taphonomy

American  

[tuh-fon-uh-mee] / təˈfɒn ə mi /

noun

Paleontology, Anthropology.

1. the circumstances and processes of fossilization.

2. the study of the environmental conditions affecting the preservation of animal or plant remains.

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taphonomy British  

/ ˌtæfəˈnɒmɪk, təˈfɒnəmɪ /

noun

1. the study of the processes affecting an organism after death that result in its fossilization

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Other Word Forms

• taphonomic adjective
• taphonomist noun

Etymology

Origin of taphonomy

1965–70; < Greek táph ( ē ) grave + -o- + -nomy

Example Sentences

Sullivan, C., Wang, Y. & Ren, D. An updated review of the Middle-Late Jurassic Yanliao biota: chronology, taphonomy, paleontology and paleoecology.

From Nature • Nov. 12, 2017

The taphonomy of how skin and protofeathers preserve, or do not, is little known, and the positive presence of skin can’t automatically be taken as an indication protofeathers were absent.

From Scientific American • Jul. 1, 2017

In this manner, the MSL mission has evolved from initially seeking to understand the habitability of ancient Mars to developing predictive models for the taphonomy of martian organic matter.

From Science Magazine • Jan. 23, 2014

Paleontology embraces this challenge of record failure with the subdiscipline of taphonomy, through which we seek to understand the preservation process of materials of potential biologic interest.

From Science Magazine • Jan. 23, 2014

That is, Dave is ‘discovering’ artifacts of sedimentology and taphonomy, not genuine features of anatomy.

From Scientific American • Jul. 4, 2012