Chapter 3- Taphonomy and the Quality of the Fossil Record- Key Terms

Taphonomy

The scientific study of how organisms decay, become buried, and are preserved as fossils or affect the archeological and forensic record.

Rare earth elements

A set of 17 metallic elements consisting of the 15 lanthanides on the periodic table, as well as scandium and yttrium.

Exceptional preservation

The rare fossilization of soft tissues, delicate structures, and complete organisms that normally decay.

Body fossils

The preserved physical remain or imprint of all or part of an ancient organism’s actual body, such as bones, teeth, and shells.

Trace fossils

Indirect physical evidence of an ancient organism's behavior, activity, or movement, rather than the preserved body parts of the creature itself.

Mineralized

The process of converting organic matter into inorganic materials, depositing minerals into biological tissues, or forming valuable metal ores in geology.

Scavenging

When large animals feed on dead plant or animal tissues.

Decay

When microbes such as fungi or bacteria transform tissues of the dead organism.

Aerobic

Oxygen rich.

Anaerobic

Lacking in oxygen.

Labile

Likely to decay early.

Volatiles

Forms of carbon that have molecular structures that break down readily.

Refractories

Organic carbons much less liable to break down.

Lagerstätten

Certain fossil bearing formations of different ages that produce particularly remarkable fossil specimens.

Perimineralization

A fossilization process where water carrying dissolved minerals seeps into empty spaces and pores of organic tissue such as bone, wood, or shells.

Concentration

The gathering together of remains by normal processes of sedimentary transport and sorting to form fossil-packed horizons.

Conservation

The fossilization of plant and animal remains in ways that avoid scavenging, decay, and diagenetic destruction.

Obrution deposits

Sedimentary layers that preserve fossils by rapidly smothering sea-floor communities under a sudden blanket of fine-grained sediment.

Conservation traps

Unusual conditions of instant preservation.

Amber

Fossilized resin that oozes through tree bark and may trap insects.

Disarticulated

Separated into component parts.

Abraded

Worn away, scraped, or toughened through friction or rubbing.

Bioerosion

The removal of skeletal materials by boring organisms such as sponges, algae, and bivalves.

Biofilm

A structured community of microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, or algae, stuck to a surface and enclosed in a self-produced slimy matrix of extracellular polymeric substances.

Concretions

Bodies forming within sediment and concrete.

Metamorphism

The geologic process where pre-existing rocks change their physical or chemical composition within the earth.

Tectonic

Relating to the structure of the earth's crust and large-scale processes that shape its features.

Retrodeformation

The process of reversing the physical distortion or crushing that an object underwent over time.

Petrification

The natural process where dead organic material, like wood or bone, slowly turns into stone.

Coal balls

Hard, mineralized lumps of organic plant debris.

Coalified compression

Produced when masses of plant material lose their soluble components and are compressed by accumulated sediments.