EVERYDAY SCIENCE

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: -This is because softer tissues such as skin and flesh, are more likely to be eaten by animals or decay before they can be preserved.

Detailed explanation-3: -Permineralization Originally porous hard parts are preserved when secondary minerals form in the pore spaces. Most vertebrate bones and invertebrate shells are preserved in this fashion. Permineralization helps to stabilize a fossil and it may be more durable than the original.

Detailed explanation-4: -After an animal dies, the soft parts of its body decompose leaving the hard parts, like the skeleton, behind. This becomes buried by small particles of rock called sediment. As more layers of sediment build up on top, the sediment around the skeleton begins to compact and turn to rock.

Detailed explanation-5: -The most common method of fossilisation is petrification through a process called permineralisation. After a shell, bone or tooth is buried in sediment, it may be exposed to mineral-rich fluids moving through the porous rock material and becomes filled with preserving minerals such as calcium carbonate or silica.