AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -The hard parts of organisms, such as bones, shells, and teeth have a better chance of becoming fossils than do softer parts. One reason for this is that scavengers generally do not eat these parts. Hard parts also decay more slowly than soft parts, giving more time for them to be buried.

Detailed explanation-2: -Hard or soft parts? Organisms with soft parts are rarely preserved because the soft tissue rapidly decomposes. Hard parts such as bones and shells are more readily fossilized.

Detailed explanation-3: -Fossilization usually occur in organisms with hard, bony body parts, such as skeletons, teeth, or shells. Soft-bodied organisms, such as worms, are rarely fossilized. Sometimes, however, the sticky resin of a tree can become fossilized.

Detailed explanation-4: -Types of Preservation. Unaltered hard parts-The body fossil is made up of exactly the same material as when it entered the rock record. Teeth are a good example as they are the hardest part in a vertebrate body, and they typically have the same composition in fossils as they do when they are in your mouth.

Detailed explanation-5: -This is because the hard parts of organisms are the most likely to survive long enough to be fossilized. If you think about our most common fossils of prehistoric animals, they are typically bones, teeth, claws, shells, and the exoskeletons of arthropods.