Fossils for Kids Intro to Paleontology

HOW MANY FOSSILS FORM
Many fossils formed when dead plants or animals were buried in wet places, like at the bottom of a lake or a bog. Think of a fish in the sea--if it gets buried quickly after it dies, then it's less likely to be eaten by other animals or rot away like it usually would. And if the conditions are just right, it could later become a fossil.

• When this fish died, it sank to the bottom of the lake. Its soft parts (like its skin and muscles) decayed away, but the hard bones remained.
• Over time, sediment sank down, burying the bones in a layer of sediment.
• After a long time, the bones were completely buried and were squished under the weight of the sediment. Minerals in the water began to soak into the bones, turning them into a fossil.
• A long time later, when the lake dried up, the sediments all hardened to form rocks and the bones stayed trapped inside the layers.