Taphonomy

From EvoWiki

Taphonomy is the science dealing with all phenomena after an organism dies, including cause of death itself, how and when it was buried, if parts transported away from the site of burial, if the parts were noticably changed after burial, why some organisms or parts are more readily fossilized than others, and so forth. Its origins, dating back in incipient form to the 15th century, lie with the Russian paleontologist J. A. Efremov in 1940.