fossil

Definition

The mineralized remains of an animal or plant.

Etymology

From French fossile, from Latin fossilis (“something which has been dug up”), from fodio (“I dig up”).

Example Sentences

• "With the permission of the Keeper of the fossil collection, therefore, the specimen was subjected to a further careful removal of the matrix in the requisite directions."
• "Within the Hepaticae two types of fossils can be distinguished: those with sufficient characters to assign them to an order and those with more obscure characters."
• "He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record."

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