Question

Fossils are _____________.
A. Dead remains of living organism
B. Coal mines
C. Kind of natural resource
D. Living beings

Answer 1

Hint: Fossils are found to be in sedimentary rock-like in the sand, silt, or clay that settles to the bottom of a lake, ocean, or compresses. These are found to be on all continents, but most commonly in North and South America and Asia.

Complete answer:
A Fossil is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any dead organism which was living in the past from a different geological age. Examples of these could be bones, stone imprints of animals or microbes, exoskeletons, shells, objects preserved in petrified wood, oil, coal, and DNA remnants. Basically, a fossil is simply the evidence of life collected from some specific place like from the rock. Fossils have different forms as ‘Original remains’ are very difficult to come by. The study of fossils is known as “Palaeontology”. This includes the study about their age, the method of formation, and evolutionary significance. If the age or time of some specimens is over 10,000 old years, they are considered to be fossils. The oldest fossils are considered to be 3.48 billion years old to 4.1 billion years old. Fossils may also consist of the marks left behind by the organism while they were alive, for example, animal traces. These are called ‘Trace fossils’. Some fossils are biochemical and are called Chemofossils or biosignatures.
Hence, the correct answer is option (A), i.e., Dead remains of living organisms.

Note: The remains of living organisms that are dead now come under the category of fossils like the bones, shells, exoskeletons, DNA remnants, etc. Our country has rich deposits of fossil plants spanning a gap of 3500 million years. One hundred and sixty million years old coal-forming forests in Orissa is an example of a fossil park in India.