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Earth Science Education
Fossilization—How Fossils Form
- How Fossils Form Activities , Kentucky Geological Survey. Descriptions of classroom activities to demonstrate different types of fossilization.
- Fossil Preservation Lab, Pamela Gore, Georgia Perimeter College . Excellent online guide to different modes of fossilization (unaltered, permineralization, replacement, recrystallization, carbonization, impressions, molds, casts, and trace fossils) with pictures.
- How Fossils Form , Enchanted Learning. Short descriptions of the different ways fossils form including a flow chart of fossilization.
- Explore How Fossils Can Form , Exploring Earth Visualization. Short, online animation of a shell being buried and then turned into a cast and mold.
- Fossils and fossilization, Brett, Carlton, University of Cincinnati, Wiley-Online Publications. Short, technical summary of the process of fossilization from depositional setting, to death, through taphonomy and biostratinomy (death, decay, disarticulation, transport, and burial), and ending with diagenesis (mineralization, etc.).
- Fascinating Fossils , U.S. National Park Service. An online powerpoint slideshow that shows examples of petrification and permineralization, carbonization, trace fossils, and preservation of original material in fossils from America 's national parks.
- Fossil Identification Lab , B. Smith, San Luis Obispo High School . Online activity for high school students that uses photographs of different “unknown: fossils and a table (with links to background information) that students fill out to describe the fossils. Students gather information on symmetry, likely type of organism (scientific name), fossilization process, and place in geologic time.
- Petrified Forest , U.S. National Park Service. Provides information and images of petrified fossil remains at the park, as well as a short pdf-format description of petrification.
- Amber: Arboreal Gold, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Kentucky . Preservation of organisms in amber is a type of unaltered body part preservation. This site has explanations of what amber is and excellent images of organisms trapped in amber.
- Land of the Mammoth , Discovery Channel. Provides information and images from the Discover special about the recovery of an unaltered mammoth, frozen in glacial ice. Includes many pictures.
- Geology 331-Invertebrate Paleontology, T.R. Holtz, University of Maryland . Provides an outline of how trace fossils (tracks, trails, etc. of organisms) are described, with links to descriptions and images of different types of trace fossils as well as links to different types of information (e.g., stride length, speed, etc), which can sometimes be determined from trace fossils.
