Why is the fossil record incomplete?

'Shell shake – survival of the toughest; why is the fossil record incomplete?'

Many organisms are destroyed by being eaten or by being broken up into tiny fragments by moving water, or by processes of changing the sediments to rock. This activity demonstrates that a slab of apparently well-preserved fossils may not present a true record of all that lived there, so caution is needed in reconstructing the ancient environment in its entirety. A fossil assemblage may contain evidence about the environment in which the organisms lived, and what happened to them after their death.
Many more fossil-related activities can be found on the website.