Exceptional preservation

Outline in black
When skeleton lack
An unknown critter revived
Or pyritized bits
In a fossil that sits
Impressions of creatures alive

A good lagerstatten
Fills in theories rotten
From overuse, bad data, and pride
Concretions are neat
A geode-like treat
Split open for treasures inside

Impressions of scales
Or feathers on tails
Rounds out an organisms gird
Or a coprolite cache
Of leftover trash
From dinners and diets preferred

A paleo street
From sporadic feet
That walked across mudflats or ash
When buried quite quick
With sediments thick
These trackways preserved in a flash

Preservation in tar
Is raising the bar
On processes seen in the skull
While freezing in ice
The corpse would suffice
In saving the entire hull

Amber with bugs
In coalfield vugs
And mummies from climates so dry
Their tissues conserve
Are ways to preserve
Organic bits in short supply

When poo, prints, and all
Combined with bone spall
A picture complete and defined
For which in the seeking
Of fossils that peeking
From rocks the life tale refined.

Copyright 2001, Chris L. Schneider