What are Trace Fossils? | A New Way to Museum
Summary
TLDRIn this educational video, Dr. Rhys Barrick from the Sternberg Museum introduces trace fossils, which are remnants of ancient life forms' activities rather than their physical remains. He explores various types, including footprints, burrows, and coprolites (fossilized feces), each revealing insights into prehistoric creatures' behaviors and environments. Dr. Barrick also discusses gastroliths, stomach stones used by marine reptiles, and borings made by shipworms and predatory moon snails. The video is a fascinating exploration of how trace fossils contribute to our understanding of the past.
Takeaways
- πΎ Trace fossils are remnants of the activities of ancient animals and plants that are preserved in the fossil record, even when the organisms themselves are not.
- π£ Common types of trace fossils include footprints and tracks, which can provide insights into the types of animals present in a particular ecosystem and their behaviors.
- π Tracks and trails of invertebrates, such as worm burrows, can reveal information about the environment, including oxygen levels and sedimentation rates.
- π© Coprolites, or fossilized feces, can offer evidence of an animal's diet and are more likely to be preserved if they contain bone material or other hard parts.
- π Gastroliths are stomach stones that some marine animals swallowed to help grind food or for ballast to control buoyancy, and their presence can indicate the animal's feeding and habitat behaviors.
- π³οΈ Borings are holes made by organisms, such as shipworms in wood, and can provide clues about the types of organisms that lived in a particular environment.
- π Predation evidence, like holes in shells made by moon snails, can show the interactions between predator and prey species and the defensive adaptations of prey.
- π Trace fossils are valuable for understanding the environment and behaviors of prehistoric life, even when body fossils are scarce or absent.
- π¨βπ« Dr. Rhys Barrick from the Sternberg Museum of Natural History highlights the educational importance of trace fossils in understanding the past.
- π The video encourages viewers to engage with the content by liking, subscribing, and supporting the museum's educational efforts for more fascinating discoveries.
Q & A
What are trace fossils according to Dr. Rhys Barrick?
-Trace fossils are traces of animals and plants that lived long ago, where the organisms themselves weren't preserved in the fossil record, but remnants of their activities and lifestyles are.
Why are footprints considered trace fossils?
-Footprints are considered trace fossils because they are impressions left by animals that can become hardened into rock, providing a trace of the animal's foot which helps in identifying the type of animal.
How can footprints provide information about an ancient ecosystem?
-Footprints can indicate the number of different types of animals present in an ecosystem, and by analyzing the size and spacing of footprints, one can infer the animal's size, gait (walking or running), and potentially its behavior.
What is another common type of trace fossil besides footprints?
-Another common type of trace fossil includes tracks and trails of invertebrates, which can be seen as tubes or burrows in the sediment, indicating the movement and activities of organisms like worms.
How do burrows and trails of invertebrates inform us about the environment?
-Burrows and trails can reveal the oxygen levels in the environment, as deep burrows suggest a high oxygen environment. They can also indicate the presence of predators, the energy levels in the ecosystem, and sediment deposition rates.
What is a coprolite and how can it provide information about an animal's diet?
-A coprolite is fossilized feces, which can provide insights into an animal's diet. The presence of bone material or plant remains like seeds within coprolites can help identify what the animal was consuming.
Why are gastroliths significant in the fossil record?
-Gastroliths, or stomach stones, are significant because they indicate that certain marine animals, like plesiosaurs, used them to grind food or for ballast to control buoyancy, providing information about their feeding and swimming behaviors.
What are borings in the context of trace fossils?
-Borings are holes or tunnels made by organisms, such as shipworms boring into wood, which are preserved in the fossil record. They provide evidence of predation, shelter construction, and the ecological roles of the organisms that created them.
How can the study of trace fossils contribute to our understanding of ancient environments?
-The study of trace fossils can contribute to our understanding of ancient environments by revealing details about the behavior of organisms, the oxygen levels, the presence of predators and prey, and the overall energy and sedimentation dynamics of the ecosystem.
What is the significance of finding a track of a camel in the fossil record as mentioned by Dr. Barrick?
