As well-studied as dinosaurs have been over the past couple of centuries, paleontologists have learned little about their breathing, because lungs do not fossilize.(盡管過去的幾個世紀里，我們對恐龍類有比較深入的研究，可是古生物學家仍對它們的呼吸狀態知之甚少，因為肺無法形成化石保存至今。)

One interpretation regarding the absence of fossils during this important 100-million-year period is that early animals were soft bodied and simply did not fossilize.(在這重要的一億年的周期內缺乏化石（記錄），關于這一點，有一種解釋是早期的動物是軟體動物，所以它們無法形成化石。)

They seem to want to fossilize the environment in which people live and work.(他們看樣子想把人們工作和生活環境陳腐化。)

The most important parts, the flowers, rarely fossilize.(最重要的部分，即花朵，很少成為化石。)

Animals this small do not fossilize well, which is why this stage of the distant evolutionary past is so little known.(這么小的動物很難形成良好的化石，這就是為什么過去我們對這一階段的進化過程知之甚少的原因。)

The tissue and cartilage of a nose are too soft to fossilize.(鼻部的組織和軟骨結構太軟，無法形成化石。)