zone fossil, n.

zone-fossil
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zone-fossil_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zone fossilnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zone fossil mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zone fossil. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the noun zone fossil?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1900 | 0.0067
1910 | 0.0069
1920 | 0.0081
1930 | 0.0086
1940 | 0.0096
1950 | 0.01
1960 | 0.0096
1970 | 0.0078
1980 | 0.0072
1990 | 0.006
2000 | 0.0048
2010 | 0.004

### Where does the noun zone fossil come from?

Earliest known use

1900s

The earliest known use of the noun zone fossil is in the 1900s.

OED's earliest evidence for zone fossil is from 1904, in Edinburgh Review.

### Nearby entries

1. zonary, adj. 1881–
2. zonate, adj. 1866–
3. zonated, adj. 1803–
4. zonation, n. 1898–
5. zone, n. a1500–
6. zone, v. 1792–
7. zone centre | zone center, n. 1934–
8. zoned, adj. 1662–
9. zone defence | zone defense, n. 1927–
10. zone electrophoresis, n. 1952–
11. zone fossil, n.1904–
12. zoneless, adj. 1748–
13. zonelet, n. 1855–
14. zone level, v. 1974–
15. zone leveller, n. 1956–
16. zone levelling, n. 1953–
17. zone-melt, v. 1982–
18. zone melting, n. 1952–
19. zone plate, n. 1890–
20. zoner, n. 1962–
21. zone-refine, v. 1962–

## Meaning & use

Geology.

1. 1904–
   A fossil characteristic of a particular zone or belt of strata.
   1. 1904

      > The study..of strata characterised by the dominance of a zone-fossil forms zonal geology.

      Edinburgh Review January 219
   2. 1969

      > It may be possible to recognize a zone without actually finding a specimen of the zone fossil itself if other highly characteristic species are found.

      G. M. Bennison & A. E. Wright, Geological History of British Isles ii. 23
   3. 1975

      > Evolution needed the temporal and biological continuum which Lyell's theory made possible. And from this came the concept of the ‘zone fossil’.

      J. G. Evans, Environment of Early Man in British Isles iii. 69
   palaeontology geology
   1. index fossil 1900–
      = guide fossil, n.
   2. zone fossil 1904–
      A fossil characteristic of a particular zone or belt of strata.
   3. facies fauna 1923–
      Fossil fauna characteristic of a facies.
   4. facies fossil 1923–
      A fossil that is characteristic of a stratigraphic facies as a result of the restricted kind of environment tolerated by the original organism.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

zone fossil typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zone fossil is in frequency band 2, which contains words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of zone fossil, n., 1900–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
1900 | 0.0067
1910 | 0.0069
1920 | 0.0081
1930 | 0.0086
1940 | 0.0096
1950 | 0.01
1960 | 0.0096
1970 | 0.0078
1980 | 0.0072
1990 | 0.006
2000 | 0.0048
2010 | 0.004

Originally published as part of the entry for zone, n.

zone, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.