-Finding a track of a camel in the fossil record is significant because it provides a direct trace of an animal's presence in the past, which can help in understanding the types of animals that inhabited certain areas and the environments they lived in.
Outlines
πΎ Trace Fossils: Footprints and Tracks
Dr. Rhys Barrick introduces trace fossils, emphasizing their importance as evidence of past life forms. He explains that trace fossils are the preserved traces of animals and plants, such as footprints and burrows, rather than the organisms themselves. Footprints, for instance, can provide insights into the types of animals present in an ecosystem, their size, and even their behavior, such as whether they were walking or running. Dr. Barrick also discusses how impressions can become hardened into rock, creating positive or negative footprint impressions. These traces are not just cool relics but are also valuable for understanding ancient environments and the interactions between different species.
π Invertebrate Traces and Fossil Poop
This segment delves into the fascinating world of invertebrate trace fossils, such as worm burrows preserved in rock. These traces reveal much about the environment in which they lived, including oxygen levels and sedimentation rates. The discussion also turns to coprolites, or fossilized feces, which can offer clues about an animal's diet. For example, the presence of bone fragments or grass seeds in coprolites can help scientists determine what an ancient animal consumed. Additionally, gastroliths, or stomach stones, are highlighted as another type of trace fossil. These stones were swallowed by marine animals like plesiosaurs to help grind food or for ballast, and their presence can indicate an animal's feeding habits and habitat.
π Marine Trace Fossils: Borings and Predation Evidence
The final paragraph explores marine trace fossils, focusing on borings made by organisms like shipworms. These borings, preserved in wood, provide evidence of the shipworms' protective and feeding behaviors. The discussion also includes evidence of predation, such as holes in clam shells made by moon snails. These holes not only indicate the predatory behavior of the moon snails but also offer a glimpse into the evolutionary arms race between predators and their prey, as seen in the development of defensive mechanisms in clams. The paragraph concludes with an invitation to join the Sternberg Museum of Natural History for more such fascinating insights into the natural world.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Trace fossils
π‘Footprints
π‘Invertebrates
π‘Coprolites
π‘Gastroliths
π‘Boring
π‘Predation
π‘Paleoenvironment
π‘Sternberg Museum of Natural History
π‘Fossilization
Highlights
Introduction to trace fossils, which are traces of animals and plants from the past that are preserved in the fossil record.
Footprints and tracks as common types of trace fossils, providing insights into the types of animals present in ancient ecosystems.
The significance of footprints in determining the stride length and behavior of ancient animals, such as whether they were walking or running.
Trace fossils of invertebrates, like worm burrows, which reveal information about the environment and the behavior of these organisms.
The use of burrow traces to infer oxygen levels and sedimentation rates in ancient oceans.
Coprolites, or fossilized feces, as a source of information about the diet of ancient animals.
The preservation of gastroliths, stomach stones used by marine reptiles like plesiosaurs to aid digestion and maintain buoyancy.
Boring traces in wood and shells, indicating the presence of shipworms and predation by moon snails.
The ecological implications of trace fossils, such as the relationship between predator and prey in ancient marine environments.
The educational value of trace fossils in understanding the behavior and environment of prehistoric life.
The rarity and significance of well-preserved trace fossils, such as those found in the Sternberg Museum.
The importance of trace fossils in reconstructing ancient ecosystems and the interactions between different species.
The role of trace fossils in paleontological research and the stories they tell about the past.
The Sternberg Museum's contribution to the study and display of trace fossils, enhancing public understanding of paleontology.
Encouragement for viewers to engage with the content, like, subscribe, and support the museum's educational efforts.
