When people think of fossils, they usually picture slabs of rock bristling with bones, or the shells of ammonites or trilobites. Most do not even consider that delicate organisms, such as fungi or bacteria, can even fossilize – they seem too fragile to be preserved as they lack a hard skeleton. In many cases this is true. Microscopic organisms that lack hard parts have fewer chances of being fossilised but, despite the odds, delicate fungi have a fossil record that is more extensive than generally thought.