What are they?
Fossils are the preserved remains of plants and animals that became buried in sediments like sand and mud beneath ancient seas, lakes, and rivers. This term also encompasses any preserved evidence of life that is typically over 10,000 years old.
While soft body parts decay shortly after death, hard materials such as bones, shells, and teeth can be replaced by minerals that solidify into rock. In rare instances, soft parts—like feathers, fern leaves, or even traces of life such as footprints or dung—can also be preserved. Fossils may range from tiny microscale specimens, like single-celled foraminifera or pollen grains, to more recognisable forms such as ammonites and trilobites.
Fossils can be categorised into two main types: ‘body fossils,’ which are the preserved remains of ancient body parts, and ‘trace fossils,’ which are the marks left by organisms in sediments, such as footprints, burrows, and plant roots.
