taphonomy
Americannoun
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the circumstances and processes of fossilization.
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the study of the environmental conditions affecting the preservation of animal or plant remains.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of taphonomy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
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
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
Math used to analyze taphonomy and what one can infer from the exact position of fossils at the site where they died.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 22, 2012
That is, Dave is ‘discovering’ artifacts of sedimentology and taphonomy, not genuine features of anatomy.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 4, 2012
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