Ep 148: Learning the most from the least
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Learning the most from the least
Not all fossils are large bones of things like dinosaurs or mammoths. Some of them are small enough to require a microscope in order to identify them. Called microfossils, these tiny fragments, and even remains of single-celled organisms, can tell us a good deal about things like the climate, the vegetation, the temperature, and chemical composition of the water and air when a given layer or strata of rock was laid down.
Here’s a link to an article about using microfossils to solve the mystery of what killed the last of the mammoths.
The last woolly mammoths in North America didn’t starve – they died of thirst
Here’s an article that talks about the use of microfossils for finding oil deposits.
USING MICROFOSSILS IN PETROLEUM EXPLORATION
And here are some articles about a few different types of microfossils.