[SoldierDad]

That we have so many fossils to examine is evidence of the enormous quantity of living things that have existed on this planet. It is, indeed, rare for an individual plant or animal to become fossilized. So many things have to happen in just the right way for it to happen.

So, fossils are rare = we have an extensive fossil record -seems contradictory to me.

[MineralMan]

Fossils aren't rare at all. What is rare is for a particular, individual plant or animal to be fossilized.

There are fossils all over the place. I don't know where you live, but I have no doubt that I could take you to a place nearby that had fossils.

Fossils are common. What is uncommon is for a particular individual plant or animal to become fossilized. It takes a very specific set of circumstances. The reason there are so many fossils is the millions of years that plants and animals have lived on this planet. During that time, the circumstances that allowed fossilization have occurred again and again, leading to the rich fossil evidence we now have.

No contradiction.

[From many - one.]

"So, fossils are rare = we have an extensive fossil record -seems contradictory to me."

That's because you put an = where you should have put an AND.

You have also modified the fact that fossilization rarely occurs to imply that there are few fossils.

And, if an example is still needed: one one in a thousand dead elephants get fossilized. If a million elepants die every year for a million years, how many fossil elephants are there?