RE: How can we know how old fossils are?
May 1, 2019 at 2:51 pm
(This post was last modified: May 1, 2019 at 2:52 pm by Anomalocaris.)
The I think organic materials attributed to the original animal have also been found in dinosaur egg shell fossil, and in impressions of primitive feathers on dinosaurs. These have provided direct indications of the colors of dinosaur egg shells and plumage.
As extraction, preservation and probing techniques improve, and as experience have prompted paleontologist to look carefully for these things, I suspect more and more original organic material from the original organism preserved along with mineralized fossils will be found, and these will provide vastly more complete picture of paleobiology, paleoecology and biochemical aspect of evolution than would have been deemed even theoretically attainable just 10-15 years ago.
As extraction, preservation and probing techniques improve, and as experience have prompted paleontologist to look carefully for these things, I suspect more and more original organic material from the original organism preserved along with mineralized fossils will be found, and these will provide vastly more complete picture of paleobiology, paleoecology and biochemical aspect of evolution than would have been deemed even theoretically attainable just 10-15 years ago.
