Answer:
Fossils are defined as the remains or traces of organisms that died more than 10,000 years ago, therefore, by definition the minimum time it takes to make a fossil is 10,000 years. But, that is just an arbitrary line in the sand – it means very little in terms of the fossilisation process.
Explanation:
Fossils are a record of organisms that lived in the past. are two main categories of fossils: body fossils and ichnofossils. Body fossils are the result of preservation of parts or the entire body of a plant, animal, or microorganism. These are the fossils that people are most familiar with, consisting of skeletons, teeth, shells, carapaces, organisms in amber, petrified wood, plant material, pollen, etc. Ichnofossils (also called trace fossils) are evidence of an organism’s activity. Common ichnofossils are animal footprints and trackways, burrows, traces of plant roots, coprolites (fossil feces), and borings in rocks, bones, wood, shells, or other substrates. The study of fossils provides information about ancient biological communities, and the physiology, behavior, and ecology of organisms.
In conclusion, fossilization at least at the present time, is thought to be a very unlikely process and it is believed that only a very small fraction of organisms that lived in the past became fossils. The majority of these fossils were hard skeletal parts or wood. To become fossilized, organisms must be rapidly buried, preferably in a fine sediment with geochemical conditions that favor the exchange of minerals between the sediment and organic components of the organism, and that exchange of minerals is possible because of dissolved minerals in flowing water. If those conditions occur, fossilization must necessarily be a rapid process of a few hours to a few months if it is to occur before decay destroys any record of the organism. Fossilization does not take thousands or millions of years, but is most likely to occur in catastrophic conditions such as would have existed during the Genesis Flood.
