Biostratinomy

Biostratinomy refers to the processes that occur after an organism's death, involving the transportation, disarticulation, and preservation of its remains before they become fossilized. It includes activities like scavenging, decay, transport by water or wind, and physical breakage. These processes influence which parts of an organism are preserved and how they are arranged in the fossil record. Understanding biostratinomy helps paleontologists interpret how fossils were formed, what environmental conditions existed, and how biological communities interacted within their ecosystems before burial and mineralization.