What are the physical characteristics of an organism that make the best fossils?
Organisms vary from the microscopic and jelly-bodied to the mammoth and skeletal. The physical characteristics of the organism and its environment are two key factors in forming a fossil. Dating back about 3,500 million years, the fossil record does not represent all types of organisms equally. Paleontologists theorize that many groups of animals and plants have left no fossil remains. There are some types of organisms that are more dominant in the record than others. There are some organisms that have hard parts, some with only soft parts, and many with both. Examples of hard parts include bones, teeth, and wood; examples of soft parts include skin, muscle, and internal organs. In this experiment,…
