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PALEONTOLOGY. STUDY OF ANCIENT LIFE (Not humans). Smithsonian. What is a fossil?. Evidence of life preserved in rock Age?. What becomes a fossil?. Hard parts! Shells, bones, teeth, wood Buried quickly Sea life floods Replaced by rock (petrified) Atom by atom replacement RARE.
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PALEONTOLOGY STUDY OF ANCIENT LIFE (Not humans)
What is a fossil? • Evidence of life preserved in rock • Age?
What becomes a fossil? • Hard parts! • Shells, bones, teeth, wood • Buried quickly • Sea life • floods • Replaced by rock (petrified) • Atom by atom replacement RARE
Type of fossils • Cast- replacement of living organism • Most common • Mold- imprint of organism • Resins- petrified sap (amber) tar may preserve actual critter
Trace fossils • Indirect evidence (not actual organism) • Tracks • Burrows • Coprolite • gastrolith
Where to look for fossils? • Fine sediment • Time period? • Dino fossils in Wyoming
Make latex mold out of actual fossil Pour plaster into mold to replicate fossil Paint it Making of a museum display
Dinosaur Bones to Model • Many bones are usually found together • Who’s bones are who’s? • Not entire dino is found
Lot of unknowns • Color of skin? • Didn’t drag tails! • Muscle structure? • Sounds?
Jurassic Park problems • No blood inside amber insects ever found • No dino DNA ever found • DNA deteriorates over time- only partial • most meals are extinct too • Most dinos portrayed were Cretaceous
T-REX SUE The most famous dinosaur ever!
Working paleontologist at the McDonalds Lab in the Field Museum