<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > Hello everyone, I am a stone dreamer, I am an amateur stone picker. I like to use my free time on weekends to go outdoors to collect stones, and I have had a lot of fun, gained insight and learned about nature. </h1>
First of all, I would like to state that I am just a beginner fossil enthusiast. For the fossil profession, I can only be regarded as a "layman". Although I have accumulated some knowledge, compared with experts and other enthusiasts, it is like a class axe.
In fact, it was because I saw some videos recently that I had a sudden idea and had such an idea. It is to let more people know fossils, understand fossils, and love fossils.
At the beginning of the article, I will throw out a few questions first, you can try to think about it, try to answer it!
1. What is a fossil?
2. What is the significance of studying fossils?
Let's start with each one of them:
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > first, what is a fossil? </h1>
Fossils are the remains, relics or remains of archaeological organisms that remain in rocks.
In a broad sense, as long as the remains of animals and plants and traces of animals and plants that remain in rocks and strata can be called fossils. For example, dinosaur fossils, dinosaur egg fossils, and dinosaur footprint fossils. These are all things we have seen or heard of in our daily lives. In addition, there are various shell fossils, plant fossils, wood fossils and so on.
So, is it possible that everything found from rocks and strata can be called fossils?
Strictly speaking, some can only be called subfossils. So what is a subfossite?
During the Holocene period, Neolithic sites dating from 10,000 to about 6,000 years ago, animal bones and human bones were often unearthed. Due to their age, the organic matter in the bones has been lost and volatilized, but has not yet been petrified. Because they are too new to belong to the category of paleontology, they are called subfossils.
Here again involves a geological age problem, you can refer to the following figure:
Fossils are a "golden key" for the study of paleontology, paleogeological structures, and paleoenvironments. Since it is a key, it is required that the fossils we collect must have scientific research value.
Therefore, in the field of paleontological research, it is generally called fossils from 100 million years ago, or fossils with real research value. After 100 million years, they are collectively called subfossils.
So why divide it this way?
In fact, it is to consider its research value. Because the evolution, prosperity, and demise of living things, as well as the formation and change of geological formations, is actually a long process. 100 million years ago, because of the short time, its change and evolution have decreased, or basically no change. Therefore, the research value is not large.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > second, what is the significance of studying fossils? </h1>
1. Be able to determine the relative age of the strata and divide and contrast the strata; Raising environmental markers and identifying and restoring paleo sedimentary environments.
2. In the development and evolution of the earth, many types of fossils have changed and evolved rapidly, forming taxa with different characteristics. The paleontology of these taxa can form different fossil groups or combinations of fossils in the sedimentation of different geological periods, which has become an important basis for determining the age of stratigraphic and dividing stratigraphic strata.
3. Through the paleoecological analysis of various fossil communities or fossil combinations and combined with the study of paleontology, it is possible to judge and restore the paleo sedimentary environment such as bohai Bay, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea in the Cenozoic Era, in the Tertiary Period, due to the influence of climate τ heat and sea advance, a large amount of brackish water and semi-brackish water deposition were formed in the eastern coastal area of our country, which created conditions for the formation of rich petroleum resources.
The text above may be too dry to understand, right?
So, based on my personal experience, let me talk about it in layman's terms:
I am a native of Shanxi, and Shanxi's coal resources are famous all over the world. So, what is the reason why Shanxi has such unique coal resources? Take my hometown of Yangquan, for example. Yangquan area from the geological rock formation research proves that in the late Paleozoic important coal-forming period has experienced a total of 6 large-scale obvious sea intrusion and sea retreat, sea intrusion refers to the slow flooding of seawater into the coastal plain, sea retreat refers to the river sediment into the ocean, it is precisely because there have been six large-scale coastal invasion and sea retreat, so that a large number of plant remains are quickly buried, with the decomposition of anaerobic bacteria, fungi on the plant to form peat; the sediment is piled thicker and thicker, under the action of gravity, the coal seam gradually solidified, forming lignite; over time, Under the action of physics and chemistry, lignite further metamorphic to form bituminous coal, and the metamorphic effect is strengthened to form anthracite coal special to Yangquan area.
After further careful study, a major discovery was also made. Because of some geological processes, many coal seams of different thicknesses can be seen in our local area. In almost all the mudstone layers in the lower part of the coal seam, a large number of plant root fossils can be found, which is a direct and powerful proof that coal was indeed formed by ancient plants.
I hope that everyone can love and like fossils through the above science, so as to join the ranks of discovering and protecting fossils and become a qualified "fossil hunter".
If you have gained something and inspired after reading it, please like it, please add attention, please help forward it, so that more fans can benefit. At the same time, I will also share what I have learned with you, learn with you, and make progress together.