I have read where fossils for the most part are found in sedimentary rocks. How are these type?

Sedimentary rock is layered sediments or mud, if you will, that was laid down over millions of years and eventually hardened. The original cells of the fossil plant or animal are replaced, over time, by the rock and mineral molecules and what you are left with is a stone replica. The match is near perfect which is why we can extrapolate so much information from the fossil plant or animal. Rock cannot be carbon dated itself and since fossils have nothing left of the original animal or plant the dating can be approximated by the placement of the fossil in the strata itself.

Sometimes the surrounding material where the fossil was found can be helpful or even the area of the dig but in reality dating fossils is difficult and can be highly subjective. It is , however, an area of science that has progressed greatly and most of the arguments now are not about the age of the fossils but their interpretation and placement in Earth's history. There is ample evidence in the earth sciences , especially, Geology and chemistry that has help us identify several distinct eras in Earth's history, long before man, and millions of fossils have helped us build a very accurate picture of the early earth.

I want to thank everyone for the answers given here. Other questions arises from all of this. Are the sedimentary rocks dated for the time they actually became rocks or dated as the time the dirt or mud was formed?

What I am getting at is that if they are dated as they were when they were mud, how can the dating actually be accurate to date the fossils found within? It seems to me that the mud could be millions of years old and the fossils only a few thousand years old according to science. I am not taking into account any organic matter that might be found, if any, in the fossils.

Sedimentary rocks were once mud and sand deposited by and/or in water on the bottoms of oceans, lakes and rivers. They have been covered over for many thousands to millions of years and have become hard. Fossils are dated by carbon dating.

Special instruments check for radioactive carbon 14 and can tell by that. And sometimes the sediment in which they are found can be geologically dated to give an approximate period in time when the animal was buried.

Fossils are found entirely in sedimentary rocks. These rocks are primarily laid down as eroded sediment. The fossils are dated either by using a radioisotopic measurement of underlying igneous rock which gives a lower age, or by the same measurement of overlying igneous rock which gives an upper measurement.

Frequently the rocks will dated using index fossils which have been determined to charateristically appear in rocks of a certain age. Carbon 14 cannot be used to date rocks, it is only used to date objects containing organic matter. Technically there is no organic matter in fossils although recently unfossilized tissue has been found in dinosaur remains.

Personally I agree with framistan. Sedimentary rocks were laid down during the flood of Noah and are only 5000 years old.

Well, if you think about it, it describes itself. Sedementary rocks, are just layers of accumulated sediment that has piled up over many years and have become compacted and hardened. By many years I mean Millions.

There are a lot of excellent books on this topic, under Earth Science, Geology, etc. Good luck to you. This was a great question and topic.

Sedimentary rocks were deposited quickly about 5000 years ago during the flood of Noah. Nobody living today was there to witness the events, therefore, the creation theory is just as valid as the evolution theory. I personally believe the creation theory because there is a lot of evidence to support it such as POLYSTRATE FOSSILIZED TREES that pass through many "geologic" layers that are supposed to be billions of years old.

Either the trees grew for billions of years, or the evolution theory is wrong. There are MANY other evidences for creation such as human footprints found inside of dinosaur footprints!... and man-made objects (a metal bell) found inside chunks of coal... etc etc.. These evidences are ignored and supressed by the evolutionists because evolution is a religion of athiesm. You can research this by looking at a website called harunyahya.com.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.