a. [f. SUB- 20 + FOSSIL a.] Partly fossilized.
1832. De la Beche, Geol. Man. (ed. 2), 161. A bed containing sub-fossil shells.
1851. Woodward, Mollusca, 130. Struthiolaria:… Australia and New Zealand, where alone it occurs sub-fossil.
1856. Page, Adv. Text-bk. Geol., ix. 171. When petrifaction has not taken place, and the organism is merely embedded in superficial clays and gravels, the term sub-fossil is that more properly applied.
1880. A. R. Wallace, Isl. Life, II. xix. 389. A small sub-fossil hippopotamus.
So Subfossil sb., a partly fossilized substance.
1873. Geikie, Gt. Ice Age, App. 516. Sub-fossils.
