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Diagenetic alteration of fossil composition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2017

Donald W. Boyd
Donald W. Boyd*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming
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Extract

Most of the nonmineralized organic material that enters the sedimentary record is either destroyed or preserved as an amorphous component. Preservation of nonmineralized plant and animal parts as recognizable fossils depends on exceptional conditions in the depositional environment or unusually resistant material (e.g. wood; spores and pollen; chitinous exoskeletons). Thus, one of the first lessons learned by each student of the fossil record is that it is strongly biased toward taxa with mineralized parts.

Type
General
Information
The Paleontological Society Special Publications , Volume 4: Paleotechniques , 1989 , pp. 14 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 Paleontological Society 

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References

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