weight of 80,000 kg, equal to the weight of seven elephants! Other fossils, such as the trilobite
and ammonite, impress us with their bizarre forms and delicate beauty.
Figure 11.3: Kolihapeltis sp (left) and Ammonite (right). ( 24 )How Fossils Form
Afossilis any remains or trace of an ancient organism. Fossils includebody fossils, left
behind when the soft parts have decayed away, as well astrace fossils, such as burrows,
tracks, or fossilized waste (feces) (Figure11.4).
Figure 11.4: Coprolite (fossilized waste or feces) from a meat-eating dinosaur. ( 4 )The process of a once living organism becoming a fossil is calledfossilization. Fossilization
is a very rare process: of all the organisms that have lived on Earth, only a tiny percentage