Topic summary
Taphonomic
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Taphonomy.
Description
Taphonomic phenomena are grouped into two phases: biostratinomy, events that occur between the death of the organism and the burial; and diagenesis, events that occur after the burial. Since Efremov's definition, taphonomy has expanded to include the fossilization of organic and inorganic materials through both cultural and environmental influences. Taphonomy is now most widely defined as the study of what happens to objects after they leave the biosphere (living contexts), enter the lithosphere (buried contexts), and are subsequently recovered and studied.