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Fossilization is a process of preservation of once living life forms by a variety of different processes. The most well known types of fossilization are permineralization and carbonization or distillation. Certain parameters must be met in order for fossils to form. They are a rapid death and fast burial in relatively anaerobic conditions.

When Charles Darwin first published On the Origin of Species in 1859, he was certain that the fossil record would eventually substantiate his theory. After all, if Darwin was correct, there should be a continuum of organisms beginning with the simplest life form and eventually progressing into every other type of creature. One by one, certain fossils were discovered and proclaimed by those who supported Darwin’s theory to be “missing links.”