Problems of Recognition
After burial, soil fossils tend to be altered by various chemical and physical processes. These include:
- Decomposition of organic matter that was once present in the old soil. This hinders the recognition of vegetation that was in the soil when it was present.
- Oxidation of iron from Fe2+ to Fe3+ by O2 as the former soil becomes dry and more oxygen enters the soil.
- Drying out of hydrous ferric oxides to anhydrous oxides - again due to the presence of more available O2 in the dry environment.
The keys to recognising fossils of various soils include:
- Tubular structures that branch and thin irregularly downward or show the anatomy of fossilised root traces
- Gradational alteration down from a sharp lithological contact like that between land surface and soil horizons
- Complex patterns of cracks and mineral replacements like those of soil clods (peds) and planar cutans.
Read more about this topic: Paleopedological Record
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