How to Use fossil in a Sentence
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Both were known in the fossil record before they were found alive.
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Deb Wiley,
Better Homes & Gardens,
19 Feb. 2024
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The fossil tale of the pinnipeds is not nearly as old as that of whales.
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Riley Black,
Smithsonian Magazine,
20 Mar. 2024
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The Venice coastal area sits on top of a fossil layer that runs 18-35 feet deep.
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Meghan Overdeep,
Southern Living,
12 June 2023
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The fossil record is filled with with land animals who grew to impossibly large sizes.
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Darren Orf,
Popular Mechanics,
16 May 2023
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The fossil stem and leaves of a moss, from the Camp Century sample.
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Matt Simon,
WIRED,
20 July 2023
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But Jian’s fossil wing was preserved in three dimensions.
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Ashley Strickland,
CNN Money,
4 June 2026
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That means the other half comes from fossil fuels, mainly from natural gas and coal from out-of-state plants.
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oregonlive,
30 Dec. 2022
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Wading would make sense, given the other types of fossil researchers found nearby.
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Sarah Kuta,
Smithsonian Magazine,
7 Sep. 2023
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Plastic bags are created by fossil fuels and often end up as waste in landfills and oceans.
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Mike Householder,
Detroit Free Press,
18 Jan. 2023
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While a sea anemone is nothing rare, fossil versions are highly uncommon.
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Tim Newcomb,
Popular Mechanics,
8 Mar. 2023
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After all, the fossil record shows that creatures such as whales have been vocalizing for tens of millions of years.
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Lois Parshley,
Scientific American,
19 Sep. 2023
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The pair were initially hindered by a lack of fossil flowers, which are scarce compared with fossilized bones.
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Jack Tamisiea,
New York Times,
12 Sep. 2023
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The model could then compare those values to the actual data in the fossil record and give itself a score.
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WIRED,
28 Sep. 2023
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But with both fossil fuels and plastics, production simply needs to be curtailed.
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Heather Souvaine Horn,
The New Republic,
9 Dec. 2022
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And even within those ancient environments, most life-forms never made it into the fossil record.
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Riley Black,
Smithsonian Magazine,
21 July 2023
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That’s because the fossil and geologic records are uneven, preserved in some places but not others.
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Riley Black,
Smithsonian Magazine,
10 Mar. 2023
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The hope is that it could be used to develop a clean source of power that would discontinue reliance on fossil fuels.
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Lilia Luciano,
CBS News,
13 Dec. 2022
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The work can be viewed in the museum’s fossil preparation lab, park service officials said.
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Lauren Penington,
Denver Post,
20 Jan. 2026
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The new study shows just how quickly the largest animals disappeared from the La Brea fossil record.
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Meghan Bartels,
Scientific American,
17 Aug. 2023
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Their long, thick bodies, rough skin and wide, flat heads look almost unchanged from fossil specimens dating back millions of years.
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Samantha Agate,
Charlotte Observer,
8 Apr. 2026
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Due to this lack of fossil evidence, experts have had trouble speculating about the rest of its anatomy.
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Andrew Paul,
Popular Science,
16 Oct. 2025
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Despite their extinction millions of years ago, the legacy of these ancient predators lives on in the fossil record today.
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Max Bennett,
Discover Magazine,
13 Feb. 2024
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In practice, this means a push for fossil fuels alongside the long-run urgency to shift toward renewable sources.
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Laurent Belsie,
The Christian Science Monitor,
4 Jan. 2023
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Throughout the year, the EU increased fossil-fuel imports from sources throughout the world.
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Jeff McMahon,
Forbes,
31 Dec. 2022
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Even earlier bats have proved elusive, but that’s unsurprising given the nature of the fossil record.
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Riley Black,
Smithsonian Magazine,
12 Apr. 2023
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Eighty years later, a team equipped with new technology and more understanding of the fossil record picked right up where Hesse left off.
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Laura Baisas,
Popular Science,
28 Mar. 2023
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Many of them are still down there in the ground in fossil form, only to be discovered when construction crews dig for projects like skyscrapers and transit tunnels.
