Communications, LLC.

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Interactive Fossil Lab

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Copyright © 2018 Discovery Education. All rights reserved. Discovery Education is a subsidiary of Discovery Communications, LLC.