1.

INTRODUCTION
One major interesting fact about this topic is that scientists have given evidences of dinosaurs that lived millions of years ago. But how do scientists learn about them if they have never seen them?? How do they know about their movement and existence??? 1.1. Fossils

Fossils (from Latin fossus, literally "having been dug up") are the preserved remains or traces of animals (also known as zoolites), plants, and other organisms from the remote past.

2. TYPES OF FOSSILS
Following are the major 5 type of fossils CASTS AND MOULDS TRACE PETRIFIED WOOD CARBON FILM AMBER

3. CAST AND MOLD:

The creation of a cast or mold is a common Picture 3.1 Cast and Mold Fossil form of indirect preservation. Most fossils do not contain actual body parts but are impressions, molds or casts of the original organism. Essentially, a mold fossil forms when the organic matter of the organism decomposes and leaves a cavity, or mold. Casts form when the cavity fills with sediment or minerals that harden. Occasionally, casts and molds contain the hard parts of organisms, such as shells or bones. Picture 3.1 shows one type of Cast and mould 3.1. Definition

Molds and casts are three-dimensional impressions in which the surface contours of an organism are preserved. Organisms buried in sediment slowly decompose, leaving a cavity that contains an exact imprint of the organisms' shape and size. When this hollow space fills with material, this material takes the shape of the mold, forming a cast. Although the fossil may exhibit characteristics of the original organism, normally no organic material remains.

TYPE OF FOSSILS
3.2. Features

Usually molds and casts exhibit a distinct three-dimensional character. Occasionally, inorganic material replaces the shell of an organism, leaving an impression of the interior surface called an internal mold. When this mold fills with soluble minerals, it forms an internal cast, called a steinkern, which means "stone cast" in German. According to the Petrified Wood Museum, the most common steinkern for plants includes the preserved details of the vascular and cortex tissue within the plants' pith (the outside surface cavities of the center stem). 3.3. Benefits

Traces of extinct organisms, such as burrows, shells, plants, trails and tracks, represent a type of fossil mold or cast if the three-dimensional integrity is preserved. Molds and casts that faithfully replicate the external form of an organism provide paleontologists clues about the surface anatomy and behavior of an ancient organism. According to The Petrified Wood Museum, a common fossil mold includes insect wing impressions. By studying the preserved pleating on the wings, paleontologists identify the insect family.

4. TRACE FOSSILS
4.1. Definition

Trace fossils, also called ichnofossils, Picture 4.1 Trace Fossil (Greek ikhnos "trace, track"), are geological records of biological activity. Trace fossilsmay be impressions made on the substrate by an organism: for example, burrows, borings (bioerosion), urolites(erosion caused by evacuation of liquid wastes), footprints and feeding marks, and root cavities. The term in its broadest sense also includes the remains of other organic material produced by an organism for example coprolites (fossilized droppings) or chemical markers or sedimentological structures produced by biological means - for example, stromatolites. Trace fossils contrast with body fossils which are the fossilized remains of parts of organisms' bodies, usually altered by later chemical activity or mineralization. Picture 4.1 shows one type of Trace Fossils. Sedimentary structures, for example those produced by empty shells rolling along the sea floor, are not produced through the behaviour of an organism and not considered trace fossils. The study of traces is called ichnology, which is divided into paleoichnology, or the study of trace fossils, and neoichnology, the study of modern traces. This science

Submitted by: Sanjana Shanbhag, FYBSC, Zoology, Roll No 993

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TYPE OF FOSSILS
is challenging, as most traces reflect the behaviour not the biological affinity of their makers. As such, trace fossils are categorised into form generabased upon their appearance and the implied behaviour of their makers. 4.2. Paleoecology Trace fossils provide us with indirect evidence of Picture 4.2 Paleoecology life in the past, such as the footprints, tracks, burrows, borings, and feces left behind by animals, rather than the preserved remains of the body of the actual animal itself. Unlike most other fossils, which are produced only after the death of the organism concerned, trace fossils provide us with a record of the activity of an organism during its lifetime. Picture 4.2 shows a type of paleoecology. Trace fossils are formed by organisms performing the functions of their everyday life, such as walking, crawling, burrowing, boring, or feeding. Tetrapod footprints, worm trails and the burrows made by clams and arthropods are all trace fossils. Perhaps the most spectacular trace fossils are the huge, three-toed footprints produced by dinosaurs and related archosaurs. These imprints give scientists clues as to how these animals lived. 4.3. Paleoenvironment

Eubrontes, a dinosaur footprint in the Lower Jurassic Moenave Formation at the St. George Dinosaur Picture 4.3 Paleoenvironment Discovery Site at Johnson Farm, southwestern Utah.Picture 4.3 shows sample of paleoenviroment. Fossil footprints made by tetrapod vertebrates are difficult to identify to a particular species of animal, but they can provide valuable information such as the speed, weight, and behavior of the organism that made them. Such trace fossils are formed when amphibians, reptiles, mammals or birds walked across soft (probably wet) mud or sand which later hardened sufficiently to retain the impressions before the next layer of sediment was deposited. Some fossils can even provide details of how wet the sand was when they were being produced, and hence allow estimation of paleo-wind directions. Assemblages of trace fossils occur at certain water depths,[1] and can also reflect the salinity and turbidity of the water column.

