The chances of becoming a fossil are enhanced by quick burial and the presence of preservable hard parts, such as bones or shells. Fossils form in five ways: preservation of original remains, permineralization, molds and casts, replacement, and compression.

Fossils are the remains of plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and single-celled living things that have been replaced by rock material or impressions of organisms preserved in rock.

Fossils, the preserved remains of animal and plant life, are mostly found embedded in sedimentary rocks. Of the sedimentary rocks, most fossils occur in shale, limestone and sandstone. Earth contains three types of rocks: metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary.

The most common directly preserved fossils are unaltered hard parts of a living organism, like shells, teeth, and bones. This material is unchanged, except for the removal of less stable organic matter….MATERIALS:

• plaster of Paris.
• clay.
• Rock Cycle – Past Life (5)
• clay.
• petroleum jelly.

Different kinds of fossils

• Paleontologists deal with two basic kinds of fossils: body fossils and trace fossils. Body fossils.
• Molds and casts. Body fossils include molds and casts.
• Casts are replicas of the shell or bone that are formed from external or internal molds.

Perhaps the most famous fossil of all time, Lucy is a 3.2 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis, one of the earliest human species.

There are two types of fossils- the body fossils and the trace fossils. Body fossils include preserved remains of an organism (i.e. freezing, drying, petrification, permineralization, bacteria and algea).

A titanosaur is a type of sauropod which has been discovered in fossil beds around the world; the largest known individuals have been found in Patagonia. A type known as the Patagotitan weighed in at 77 tons, while the Argentinosaurus reached 110 tons and up to 40 meters (131 feet) in length.

Fossils are purchased much as one would buy a sculpture or a painting, to decorate homes. Unfortunately, while the value of a rare stamp is really only what someone is willing to pay for it, the rarest natural history objects, such as fossils, are also the ones with the greatest scientific value.

Most of the fossils of living things will never be found. They may be buried too deep, or they may be in the parts of the world where no one is digging. Many species probably left no fossils at all. Still, plenty of fossils have been found, and new ones are being discovered all the time.