List of notable fossils
Encyclopedia
This is a list of notable fossil
s, ordered by geologic time frame. (Note: This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of fossils, of which there are millions, but those that are of enough significance to merit a Wikipedia article.)
Precambrian
Devonian
Neogene
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s, ordered by geologic time frame. (Note: This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of fossils, of which there are millions, but those that are of enough significance to merit a Wikipedia article.)
PrecambrianPrecambrianThe Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...
- Nama Group (NamacalathusNamacalathusNamacalathusNama, from the geological group where it was described, + Greek κάλαθος, kalathos, meaning "basket in the shape of a lily", or "wine goblet" is a problematic metazoan fossil occurring in the latest Ediacaran. The single species N...
, CloudinaCloudinidThe Cloudinids, an early metazoan family containing the genus Cloudina, lived in the late Ediacaran period and became extinct at the base of the Cambrian. They formed millimetre-scale conical fossils consisting of calcareous cones nested within one another; the appearance of the organism itself...
) - Gunflint ChertGunflint ChertThe Gunflint chert is a sequence of banded iron formation rocks that are exposed in the Gunflint Range of northern Minnesota and northwestern Ontario along the north shore of Lake Superior. The black layers in the sequence contain microfossils that are 1.9 to 2.3 billion years in age. Stromatolite...
(stromatolitesGunflint ChertThe Gunflint chert is a sequence of banded iron formation rocks that are exposed in the Gunflint Range of northern Minnesota and northwestern Ontario along the north shore of Lake Superior. The black layers in the sequence contain microfossils that are 1.9 to 2.3 billion years in age. Stromatolite...
) - Worldwide Ediacaran Biota (CharniaCharniaCharnia is the genus name given to a frond-like Ediacaran lifeform with segmented ridges branching alternately to the right and left from a zig-zag medial suture. The genus Charnia was named after Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, England, where the first fossilised specimen was found.- Diversity...
, DickinsoniaDickinsoniaDickinsonia is an iconic fossil of the Ediacaran biota. It resembles a bilaterally symmetrical ribbed oval. Its affinities are presently unknown; most interpretations consider it to be an animal, although others suggest it may be fungal, or a member of an "extinct kingdom".-Species variety:A...
)
DevonianDevonianThe Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...
- Klerf Formation LagerstätteKlerf FormationThe Klerf Formation is an Early Devonian formation that includes a Lagerstätte in the Northern Eifel hills, at Willwerath near Prüm, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. In it Jaekelopterus rhenaniae, a giant eurypterid was discovered. The Klerf Formation was first described in 1919 by Rudolf Richter ....
(Jaekelopterus rhenaniaeJaekelopterus rhenaniaeJaekelopterus rhenaniae is an extinct species of the Eurypterida . At an estimated length of 2.5 meters , it is one of the two largest arthropods ever discovered...
) - Gogo FormationGogo FormationThe Gogo Formation in the Kimberley region of Western Australia is a Lagerstätte that exhibits exceptional preservation of a Devonian reef community.- Sedimentology :...
(MaterpiscisMaterpiscisMaterpiscis is a genus of ptyctodontid placoderm from the Late Devonian located at the Gogo Formation of Western Australia...
, GogonasusGogonasusGogonasus was a lobe-finned fish known from 3-dimensionally preserved 380 million-year-old fossils found from the Gogo Formation in Western Australia. It lived in the late Devonian period, on what was once a 1400 kilometre coral reef off the Kimberley coast surrounding the north-west of Australia...
) - TiktaalikTiktaalikTiktaalik is a genus of extinct sarcopterygian from the late Devonian period, with many features akin to those of tetrapods . It is an example from several lines of ancient sarcopterygian "fish" developing adaptations to the oxygen-poor shallow-water habitats of its time, which led to the...
NeogeneNeogeneThe Neogene is a geologic period and system in the International Commission on Stratigraphy Geologic Timescale starting 23.03 ± 0.05 million years ago and ending 2.588 million years ago...
- Laetoli footprintsLaetoliLaetoli is a site in Tanzania, dated to the Plio-Pleistocene and famous for its hominin footprints, preserved in volcanic ash . The site of the Laetoli footprints is located 45 km south of Olduvai gorge.-Date:...
- LucyLucy (Australopithecus)Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1, several hundred pieces of bone representing about 40% of the skeleton of an individual Australopithecus afarensis. The specimen was discovered in 1974 at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression. Lucy is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years...
- Taung ChildTaung ChildThe Taung Child — or Taung Baby — is the fossilized skull of a young Australopithecus africanus individual. It was discovered in 1924 by quarrymen working for the Northern Lime Company in Taung, South Africa...
- Mrs. PlesMrs. PlesMrs. Ples is the popular nickname for the most complete skull of an Australopithecus africanus specimen ever found in South Africa. Many fossils of this species, which are considered to be the distant relatives of all humankind, have been found in the Sterkfontein area, in what has been designated...
- The Old ManLa Chapelle-aux-Saints 1La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 is a partial skeleton of the species Homo neanderthalensis. It was discovered in La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France by A. and J. Bouyssonie, and L. Bardon in 1908...
- Hofmeyr SkullHofmeyr SkullThe Hofmeyr Skull is a specimen of a 37,000 year old human skull found in 1952. It is one of the very few modern human skulls discovered in Africa south of Ethiopia and older than 20,000 years.-Background:...
- Minatogawa ManMinatogawa ManThe Minatogawa Man is a prehistoric people of Okinawa, Japan, represented by four skeletons and some isolated bones dated between 16,000 and 14,000 years BCE...
- Ida
- TurritellenplatteTurritellenplatteThe Turritellenplatte of Ermingen is a type of very rich fossil-bearing rock which is of particular interest to geologists and paleontologists...
See also
- FossilFossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
- List of fossil sites
- List of human evolution fossils
- List of transitional fossils