Study of all processes that affect an organism after it dies, (such as scavenging, tissue degradation, transport of a body, and burial) and its fossilization potential. Also can be applied to the preservation of trace fossils.
The study of the depositional and preservational processes which produce archaeological or palaeontological material.
The study of the death, burial, and fossilization process of organisms.
Taphonomy (which means 'laws of burial') is the science that studies the process of decay and fossilization. The Russian paleontologist Ivan A. Efremov coined the term taphonomy and founded the study of taphonomy in 1940.
the study of processes which have affected organic materials such as bone after death; it also involves the microscopic analysis of tooth-marks or cut marks to assess the effects of butchery or scavenging activities.
The study of what happens to a fossil, from the time of its initial creation (e.g. the death of an organism or the imprint left by the movement of an organism) and the time that the fossil is discovered by a paleontologist. For example, shells or bones can be moved my running water, and later be compressed by overlying sediment. Taphonomy is often broken into two parts, biostratinomy and the study of diagenesis.
study of the processes of burial and fossilization.
The science of how fossilization occurs.
The branch of paleontology that deals with the processes by which animal and plant remains become preserved as fossils, i.e. the changes undergone by an organism from its death until its discovery as a fossil. See Briggs and Crowther (1990), Ch. 3.
study of processes that affect organic materials after deposition
the processes and conditions to which plants and animals are subjected as they become fossilized. [AHDOS
Taphonomy is the study of a decaying organism over time. The term taphonomy, (from the Greek taphos meaning burial, and nomos meaning law), was introduced to paleontology in 1940 by Russian scientist, Ivan Efremov, to describe the study of the transition of remains, parts, or products of organisms, from the biosphere, to the lithosphere, i.e. the creation of fossil assemblages, (e.g. see Shipman 1981 p.5-6, Greenwood 1991, Lyman 1994).