An apparatus and method for storing data in a data storage system comprising a fossilized data management apparatus interconnected with one or more data storage devices. The method provides to the fossilized data management apparatus information and meta data associated with that information, wherein the meta data comprises a format field, a context field, a retention field, a data management field, and a storage management field. The fossilized data management apparatus instructs the one or more data storage devices to write the information to the one or more data storage devices based upon the meta data format field.