Fossils
Most organisms are not preserved as fossils. Unless covered quickly after death, their bodies are consumed by other animals and plants or destroyed by weather. Even the bones and shells of animals which were quickly buried after death may be later dissolved by groundwater. The clay in the sediment at Coon Creek sealed off the fragile fossils from the corrosive action of water and the hard parts of the clams, snails, crabs, and shrimps were well preserved. Occasionally the bones of vertebrates are found, as well as the cartilaginous vertebrae of sharks. Fish scales and plant leaves are sometimes found as well (Wade 1926).
Read more about this topic: Coon Creek Formation
Famous quotes containing the word fossils:
“In early times, before the floods swept across the world, there was life, albeit odd, as one can see from the fossils of mammoth bones, and there was the regime of Prince Metternich.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“You can hardly convince a man of an error in a life-time, but must content yourself with the reflection that the progress of science is slow. If he is not convinced, his grandchildren may be. The geologists tell us that it took one hundred years to prove that fossils are organic, and one hundred and fifty more to prove that they are not to be referred to the Noachian deluge.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)