So, with that introduction,
let's talk about the three different types of fossils.
The first type of fossil is what's called a body fossil.
This is a fossil that represents an actual body of part of animal or
the complete animal that's left behind and then becomes fossilized.
In this case here, we're looking at the skeleton of Gorgosaurus at
the Manchester Museum, and what you're seeing are the bones of this animal.
Well, actually you're seeing the cast of
the animal because mounting these bones would be an incredible task, but
the actual bones that made up this cast are classified as body fossils.
Here's another type of body fossil.
In this case, you get the complete specimen.
You get a spider and the fly both preserved in fossil resin or, or
amber, and this instance here, which happens to be 100 million years old,
but you can see the entire body of these animals preserved.
So, those are body fossils.
You may also see examples of shells, of brachiopods, corals, whatever.
Those are all body fossils.
The second type of fossil is a trace fossil.
Here we're talking about characteristics that are left
behind in the sediment that indicate that the animal was present.
In this case, it's a footprint that is preserved in the sediment.
The sediment then solidifies, becomes a rock, and then is exposed
as it is here in Dinosaur State Park, revealing these fossil footprints.
Here's another type of trace fossil.
These are different types of burrows by worms or
other kind of burrowing animals that then become filled with
a different type of sediment and then are preserved.