Transcripts
hello everybody i'm dr rhys barrick
and welcome to a new way to museum i'm
here at the sternberg
and i decided to come talk to you a
little bit about some of my favorite
types of fossils
which are really cool and those are
trace fossils
what are trace fossils trace fossils are
simply
traces of animals and plants that
lived long ago but the animals or plants
themselves weren't preserved in the
fossil record
but just remnants of traces of
what they were doing and how they were
living are preserved
so a lot of you probably have some ideas
of what trace fossils might be
probably the most common type of trace
fossil that people think about
on a regular basis are things like this
this is a footprint
right so a track this happens to be a
track of a camel
which is kind of cool now footprints and
traces like that can come in a couple of
kinds sometimes
when you step into the ground you leave
an impression
and that impression can come become
hardened into the rock
and leave a footprint so that's pretty
cool so now you have a trace of the
animal you got a trace of their foot
which helps you identify what type of
animal it is
lots of people today look at all kinds
of footprints and tracks and trails of
modern animals to figure out if there
are raccoons or wolves or cats
running around in the woods in the mud
but we can find these in the fossil
record
and so sometimes they're imprints this
way and sometimes the imprint will fill
up
and you will pop it out and you get
this positive impression of a footprint
footprints are cool
because they give you an idea of the
number of different types of animals
that might be running around
in a mud flat or a certain ecosystem
which is pretty cool they can also tell
you a lot if you know what kind of
animal made the footprint
and how big it is it can sort of tell
you how tall it was
and once you can do that you can
actually measure how far away
each footprint is from each other so if
you have
a whole track way of footprints you can
figure out
how far stride was and if you know that
you can figure out
was that animal walking or running so
footprints are kind of useful for all
sorts of things other than just
cool it's a footprint of an animal
so one very common type
of trace what are the kinds of trace
fossils are there
well another common type of trace fossil
are simply
tracks and trails of invertebrates
so this is kind of a cool rock and you
can see on here there's all these little
long lines and looks like little tubes
on top of the surface well that's what
they are they're
tubes of worms and things that were
burrowing through
the sediment and there's
different shapes and sizes of
tubes of invertebrates crawling through
the mud
generally in the ocean and they can tell
us a whole lot
about what life was like even though
there's no actual
body fossils tracks and trails could be
burrows that are deep into the sediment
which can
tell us things like were they
burrowing for food were they burrowing
for hiding
and protection so predators couldn't
find them
were they just moving around from place
to place
and other things that are kind of cool
about these sorts of trace fossils
is they can tell you a whole lot about
the environment
you don't get really deep burrows unless
you have lots of oxygen
at the bottom of the ocean so if you
have only really shallow burrows it
might be a low oxygen environment
so you can also tell a lot of times
how much energy there was you know were
there lots of waves was there a lot of
sediment being deposited
some animals might make a burrow that's
kind of vertical
and they might leave little poops around
the edges of their
burrow to hold it together so they can
burrow really deeply
so that
they can essentially go down to eat
and have a place to live and not get
they can be vertical so they can always
get to the surface and not be buried by
too much sand
so all kinds of cool traces by
invertebrates
and some of them are very
sort of indistinct but you just see
changes in color in the rock and that
just tells you that there are lots and
lots of different
organisms that are just turning up the
sediment sometimes the sediment gets so
turned up because there's so many
organisms burrowing around
that there's not much to see so it's a
kind of a cool thing to figure out
maybe how deep you were in the water how
much sediment there was how much oxygen
there was
all you can figure out by just evidence
of
animals that were living in the sand
other types of cool trace fossils
well one of them that is always fun
especially for the kids
are things like this
that's kind of a cool shape
and it looks like probably what you
think it looks like
it's actually a coprolite coprolite's
just fossil poop
fossil poop is pretty interesting
because
you know you had something that was
eating and guess what this is like the
book we
read when you were a little kid
everybody poops well guess what
everybody has always pooped
and so often times coprolites don't get
preserved because
they're just poop that settles to the
bottom
of a river or a lake or out on the land
and they get broken down by bacteria and
things so
they're not often preserved in the
fossil record
but they come in several sorts of cool
shapes
and very often they look pretty much
like poop
most coprolites come from things that
were carnivores
because carnivores are eating things
that have bone in them they dissolve the
phosphate which helps
to preserve the fossil poop
and occasionally in fossil poop and
coprolites
you'll find little bits of bone material
so you can actually figure out
what the animal that left the coprolite
