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Biology vocabulary · Evolution and Classification

Fossil

Meaning in biology, with examples

/ˈfɑːsəl/nounCore term

In biology, fossil means: The preserved remains or traces of an organism that lived long ago, such as bones, shells, leaf prints or footprints, usually found in sedimentary rock.

In Turkish: fosil

How it is used

The fossil record is the history of life as shown by fossils. Scientists who study fossils are paleontologists. Fossils are dated, excavated and described. A transitional fossil, such as Archaeopteryx, shows features of two different groups.

Example sentences

  1. The oldest known animal fossils are more than 500 million years old.

  2. Archaeopteryx is a famous transitional fossil with features of both dinosaurs and birds.

Common collocations

  • fossil record
  • transitional fossil
  • fossil evidence
  • fossilized remains
  • evolutionThe change in the inherited traits of populations over many generations. It explains how all living species descend from earlier forms of life.
  • common ancestorAn earlier species from which two or more later species have descended. The more recently two species shared a common ancestor, the more closely related they are.
  • speciesA group of similar organisms that can breed with each other and produce fertile offspring. It is the basic unit used to classify living things.
  • phylogenetic treeA branching diagram that shows the evolutionary relationships among species or genes, based on how recently they shared a common ancestor.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Evolution and Classification

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