# Origin of the Term Fossil Fuels. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 28, 2003, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-fossil-fuels/151476 "2003-01-28T14:34:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![eno801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c2a13f/32.png) [@eno801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eno801)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2003, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-fossil-fuels/151476/1 "2003-01-28T14:34:24Z")
now you hear this bandied about all the time. i for one have a hard time believing all our oil came from dinosaurs. what they all just died in nice big patches so we could find their “fossil” fuel. can someone clear this up; is it true? ---
**Author:** ![LateComer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5ac83/32.png) [@LateComer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LateComer)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2003, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-fossil-fuels/151476/2 "2003-01-28T14:51:27Z")
Not mostly dinosaurs, but more the remains of millions of years worth of vast rain forests taking carbon out of the air and storing it in their tissues. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2003, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-fossil-fuels/151476/3 "2003-01-28T14:59:32Z")
Coal is fossilised wood (Dinosaurs are not the only possible kind of fossil). The origin of oil is a little more debatable (or debat_ed_ anyway); there are those who believe that oil is formed by purely chemical (i.e. not involving living organisms) processes deep in the earth’s crust, where the temperature and pressure are very great. For the most part though, I think it is accepted that oil is actually the decomposed remains of huge numbers of smaller organisms, laid down in sediment in (what was once) seafloor. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-fossil-fuels/151476/4 "2003-01-30T04:00:56Z")
Coal is coalified plant matter, which may be made up of devolatized lignin and other woody matter. But it need not have wood as an origin, _per se_. A great many organic sources can become coalified. There are at least three major theories of coal deposition. None of them involve dinosaurs in any real amount. You either have a submerged massive forest and turf model (due to periodic incursions of large sediment bearing rivers or seas), a large, stagnant swamp model, or the global/regional catastrophe model. The _local_ catastrophe model _could_ have some bearing in _some_ limited cases of coalbed formation. However, it unfortunately typically is used by creation science believers to justify Noah’s flood, so it never gets any real credit at all. Coal has plenty of fossils in it, and these have been studied since the 1700’s. I have some samples with fossils in them, and have seen a great many. All of the fossils I’ve ever seen are plant origin, but I do know some animal fossils exist. Many of the fossils are microscopic too. ---
**Author:** ![Cillasi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@Cillasi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cillasi)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-fossil-fuels/151476/5 "2003-01-30T07:57:57Z")
It is generally accepted that the source of fossil fuels is dead plants and/or animals that were “processed” below ground for millions of years. Even if not totally true, the term is basically used to denote a non-renewable energy resource. Once we use up all the oil and coal we can get to, we can not expect the Earth to produce any more for eons.