was actually eating
which is kind of cool but not all
coprolites come from
carnivores
some fossil poop comes from herbivores
or animals that ate plants
and they don't look like much because if
you look think about a cow or a horse
they plop out a patty so they're much
more indistinct
and they're also pretty rare to preserve
in the fossil record
this one is a special one that came from
some rhinos
and what's really cool about them if you
look in here all this white bits
those are actually fossil grass seeds
so we actually have evidence of
all the different grass seeds and we can
figure out what grasses this particular
animal
in this case a fossil rhino called
teleoceras
what it was actually eating so there's a
lot of evidence of diet
that you can find when you have
coprolites
pretty darn cool and because it's a rock
i don't really have to wash my hands
right now which is
you know another benefit another thing
that goes into an animal's gullet that
we sometimes find in the fossil record
and that are these very smooth
rounded stones what's interesting about
these stones
is they're basically shirt nodules
and they're found in these guys are
found were found
out in the middle of carbonate rocks
chalks where you would not find these
perfectly rounded stones they're not
there's no river nearby
so how did they get there well these
guys are called
gastroliths gastro means stomach lift
means stone
so they're stomach stones so certain
marine animals
like in this case plesiosaurs would eat
a bunch of
these rocks swallow them and they would
stay sort of in their gizzard kind of
like a chicken
and they would help grind up food or in
some cases
give them some ballast so that would
help keep them down in the water column
so they wouldn't automatically float to
the surface
so when you find these outliers of very
smooth
rounded stones they're oftentimes
gastroliths which is really cool
all right so other kinds of trace
fossils
are not just burrows and poop and
footprint traces but also borings and
they're anything but boring borings come
in all kinds of
sort of shapes this is one of my
favorites
and you see all of these
little rounded areas and you see some
cool little areas here
which is what was actually wood this was
a piece of driftwood
floating around in the ocean and what
happens
is that this is from the cretaceous from
the
our western interior seaway and whenever
there's wood in the ocean
there's oftentimes ship worms right
there were no ships but there's lots of
driftwood
and shift shipworms would bore into the
wood
and each one of these is a boring that
was filled up with sediment
that represented an individual shipworm
which is
a bivalve and they would bore into the
wood
and they would live there safe from
anything that was trying to eat them
and they'd be floating through the water
so that they'd have a chance to
filter food out from the ocean there's
just barely a little bit of wood left
sometimes
you find absolutely no wood left but you
can tell
by the shapes of these borings that
it is a trace fossil called pteridolides
territo is the name of the shipworm
so that's kind of a cool boring other
cool borings
come give up other kinds of cool
evidence
of things that are going on and so
here's an evidence of predation
predation means something's being eaten
this is a cool little uh
by valve shell clam shell you see
there's a cute little hole in it
well that cute little hole was put there
by this nasty little moon snail
this moon snail is called a neticide and
they're very carnivorous
and what these moon snails do is they
have a foot that comes out from
underneath them
like this and they wrap around
a nice little clam shell and
they use acid in their stomach to sort
of etch out
the shell and then they have a thing
called a radula
that scrapes and scrapes and bores into
a hole into the shell
and once they get the hole in the shell
they dump a whole bunch of stomach
juices and acids to dissolve the poor
little clam
and eat it and what's cool about
these snails
is they eat all kinds of things they've
got clams that look like this
clams here and they might also even
eat other snails so here's a nice snail
shell
with a perfect little hole of where it
was
eaten by the cool moon snail what's neat
about this
is you have a whole preservation of
shells in a shell bed
you can get a ratio of how many animals
were actually eaten by moon snails
and which types of animals did they like
to eat the best
snails clams
different sorts of clams you can also
see that
the moon's nails would burrow and
different parts are bore into different
parts of the shell
might be in the front part of the shell
might be in the far back part of the
shell
and then there would become a race
between the snails and the clams
to figure out what kinds of defenses
different species of clams would have
in order to keep from being bored into
so they wouldn't be predated on
by these snails so or the snails would
get to be
really really thick shells which would
make it harder
for the poor snail to bore all the way
through this
the shell before it maybe got eaten
or it gave up or got bored and bored
and tired so borings
very cool places to live or a way to get
food
so trace fossils awesome fossils can
tell you
all about the environment and the
animals
that really weren't there or that really
were there but they're not there anymore
so very cool and thank you for joining
us for
a new way to museum thanks for joining
us in a new way to museum with the
sternberg museum of natural history
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