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John Metcalfe,
The Mercury News,
23 Feb. 2024
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To a large degree, Willis said, the opposition was about fossil fuels in general.
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Brian Amaral,
BostonGlobe.com,
5 Dec. 2022
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The earliest horse ancestors started popping up in the fossil record around 56 million years ago.
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Laura Baisas,
Popular Science,
21 June 2023
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This marsupial species is common in fossil deposits in southern Australia but is unknown in the north.
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Mindy Weisberger,
CNN Money,
27 Oct. 2025
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And the proof was found in the fossils.
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Scott Travers,
Forbes.com,
13 Sep. 2025
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The fossils weren’t locked in rock.
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Hanna Wickes,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
29 Mar. 2026
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Or, at least, pieces of fossils.
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Andrew Paul,
Popular Science,
4 June 2026
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His body looks more and more like the fossil of a dinosaur.
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Literary Hub,
17 Oct. 2025
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For me, Qreiya 3 is more than a fossil site.
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Sanaa El-Sayed,
The Conversation,
4 June 2026
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The fossils themselves are not new.
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Ashley Vega,
PEOPLE,
10 June 2026
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This is the kind of fossil that Kgasi is looking for.
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Ari Daniel,
NPR,
4 Feb. 2026
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These aren’t just shells and hard parts, the typical fare for fossils of this age.
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Hanna Wickes,
Kansas City Star,
27 Feb. 2026
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Still, describing a species from fossils can take years.
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Mindy Weisberger,
CNN Money,
28 May 2026
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The fossil record doesn’t provide a clear answer.
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Scott Travers,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
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The fossil has an enormous jaw with 12 rows of sharp teeth and large spines along its back.
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Elizabeth Gamillo,
Discover Magazine,
21 Mar. 2024
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Two of the fossils appeared to be unknown to the fossil record.
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Elizabeth Gamillo,
Discover Magazine,
24 July 2023
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The team had to clean the fossil to expose the soft, paper-thin clay boundary.
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Abhishek Bhardwaj,
Interesting Engineering,
24 Oct. 2025
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This fossil predates that entire era by tens of millions of years.
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Samantha Agate,
Miami Herald,
23 Apr. 2026
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Most of the science lives inside with the fossils and exhibits.
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The Washington Post,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
10 Mar. 2026
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This skeleton has helped bridge a critical gap in the fossil record.
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Maria Mocerino,
Interesting Engineering,
17 Jan. 2026
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Most of the whale fossils come from several species of deep-diving beaked whales.
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Laura Baisas,
Popular Science,
10 June 2026
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Some institutions use this method to keep fossils in great shape.
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Elizabeth Gamillo,
Discover Magazine,
16 Feb. 2024
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The girls received waders and fossil sifters as gifts, and were excited to test them out.
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Catherine Garcia,
The Week,
26 Jan. 2023
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The fossils date back 567 million years.
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Jack Tamisiea,
Scientific American,
20 May 2026
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Patagonia is one of the world’s hot spots for fossils of dinosaurs, large and small.
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Reuters,
NBC news,
26 Feb. 2026
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The rest of the team clambered over to the fossil, running their hands along the jagged surface.
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Frank Hulley-Jones,
Washington Post,
17 Nov. 2023
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Phillips sold its first dinosaur fossil in 2025.
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Daniel Cassady,
ARTnews.com,
28 May 2026
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But the traits of the Grotte à Hominidés fossils are more of a mix of new and old.
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Stephanie Pappas,
Scientific American,
7 Jan. 2026
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This fossil offers one of the best answers available.
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Samantha Agate,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
23 Apr. 2026
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The fossils hint that this giant scorpion may have lived in the water some of the time.
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Laura Baisas,
Popular Science,
4 June 2026
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Even outside of riverbeds, fossil finds can be surprising.
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Alice Gibbs,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Sep. 2025
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Finding the fossil layer itself was not easy.
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Sanaa El-Sayed,
The Conversation,
4 June 2026
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Collectors are not looking for just any fossil.
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Daniel Cassady,
ARTnews.com,
28 May 2026
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The Huayuan biota fossils broke that pattern.
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Hanna Wickes,
Charlotte Observer,
27 Feb. 2026
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fossil.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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