Lately, just out of my own curiosity, I've been trying to find out more about the fossil record. Where certain fossils are found, how deep, how many, etc. Typical diagrams from high school textbooks are obviously too clean and organized, that's why they're diagrams. So I've been trying to find a more realistic map, and haven't really found it.
Anyway, from what I understand, the deeper the fossil the older it is, correct? So I googled "deepest fossil ever found" and came up with this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4950540.stm
Is it saying the deepest fossil is of a dinosaur, or that this is the deepest dinosaur fossil? If its the latter, does anyone know what the deepest (not oldest) fossil currently is?
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It is the deepest dinosaur fossil, not the oldest fossil. The oldest fossils are of cyanobacteria which date to 3.7 billion years.
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-world-s-oldest-known-fossils-have-been-...
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/cyanofr.html
Watch this.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/life-rocky-start.html
My guess would be something pulled out of the Kola Superdeep Borehole; but it's just a guess.
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That isn't necessarily true. I'm no geologist, but I know the layers get moved around. For example: I regularly collect 400 million year old fossils, at the surface. There are probably fossils everywhere if you dig deep enough; the problem in getting fossils is to find a place where the layers you want have been pushed to the surface; so you don't have to dig down huge distances to get what you want. Where I go is a relativity new mountain, so when the mountain was pushed up out of the ground it exposed all those layers (on the side of the mountain). Near the base of the mountain is an excellent place to get Cambrian fossils.
In other words, how do you measure the "depth" of that location I described? If you measure from the top of the mountain, it is very deep, but because I'm working off the side of the mountain, they are right on the surface.