Question

Mention any four details that can be inferred about organisms from their fossils.

Answer 1

Hint: Fossils can show various features of organisms such as organism’s distribution in the rocks, evolutionary changes between past and present organisms, provide information about their ancestors and missing links between groups of organisms.

Complete answer:
Fossils are the preserved remains of ancient organisms. These are present as rocks. Fossil can preserve an entire organism or just a part such as bones, shells, feathers and leaves.

Fossils can infer many details about organisms. Four of them are given below:-
• The geographical origin and distribution of the organisms can be determined by the help of fossils.
• It also gives information about the relative or absolute age of the organisms whose fossil was found.
• The common ancestry or descent of the organisms can be determined.
• The genetic and molecular makeup of the primitive organisms can be determined by the help of fossils.
• Fossils are formed in different ways. These can be formed when a plant or animal dies in a watery environment and is buried in mud and silt. The bones and parts of the plant decompose by the action of microorganisms. The sediments build over the top and harden into rock. Fossils are the remains of extinct organisms.

Note: Fossils can be of different types such as body fossils, molds and casts, petrification fossils, footprints and trackways and coprolites. The word fossil comes from Latin. They can be found everywhere. Existence of the fossils can be discovered by the scientists. The Scientists who study the fossils are known as Paleontologists. The study of fossils is called Paleontology.