Definition of "fossiliferous" [fos•sil•if•er•ous]

• Containing fossils. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Not only may any kind of fossiliferous rocks occur next to the Archæan, but even the "youngest" may be so metamorphosed and crystalline as to resemble exactly in this respect the so-called "oldest" rocks."
• "Natural History, asserts or confesses that often have objects of material such as fossiliferous limestone and slag been sent to him He says that these things have been accompanied by assurances that they have been seen to fall on lawns, on roads, in front of houses."
• ""fossiliferous," or shell limestone, and have drawn the erroneous inference that the animal matter once contained in those shells originated petroleum; but no fish oil ever contained paraffin."