I can't answer when, but I do think that using "fossil" as an adjective
applied to ancient meteorites is perfectly acceptable. In geology (and
other sciences) it usually means anything preserved from an earlier
geologic age, not necessarily something living. "Fossil meteorite" is as
valid as "fossil water". It is when using "fossil" as a noun that you
would be on thinner ice, since that seems reserved for a remnant of an
organism.
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "chris aubeck" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Chauncey Walden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2007 11:56 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] "Fossil" as a 17th century term for
excavatedmeteorite?
Hi list,
Can anyone tell me when the word "fossil" was first used to describe
meteorites of this kind?
The use of the term to refer to obtaining anything by digging comes
from the early 17th century, its use with chiefly organic remains a
century later (1736). I was wondering whether the word, in the field
of meteorites, had come to us from before 1736.
Fossil: 1619, "obtained by digging" (adj.), from Fr. fossile, from L.
fossilis "dug up," from fossus, pp. of fodere "to dig," from PIE base
*bhedh- "to dig, pierce."
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=fossil&searchmode=none
Regards,
Chris
On Dec 2, 2007 5:48 PM, Chauncey Walden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
Dean, since the loose definition of "fossil" is any evidence of
former
life, obviously a meteorite, well, most;-), cannot be a fossil.
Paleo,
or "old", is the better term, and in the case in discussion
represents a
meteorite that has fallen in past times to the extent of having been
incorporated into what became a geologic formation and, in some
cases,
weathered out again. Your confusion seems to be between
fossilization,
or the preservation of any evidence of former life (like a basically
unaltered mammoth tusk in the Artic), and petrification, or the
replacement or pereservation of material by the introduction of
silica,
like petrified wood. The interesting thing, is that in well preserved
petrified wood the cellulose can remain. The silica can be dissolved
out
and the cellulose structure captured and studied, even to the extent
of
taking biologic stains.
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