FOSSILS ANO PALEONTOLOGY
cesses as part of the process of fossilization, so sediments, when
The Stratigraphic and Chronologic
Importance of Fossils
In the preceding pages we have reviewed the various pro-
cesses that affect organic remains before and during their
transformation into fossils, and we have noted that there is a
close relationship between such organic remains and the sed-
iment in which they are preserved. In most cases, we can say
that the sediment and the fossil contained in it were formed
at the same time; that is, the deposit was formed at the same
time and in the same enviranmental conditions.
Even so, several external factors often disturb the enviran-
ment-time relationship that links the fossil to the sediment in
which it is found. Following death, an organism can, in fact,
be transported far from its original habitat into one where the
enviranmental conditions are very different; and geological
phenomena can move a fossil after its formation and relocate
it.
The study of the relationship between a fossil and its sedi-
ment is fascinating. With extinct organisms that are different
fram any organism now living, only the study of the sur-
raunding sediment can provide clues to the habitat in which
the organism lived. This is possible by carefully observing what
occurs in present-day habitats and then applying the infor-
mation concerning the relationship between habitat and sedi-
ment that exists in our time to the most ancient sediments.
A classic example of the attempt to reconstruct a prehistoric
environment is that involving the first vertebrates. Fragments
of these were found in layers from the Ordovician period (from
about 590 to 435 million years ago), fragments that correspond
to a group of marine vertebrates without jaws or paired fins,
related to today's lampreys. The sandstone that he Id these
fragments is typical of sublittoral (shoreline) habitats, but this
fact alone is not sufficient to prove that these were marine
animal s since they do not appear in any other Ordovician ma-
rine area. It is possible that these vertebrates lived in fresh
water and were transported into the sea later, as fragments.
However, since no continental sediments from this period have
ever been found containing remains of vertebrates, the ques-
tion cannot be resolved with what we now know.
Thus the first step in a serious paleontological analysis is
defining the relationship between the fossil and its sediment.
Doing so first requires clarification of the true meaning of sedi-
mentation and sedimento Sedimentation is the process of the
accumulation of particles originating fram the break up of
preexisting rack. This pracess can occur in a continental envi-
ronrnent, with the formation, for example, of dunes, or in a
marine environment. Each case involves the accumulation of
particles of varying size and nature; all together, these parti-
cles are called sedimento
Sediments are usually dividedinto two basic types: clastic,
or mechanical, sediments, which are the result of the trans-
portation of particles and sedimentation caused by various
means, among them water or wind; and chemical sediments,
formed by the precipitation of minerals from sea water. Just
as organic remains undergo particular chemical-physical pra-
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deposited, must undergo a change, called by geologists dia-
genesis, to be come sedimentary rock.
Sedimentation began with the beginning of the earth, and
the sediments deposited over time constitute the topmost layer
of the earth's crust. These sediments form successive strata, or
layers, of various thickness, which have a direct correlation
with geological time periods. In the fossils contained in these
strata is recorded much of the history of the earth. Paleontol-
ogists and geologists call the arrangement of the strata of sed-
imentary rocks stratification, and stratigraphy is the branch of
science devoted to its study.
Stratigraphic layers offer the possibility of analyzing the
succession of life and the occurrence of geologic events, based
of course on the supposition that the various layers can be
accurately dated. The basic rule in the study of stratification is
that any layer is older than the layer above it and younger
than the one below it. Beginning with this principIe, the fos-
sils found in the layers are thus used most of all to establish
stratigraphic correlations and to date the layers. Such correla-
tions and dating are the two major aims of stratigraphy, which
seeks to determine which sediments were deposited in a cer-
tain geographícal area during a certain period of time, and to
correlate these sediments with those deposited in the same
period in other areas.
Fossils are extraordinarily useful for this purpose. According
to the associations of flora and fauna that they contain, the
layers have been divided into various time units, recognizablé
even in rack s with different characteristics. This is done fol-
lowing so-called index fossils, specific animals or plants that
had braad geographical distribution but existed for relatively
short periods of time. Ammonites, for exarnple, are excellent
guide fossils. Their evolution was such that each species of
ammonite lived for a relatively short time but had such a broad
geographical distribution that they can be found today in
stratigraphic rack layers often separated by great distances. Thus
finding in different layers in different localities the same am-
monite, one can say that those layers were eposited during
the same period of time.
The study of fossils permits, among other things, the attri-
bution of a relative date to rocks, permitting something ex-
tremely interesting for paleontologists-the establishment of
whether a layer is older or younger than the layers above or
below it. This is based on the theory that the fossils included
in the sediments of different ages represent the evolution of
the organisms that occurred in the course of geological time.
As always, there aré certain difficulties in the practical appli-
cation of this dating system, the first of them being the pos-
sible presence in rack complexes of different fossils, which are
impossible to compare, the result of deposits made fram dif-
fering enviranments.
During the course of more than 150 years of study, and
thanks to guide fossils and their widespread geographical dis-
tribution, a satisfactory system of dating the different layers of
the earth's rack has been established. It has become possible
to subdivide the history of the earth, using these fossils, into