Laboratory III Plant Fossils and Their Preservation

• Introduction
• Levels of Preservation
1. Cellular Level
2. Tissue Level
3. Organ Level
4. Organismal Level
5. Environmental Level
• Conditions Required for
  Plant Fossil Preservation
• Types of Plant Fossils
1. Compressions
2. Impressions
3. Casts and Molds
4. Permineralisation
5. Compactions
6. Molecular Fossils
• Questions for Further Thought
• Read More About It!

Objective: The objective of this lab is to understand the processes that preserve plants in the fossil record, and to appreciate the biological information that can be garnered from these fossils. You will learn the major types of preservation common to plants. Since information about the once-living organisms is always lost during preservation, you should think particularly about different types of information retained in each preservational mode.

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