Editing Fossil (section)

=== Bioimmuration ===
[[File:Catellocaula.jpg|thumb|The star-shaped holes (''Catellocaula vallata'') in this Upper Ordovician bryozoan represent a soft-bodied organism preserved by bioimmuration in the bryozoan skeleton.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Palmer | first1 = T. J. | last2 = Wilson | first2 = MA | year = 1988 | title = Parasitism of Ordovician bryozoans and the origin of pseudoborings | journal = Palaeontology | volume = 31 | pages = 939–949 }}</ref>]]

Bioimmuration occurs when a skeletal organism overgrows or otherwise subsumes another organism, preserving the latter, or an impression of it, within the skeleton.<ref name="Taylor, PD. 1990">{{cite journal | last1 = Taylor | first1 = P. D. | year = 1990 | title = Preservation of soft-bodied and other organisms by bioimmuration: A review | journal = Palaeontology | volume = 33 | pages = 1–17 }}</ref> Usually it is a [[Sessility (zoology)|sessile]] skeletal organism, such as a [[bryozoan]] or an [[oyster]], which grows along a [[Substrate (biology)|substrate]], covering other sessile [[sclerobiont]]s. Sometimes the bioimmured organism is soft-bodied and is then preserved in negative relief as a kind of external mold. There are also cases where an organism settles on top of a living skeletal organism that grows upwards, preserving the settler in its skeleton. Bioimmuration is known in the fossil record from the [[Ordovician]]<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Wilson | first1 = MA | last2 = Palmer | first2 = T. J. | last3 = Taylor | first3 = P. D. | year = 1994 | title = Earliest preservation of soft-bodied fossils by epibiont bioimmuration: Upper Ordovician of Kentucky | journal = Lethaia | volume = 27 | issue = 3| pages = 269–270 | doi=10.1111/j.1502-3931.1994.tb01420.x| bibcode = 1994Letha..27..269W }}</ref> to the Recent.<ref name="Taylor, PD. 1990" />