Small carbonaceous fossil

Small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs) are sub-millimetric organic remains of organisms preserved in sedimentary strata.

This category of fossils has traditionally included robust or thick-walled entities such as plant spores, acritarchs and chitinozoa, but the term 'SCFs' is usually applied to more fragile remnants of animals that can only be extracted through a delicate maceration technique. SCFs are relatively widespread and abundant, and can potentially preserve both mineralized and non-mineralized parts of organisms. Since SCFs can preserve the remains of non-biomineralized organisms, they have been viewed as a relatively untapped record of animal evolution, which has the potential to circumvent some of the biases of the shelly fossil record.