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How does a carbon film fossil form?

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Last updated date: 24th Jul 2024
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Answer
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Hint: For any item that gives proof of a past life type that has been preserved in the crust of the Earth, the word fossil is a broad term.Fossils may consist of imprints in sedimentary rock, petrified remains, or even an entire specimen conserved in amber, ice or tar. Although most fossils contain some quantity of the element carbon, a special form known as a carbon film fossil is primarily composed of carbon.

Complete answer:
All living organisms contain carbon, and an incredibly thin layer of carbon is accumulated over time on the rock when a dead organism lies on a rock. Since the hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen in the body of the organism normally vanish when dissolved and vaporized under a body of water, this layer of carbon is the only remaining substance. Carbonization or distillation is called this decaying process.

Carbon film fossils are created from a soft-bodied organism's carbon residue that has been buried in sediment.
Most of the body is constructed from carbon, or some organism.
It may become coated in layers of sediment when an organism dies.
Eventually, all the materials that make up the dead organism's body break down from the heat and the immense weight of the sediment's overlying layers, leaving nothing but carbon.
After the more volatile oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen dissolve, the stable carbon in the body of the organism remains.
A thin layer or residue of carbon in the form of the body's outline is what is left.

The most common fossils are fish, crustaceans, and leaves, since carbon films are typically left by specimens deposited under a body of water. Instead of being torn or crushed by a current, these specimens probably sunk and adhered to rock under bodies of slow flowing water where they were allowed to settle.

Internal leaf elements, such as cell walls and internal cell structures, are typically lost in the case of leaves, but cells are often filled with mineral-rich water that solidifies in order to retain these miniature characteristics.

Note: In tandem with compression fossils, carbon film fossils sometimes occur, and the combination often increases the likelihood of collecting more data than the general shape and morphology of the organism that created the fossil.