The tiny fossils resemble filamentous colonies of cells, but have evaded positive identification.

These include chemical evidence of climatic change contained in tiny marine fossils, corals and ancient ice, along with fossilized pollen in lake sediments and annual growth rings in trees.

Proponents of the theory say that the tiny oceanic fossils, known as diatoms, could have lived in a shallow inland sea during an ice-free period before they were carried onto the mountains by glacial activity.

One sample from New Zealand is the mineral garnet; sand from an island off the coast of Okinawa is made of tiny, star-shaped fossils.

Microscopic or very tiny fossils are called "microfossils"; while larger, macroscopic fossils - such as those of seashells and mammals - are called "macrofossils".

Now that the sea creatures have been reduced to tiny fossils still found within garden rocks, the area has become a boon to apple growers, dairy farmers and bicyclists.

Part of the evidence they cite for this hypothesis is that the sediments contain tiny marine fossils; however, such fossils can be moved by the wind, just like sand.

The authors have essentially performed a CAT scan of these tiny fossils, except they use energies high enough to fry human tissues.

Small shelly fossils (SSF), or small shelly fauna, are tiny fossils, many only a few millimetres long.

Tommotian rocks house an enormous variety of tiny fossils (usually one to five millimeters in length) that cannot be allied with any modern group (Bengtson, 1977; Bengtson and Fletcher, 1983).