fossil
part of speech
noun (a fossil, fossils)
meaning for a pupil
1) A fossil is the remains or shape of a plant or animal from very long ago, kept in rock. tree →
2) Fossil fuels are coal, oil and gas, made from ancient living things. tree →
3) Informally, an old fossil is a joking name for an old-fashioned person. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons fossils show how living things have changed over millions of years and give evidence about dinosaurs; fossils form when remains are buried in mud that turns to rock. Phrases: «fossil fuels», «dinosaur fossil», «fossil hunting».
examples
- We found a fossil of a shell on the beach. tree →
- Fossils tell us what dinosaurs looked like. tree →
- Mary Anning was a famous fossil hunter. tree →
- Coal and oil are fossil fuels. tree →
- The museum has a fossil of a huge fish. tree →
- Fossils form very slowly over millions of years. tree →
- Footprints can also become fossils. tree →
note
Countable. Double s. Verb: fossilise/fossilize. Trap: most fossils are not bones themselves but rock that has taken their shape. Burning fossil fuels adds carbon dioxide to the air.
In the corpora
- A shark's skeleton is made of cartilage, which is lighter and bendier than bone, so shark fossils are mostly teeth.
- Charles Darwin sailed around the world on the Beagle from 1831 to 1836, collecting animals, plants and fossils.
- Trackways show some sauropods walked in groups, with young ones in the middle; footprints are trace fossils that show behaviour.
- Some fossils catch a moment, such as a fish with another fish in its mouth, because fast burial froze the scene.
- If a fossil lies between two ash layers, one 67 and one 65 million years old, the animal lived in between.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «fossil» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.