Science Knowledge 10/23

Fossils can tell us a lot about what life on Earth was like in the past. The scientist that study fossils are paleontologist.

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of a living thing. They can be made out of an organisms tissue, muscles, bones, teeth, and shells. Because bones and teeth are hard and solid, they are most often the fossils found. Most fossils are found in sedimentary rock.

Fossils can form by being buried under sediment andover time their bones or teeth are preserved in sediment as a fossil. Another way they can form is when minerals, such as quartz, replace a shell or plant material that made up the organism.

When a species dies off it becomes extinct, and when a large amount of species dies off at the same time it is called mass extinction. Once these creatures die, some are buried in sediment leaving behind fossils.