Animals of the Past

Fossils found in the Earth’s crust are the remains or impressions of animals or plants embedded in rock that lived thousands of years ago. These show that many of the now-extinct creatures were strikingly different from today’s creatures. However, there is no complete collection of fossils that would show the full evolutionary development because fossils are usually incomplete. They should meet several conditions to be useful for paleontologists.

Fossil

A prehistoric animal or plant that has been preserved in rock or as a piece of rock.

The Stegosaurus was named by Othniel Charles Marsh (1877), after the discovery of its remains north of Morrison, Colorado.

reconstructed skeleton

reconstructed animal

What do paleontologists do?

Paleontologists work with fossils that can be up to hundreds of millions of years old, their task is to reconstruct the former living creatures and their surroundings based on the remains, and to pinpoint their place in the Earth’s history.

• The oldest fossils include fossilised stromatolites, the oldest of which are 3.5 billion years old.
• The large fossil deposits and fossilised trackways suggest that some dinosaur species lived in groups, which may have consisted of various species.