How to Use microfossil in a Sentence

microfossil

noun
  • And where there are geochemical signs of life, there could also be microfossils.
    — Peter Byrne, Quanta Magazine, 24 Apr. 2014
  • Some of those extinct organisms might be microfossils entombed in rock.
    — National Geographic, 17 Oct. 2016
  • The rush of water washed ashore marine worms, microfossils of which were recently unearthed.
    — Gemma Tarlach, Discover Magazine, 9 May 2017
  • And the researchers believe the results show that these microfossils are not impostors.
    — Scott K. Johnson, Ars Technica, 3 Jan. 2018
  • Scientists know this thanks to a handful of ancient teeth, whose plaque revealed microfossils of fish scales, fish flesh and starch granules.
    — Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian, 2 July 2018
  • The most complex microfossil consists of a stem with parallel branches on one side that is nearly a centimeter long.
    — David Bressan, Forbes, 14 Apr. 2022
  • The less-than-attractive scientific name of this less-than-attractive microfossil calls out its winkled, bag-like body and mouth resembling a crown.
    — Gemma Tarlach, Discover Magazine, 30 Jan. 2017
  • These deposits contain tiny microfossils of plankton, including organisms such as diatoms and coccolithophores that live on or near the ocean’s surface.
    — Suzanne Oconnell, The Conversation, 3 Sep. 2024
  • Conceivably, there is still cryptic life on Mars, although astrobiologists would be thrilled to find even a microfossil of something that lived billions of years ago.
    — Joel Achenbach, BostonGlobe.com, 21 Feb. 2023
  • At around 1 billion years old, the seaweed microfossil — a type of algae known as Proterocladus antiquus — is the oldest green seaweed known to man.
    — Joshua Bote, USA TODAY, 27 Feb. 2020
  • One geoscientist had to make countless trips up and down the stairs of the department building to personally hand off each microfossil to a technician for polishing.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 19 Dec. 2017
  • While examining the microfossils, Porter found circular wounds of various sizes.
    — Mark Strauss, National Geographic, 9 June 2016
  • The scientists discovered the cave while searching for microfossils to buttress their then-radical theory that microbial life flourished on land more than a billion years ago.
    — Peter Byrne, Quanta Magazine, 24 Apr. 2014
  • The microfossils also lend support to the idea that the warm, watery, mineral-rich neighborhoods around submerged vents are prime places for life to emerge, whether on this planet, on the seafloors of icy moons, or elsewhere in the universe.
    — Photograph Courtesy Matthew Dodd, National Geographic, 1 Mar. 2017
  • Paleosols are typically full of pollen and microfossils of simple organisms, such as diatoms, a kind of algae that can indicate climate conditions.
    — Gemma Tarlach, Discover Magazine, 20 May 2019
  • All of these microfossils — or the chemical evidence associated with them — are hotly debated.
    — Quanta Magazine, 22 Jan. 2018
  • The freckles, Virginia Tech researchers say, are actually billion-year-old seaweed microfossils.
    — Alaa Elassar, CNN, 26 Feb. 2020
  • These include a microfossil sifter where visitors can sift through sand and learn how archaeologists search for fossils and tactile activities where visitors can touch and compare bronze casts of specimens,.
    — Liz Rothaus Bertrand, Charlotte Observer, 26 June 2024
  • However, many scientists believe the Western Australia microfossils are not fossils at all, but the result non-biological processes of geology such as changes in heat and pressure.
    — Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics, 1 Mar. 2017
  • Now, a comprehensive analysis of the microfossils suggests that these formations do indeed represent ancient microbes; ones potentially so complex that life on our planet must have originated some 500 million years earlier.
    — Roni Dengler, Science | AAAS, 22 Dec. 2017

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