What Are Three Types of Fossils?

Body or Trace Fossils

• Although there are several types of fossils, they are all divided into two main categories: body and trace fossils. Body fossils show the remains of a plant or animal. This category of fossils shows what the animal or plant looked like. Commonly body fossils are formed from the hard parts of the body like the skeleton, claws or teeth of an animal. Trace fossils record the animal's activity. A fossilized footprint or coprolite, for example, are trace fossils because these types of fossils show how the animal lived in terms of what it ate, how it moved, and behaved. Trace fossils of foot prints reveal information about the length of an animal's stride, whether it walked on two or four legs, stalking behavior (hunting in herds or alone), and how the tail is carried (held up or dragged behind).

Amber

• Amber is a type of fossil formed from resin from trees that sometimes contains preserved insects or plants inside. This is a lightweight body fossil and typically has a yellowish color. Most of the amber fossils found were located in the Baltic Sea region. Sometimes these fossilized remains wash ashore in areas such as Germany and Madagascar.

Coprolites

• Coprolite is the fossilized feces of animals such as dinosaurs and mammals. Typically this type of fossil is found on land but some coprolite from marine animals have also been found. The coprolite tells scientists about the life of the animal in terms of the climate and what it ate. The largest coprolite found was located in Canada and originated from a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Although coprolite fossils are common, they are hard to recognize.

Ichnofossils

• Fossilized burrows and tracks are called ichnofossils. On the seafloor, animals leave marks in the sediments or dig holes. The fossils are created when the marks or holes are filled in because the sediments that fill them in have a different texture. The makers of most ichnofossils are unknown.