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TYPE OF FOSSILS
4.4. Stratigraphic correlation
Picture 4.4 Stratigraphic Corelation

Some trace fossils can be used as local index fossils, to date the rocks in which they are found, such as the burrow Arenicolites franconicus which occurs only in a 4 cm (1.6") layer of the Triassic Muschelkalk epoch, throughout wide areas in southern Germany. The base of the Cambrian period is defined by the first appearance of the trace fossil Treptichnus pedum. Picture 4.4 shows an example of Stratigraphic correlation. Trace fossils have a further utility as many appear before the organism thought to create them, extending their stratigraphic range.

5. PETRIFIED WOOD
Petrified wood (from the Greek root petro meaning "rock" or "stone"; literally "wood turned into stone") is the name given to a special type of fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. It is the result of a tree having turned completely into stone by the process of permineralization. All the organic materials have been replaced with minerals (mostly a silicate, such as quartz), while retaining the original structure of the wood. Unlike other types of fossils which are typically impressions or compressions, petrified wood is a three Picture 5.1 Petrified Wood dimensional representation of the original organic material. Picture 5.1 shows a sample of petrified wood. The petrifaction process occurs underground, when wood becomes buried under sediment and is initially preserved due to a lack of oxygen which inhibits aerobic decomposition. Mineral-laden water flowing through the sediment deposits minerals in the plant's cells.and as the plant's lignin and cellulose decay, a stone mould forms in its place. In general, wood takes less than 100 years to petrify. The organic matter needs to become petrified before it decomposes completely.A forest where the wood has petrified becomes known as a Petrified Forest

6. CARBON FILM
Carbon films are a type of fossil, or preservation. They are thin film coatings which consist predominantly of the chemical element carbon, which include plasma polymer films, amorphous carbon films (diamond-like carbon, DLC), CVD diamond

Submitted by: Sanjana Shanbhag, FYBSC, Zoology, Roll No 993

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TYPE OF FOSSILS
films as well as graphite films. The tissue of organisms are made of compounds that contain carbon. Following Pic 6.1 shpws carbon film formed on a surface
Picture 6.1 Carbon Film

Sometime fossils contain only carbon. Fossils usually form when sediments bury a dead organism. As sediment piles up, the organism's remains are subjected to pressure and heat. These conditions force gases and liquids from the body. A thin film of carbon residue is left, forming a silhouette of the original organism called a carbon film 6.1. Formation of Carbon Film

Every living thing contains carbon. When an organism dies or a leaf falls, it sinks into the earth's layers and decomposes. A carbon film is made when the oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen of the organism disappear, leaving a thin layer of carbon. This process is known as distillation or carbonization. If the layer of carbon is on a viable surface, usually under a body of water, an imprint of the organism will remain. Carbon film fossils are usually black, dark brown or light brown in color, depending on the type of rock they are pressed upon. Unlike trace fossils, molds and casts, which form a three-dimensional shape of the object or organism, carbon film fossils are two-dimensional, like a drawing. They preserve an enormous amount of detail, such as the leaves and veins of a plant. Sometimes cells of the plant are even visible if the cells were filled with water. 6.2. Organisms

Carbon film fossils normally depict fish, crustaceans and plants. When the fish or crustaceans died, their bodies most likely sank to bottom of the body of water, were carried by the current and got wedged between or under rocks. This preserved their bodies from prey and destruction by the current. The plants preserved are commonly water-dwelling 6.3. Carbon Dating

Due to the presence of carbon-14, carbon film fossils are relatively easy for scientists to date. Plants absorb carbon-14 from the air, and animals consume it when they eat plant life. At the moment of a plant or animal's death, the carbon-14 begins to

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TYPE OF FOSSILS
decay. The half-life, or amount of time it takes for the number of atoms in any given sample to be reduced by half, is 5,700 years. Scientists are able to test the remaining carbon-14 in the carbon film fossil to determine its age.

7. AMBER
Amber is fossilized tree resin(not sap), which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times.Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions. Amber occurring in coal seams is also called resinite, and the term ambrite is applied to that found specifically within New Zealand coal seams. 7.1. Formation
Picture 7.1 Amber

Molecular polymerization, resulting from high pressures and temperatures produced by overlying sediment, transforms the resin first into copal. Sustained heat and pressure drives off terpenes and results in the formation of amber. Picture 7.1 shows a sample of amber. 7.2. Botanical origin

Fossil resins from Europe fall into two categories, the famous Baltic ambers and another that resembles the Agathis group. Fossil resins from the Americas and Africa are closely related to the modern genus Hymenaea. While Baltic ambers are thought to be fossil resins from Sciadopityaceae family plants used to live in north Europe. 7.3. Inclusions

The abnormal development of resin has been called succinosis. Impurities are quite often present, especially when the resin dropped on to the ground, so that the material may be useless except for varnish-making, whence the impure amber is called firniss. Enclosures of pyrites may give a bluish color to amber. The so-called black amber is only a kind of jet. Bony amber owes its cloudy opacity to minute bubbles in the interior of the resin. In darkly clouded and even opaque amber, inclusions can be imaged using high-energy, high-contrast, high-resolution X-rays.

8. Reference:
1. Google searches 2. Fossils Encyclopedia

Submitted by: Sanjana Shanbhag, FYBSC, Zoology, Roll No 993

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