What Are Trace Fossils? What Can We Learn From Them?
Unlike a regular fossil, which is the actual remains of a prehistoric animal or plant, a trace fossil provides indirect evidence of an organism’s existence. Tracks, burrows, and skin imprints are all trace fossils. How were they formed? First, an ancient organism left its impression on sand or mud before rotting away. Then, over millions of years, that impression hardened into rock, or a trace fossil. “Coprolites,” the scientific term for the fossil remains of animal dung, are trace fossils, too. Are these types of remains as important to researchers as regular fossils? Absolutely. Trace fossils provide many valuable clues about the lives of the might dinosaurs. For example, tracks help paleontologists to determine: • whether dinosaurs walked on two or four legs (absence of front footprints indicate that some species moved on two legs); • whether dinosaurs traveled in herds (numerous and overlapping prints of the same species is a sign of herding); • whether dinosaurs fought with one a
