Stories from Fossil Assemblages

Stories from the fossil Record

1. Stories from Fossil Assemblages

A fossil is any remains or trace of past life.

Usually, scientists consider anything >10,000 years old to be a fossil.

Last time we observed fossil assemblages. We were able to tell several stories by examining the fossil assemblage. We could:

Identify some of the fossils.
Recognize a high level of diversity - richness in numbers of species. From that, we inferred that the assemblage was from a very productive area.
Infer about past climates.
Suggest the depositional environment based upon the quality of preservation.
Propose the level of water energy involved in the deposition - e.g. The deposition occured in an area of low energy because many of the fossils were well preserved and very fragile.