How to Use fossilized in a Sentence

fossilized

adjective
  • Mario’s grapes grow over soils bulging with fossilized shells.
    — Tom Mullen, Forbes, 24 July 2022
  • People come here to spend time on the quiet beach, hunting for shells and fossilized shark's teeth.
    — Beth Luberecki, USA Today, 21 Feb. 2026
  • The pinnacles seem endless yet no two are exactly the same — like fossilized snowflakes.
    — Roger Naylor, AZCentral.com, 29 Aug. 2025
  • Because soft tissue does not preserve well, finding fossilized tissue is rare.
    — Monica Cull, Discover Magazine, 19 Dec. 2024
  • The pair were initially hindered by a lack of fossil flowers, which are scarce compared with fossilized bones.
    — Jack Tamisiea, New York Times, 12 Sep. 2023
  • On one end of the bone, a conical puncture breaks up the smooth, fossilized surface, according to the study.
    — Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 23 Jan. 2025
  • Perhaps the most obvious and direct route is simply looking for fossilized microbes.
    — Carmen Drahl, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 May 2023
  • The sacs' presence can be detected from indentations and cavities in fossilized bones, even when the soft tissues are long gone.
    — Riley Black, Scientific American, 1 Mar. 2023
  • The paper found a compelling piece of evidence in the pig’s ear – a fossilized structure that whales alone have and use for underwater hearing.
    — Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 10 Aug. 2023
  • These beaches are some of the best in Florida for finding shells and fossilized shark teeth, especially near the fort and jetties.
    — Taryn Shorr-McKee, Travel + Leisure, 31 May 2026
  • Instead, the fuel is produced from non-fossilized organic matter, such as agricultural and forestry waste and cooking oils.
    — Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 24 Feb. 2026
  • The team studied fossilized jaws and the wear patterns on them to reconstruct the sizes and feeding behaviors of the ancient octopuses.
    — Kate Wong, Scientific American, 23 Apr. 2026
  • The team hoped to find evidence of soft tissues under the coating, but a microscopic analysis revealed the presence of paint rather than fossilized skin.
    — Amanda Kooser, Forbes, 16 Feb. 2024
  • Millions of years later, fossilized remains are now revealing the story of a giant, clawed dinosaur that once dominated the Earth.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 27 Mar. 2025
  • Made from fossilized phytoplankton, DE is approved for organic gardens and can be sprinkled directly onto ant hills to kill ants.
    — Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 June 2026
  • Since the oldest intact fossilized butterfly was 55 million years old, and bats evolved in the same era, many scientists had thought that a group of moths became day-flying to escape bat predation.
    — Richard Grant, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 Feb. 2024
  • The piece similarly matches the species Albadraco tharmisensis, the size of which was determined based on fossilized vertebrae, according to the study.
    — Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 26 Sep. 2025
  • Traces of ancient diets in fossil teeth To determine which plants ancient animals ate, my colleagues and I collect a small amount of enamel powder from fossilized teeth.
    — Zelalem Bedaso, The Conversation, 17 Apr. 2026
  • The park also includes fossilized flora and fauna, petroglyphs, wildflowers, colorful rock formations, and wildlife.
    — Patricia Doherty, Travel + Leisure, 3 May 2026
  • Other team members continued conducting surface and CT imaging of the skeleton and studied fossilized footprints.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 23 Oct. 2025
  • Likewise, primitive asteroidal bodies are somewhat like fossilized remnants of the building blocks of the solar system's planets, including Earth.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 19 June 2026
  • Recent analysis of fossilized remains in Kenya ostensibly proves that Paranthropis boisei was fully capable of crafting and using their own tools.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 16 Oct. 2025
  • Diatomaceous Earth Diatomaceous earth is a fine powder, made from fossilized algae, that is completely non-toxic to humans and pets but deadly to many insects—including ants.
    — Rae Ford, Martha Stewart, 28 Jan. 2026
  • Scientists recently uncovered fossilized jawbones of Nanaimoteuthis haggarti – a massive, kraken-like octopus that roamed Earth about 72 million years ago.
    — Janet Loehrke, USA Today, 4 June 2026
  • The Denisovans are an extinct subspecies of archaic humans, which were discovered in 2010 after researchers found a fossilized finger in the Denisova Cave in Siberia.
    — Desiree Anello, PEOPLE, 27 Sep. 2025
  • How fitting, then, that a primitive predator from five hundred and sixty million years ago, a fossilized example of which was discovered near where the young David grew up, should have been named Auroralumina attenboroughii in his honor.
    — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 8 May 2026
  • Renewable fuels are produced from sustainable, renewable, non-fossilized organic materials instead of non-renewable petroleum.
    — New Atlas, 23 Feb. 2026
  • Witchy Friend Heretic Häxan, $125 For fans of the occult, Heretic’s Haxan offers just the rich, embery combination of fossilized amber, oakmoss and musks.
    — Noor Lobad, Footwear News, 25 Nov. 2025
  • Archaeological digs have unearthed ancient Greek winemaking vessels, while fossilized remains of grape species found during other excavations date back to the 11th to 9th centuries BC.
    — Charlotte Reck, CNN Money, 17 Nov. 2025
  • Northern California’s Petrified Forest is a surreal landscape full of massive, fossilized redwood trees, preserved by an eruption of nearby Mount Saint Helena millions of years ago.
    — Cu Fleshman, Travel + Leisure, 12 Apr. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fossilized.' 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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