Question

What is the fossil record, what are the obstacles to fossilization, and what kinds of information can we discover about once living orga nisms based on their fossilized remains? Give some specific examples.

Answer 1

The fossil record is a term used in Paleontology which refers to the total number of fossils that have been discovered till date. In addition to this the Fossil record provides information such as the appearance of the organism, its life, the mechanism it used for survival and the changes that took place in it to evolve and what were the causes of its death.

There are many obstacles to the process of being converted into a fossil. All the natural forces such as erosion, land slides will automatically become a barrier for the fossil to form. The decomposing bacteria in the soil are also an hindrance to this process. Once an organism dies it will get detrotiated by the many bacteria present in the earth's soil. If the entire fossil is to be preserved it must get buried deeply in the eart'hs soil. The soft body parts such as skin, fat and internal body parts are decomposed esaily and almost do not leave a trace.

From the above we learn that the process of fossilisation is a complex process. Fossil records are many a time incomplete. But however fossils have been preserved and through fossil Records a large amount of information can be derived;

1. Past animal life: Their biology, taxonomy and their role in the evoltuionary process.

2. Way of life: The oldest human remains discovered in the Glacier in the Alps of Italy is a well preserved fossil of a human who died 5,300 yeras ago along with his clothes and tools.

3.To Learn about evolution such as archaeopteryx .

4. To learn about extinct animals such as the Dinosaur.

5.The past remains of animals have led to the present scientific names for organisms such as Chimaera a genus of fish.