2-Molded Fossils/Preserved Origional Material Fossils
For a molded fossil, the hyracotherinum would have to create an imprint by perhaps walking across some mud or wet sand, and left a footprint. Before it could be disturbed, more sediment would have been deposited on top, and later it would become a fossil of a four toed horse. Another scenario is that this "horse" could have died, and fallen over into the mud/sand, and the cycle would begin the same way, but with a differently shaped fossil; a whole or part hyracotherinum. Molds preserve the outlines but not the insides. This is why worms that have no hard material to be fossilized as a "preserved original material" are so commonly found as molded fossils. However, sometimes mud and sand flows into the cavity left behind by the body, and re-creates the body shape. Below are two images of both kinds of molded fossils.
A preserved original material fossil is
the solid parts of the body (bones, teeth and shell) of the horse's body
that has been preserved in the same place as it was before the hyracotherinum plopped
off in the mud. Below is an image of a preserved original material fossil of a sabre toothed tiger.
