Dumb question for smart people

[sinclair1]

How come when someone digs up a body, it’s either been buried a few years or it’s a 10,000 year old fossil.

Where are the bodies of people between 1492 and 1900?

 

[livinoutdoors]

Very good question.

 

[crackerdave]

They are worm castings.

 

[Pig Predator]

 

[oldfella1962]

How come when someone digs up a body, it’s either been buried a few years or it’s a 10,000 year old fossil.

Where are the bodies of people between 1492 and 1900?

It takes a long time for bones to actually fossilize. But bones can remain in a non-fossilized state (and not be decomposed) for thousands of years.

How can I become a fossil?

Less than one-10th of 1% of all species that have ever lived became fossils. But from skipping a coffin to avoiding Iran, there are ways to up your chances of lasting forever.

www.bbc.com

Why Don't Bones Decay Even After So Many Years?

In humid conditions, bones might be broken down in a matter of a decade or so, but in a dry climate, it could take thousands of years! Bones do decay, just at a slower rate than other types of organic material and tissue

www.scienceabc.com

 

[Toliver]

How come when someone digs up a body, it’s either been buried a few years or it’s a 10,000 year old fossil.

Where are the bodies of people between 1492 and 1900?

I heard someone dug up a union soldier in Paulding County when I was a kid. Not sure exactly where or what year. They identified him as union by the uniform parts that were still intact. The buttons, belt buckle and such.

 

[Silver Britches]

This is a really great question. I hope someone here can provide you the correct answer.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

It takes a long time for bones to actually fossilize. But bones can remain in a non-fossilized state (and not be decomposed) for thousands of years.

How can I become a fossil?

Less than one-10th of 1% of all species that have ever lived became fossils. But from skipping a coffin to avoiding Iran, there are ways to up your chances of lasting forever.

www.bbc.com

Why Don't Bones Decay Even After So Many Years?

In humid conditions, bones might be broken down in a matter of a decade or so, but in a dry climate, it could take thousands of years! Bones do decay, just at a slower rate than other types of organic material and tissue

www.scienceabc.com

under the right condition fossils can develop very quickly. I read about a felt hat left in a mine shaft back in the late 1800's, and when it was found in the 60's it was fossilized

 

[Batjack]

It depends on the moisture (or lack there of) and the minerals in the area as to how long it takes.

 

[oldfella1962]

under the right condition fossils can develop very quickly. I read about a felt hat left in a mine shaft back in the late 1800's, and when it was found in the 60's it was fossilized

That story was debunked. Some Creationist sites like Answers in Genesis were spreading this story around. I could give links, but this is the wrong forum for that. I would have to put them in the AA&A forum. That said, a lot of conditions have to come together just right to form any legit fossils - that's why only a tiny percentage of all the things that ever lived become fossils.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

That story was debunked. Some Creationist sites like Answers in Genesis were spreading this story around. I could give links, but this is the wrong forum for that. I would have to put them in the AA&A forum. That said, a lot of conditions have to come together just right to form any legit fossils - that's why only a tiny percentage of all the things that ever lived become fossils.

I wonder how fossils of whales are made.

 

[oldfella1962]

It depends on the moisture (or lack there of) and the minerals in the area as to how long it takes.

The links I provided explain that, and why there are so few fossils compared to all the things that lived & died over the years.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

That story was debunked. Some Creationist sites like Answers in Genesis were spreading this story around. I could give links, but this is the wrong forum for that. I would have to put them in the AA&A forum. That said, a lot of conditions have to come together just right to form any legit fossils - that's why only a tiny percentage of all the things that ever lived become fossils.

are you saying there wasn't a fossilized hat, or that it took longer than they said? That would be the only way to debunk that, I would think

 

[oldfella1962]

I wonder how fossils of whales are made.

This link is better than the one I had a few minutes ago.

Fossil of Tiny, Extinct Whale Discovered in Egypt, Named for King Tut

The species was around the size of a bottlenose dolphin and thrived 41 million years ago

www.smithsonianmag.com

This can get you in the ballpark.

 

[oldfella1962]

are you saying there wasn't a fossilized hat, or that it took longer than they said? That would be the only way to debunk that, I would think

The hat wasn't really fossilized. It was hard, but not fossilized per se. Again, this is the wrong forum for me to link the videos, you will just have to google "fossilized hat debunked".

 

[specialk]

Lots of good info is this thread!

 

[sinclair1]

This is a really great question. I hope someone here can provide you the correct answer.

You hang in there! When a smart question for dumb people comes, it will be your time to shine.

 

[SarahFair]

I think because graves were probably marked better in recent centuries..

But there was a little girl they found in a cast iron casket from the civil war era, then a black woman in New York in a cast iron casket that was pre civil war...

And I want to say they found another girl in the middle ofba field.

Then they found that king under a parking lot from the 1400s..


I always wonder about the various people that died along the Oregon trail, or the trail of tears where graves werent marked or the markers have long since disappeared.
You KNOW they have developed over a lot of that.. were the bodies already decomposed? Discovered and kept quiet so not to disrupt development? Not even noticed in all the rubble?

I know when the SO says when something gets discovered on a job site it can shut that portion of it down for extended periods of time, if not indefinitely.

 

[Silver Britches]

You hang in there! When a smart question for dumb people comes, it will be your time to shine.

 

[GeorgiaBob]

Predation, organic decomposition, and chemical dissolution are the main causes of the disappearance/dissolution of dead flora and fauna. Only under "special circumstances" can all three causes be avoided. Even dead leaves are eaten by bugs, mulched into loam by microbes and bacteria, and chemically broken down by alkaline soil or acidic surface water.

A human body, drained of fluids and with all internal bacteria removed or killed by chemicals (mummified), can last a very long time in a low humidity environment. But as soon as that mummy is exposed to humidity, bacteria, and microbes it will deteriorate rapidly. Ask the people who try to preserve the 3,000 and even 4,000 year old mummies dug up along the Nile Valley. Less than half of all the "ancient" bodies (some less than 1,400 years old) exhumed in Egypt over the past 170 years still exist. The rest are puddles of goo.

Richard III is a good example of fortuitous preservation.
( https://le.ac.uk/richard-iii ) His body was ill treated after he was killed in battle and his burial was not careful. But he was buried; avoiding predation. Organic decomposition removed all but the bones and a small amount of connective tissue. The remains that were recovered had been compressed in slightly alkaline clay soil preventing further aerobic decomposition by either organic or chemical means. A 500 year old body partially preserved to confirm some history and debunk other stories.

Just a short ways down the street from Richard III's 500 year resting place a church basement has the collected powder from over a 1,000 years of Christian burials. The practice for most of that time was to bury the recently deceased in "Holy ground", but years later dig up the remains (by then mostly bones) and stash the bones in the basement. This opened up space in the cemetery for more burials. Due to the humid cool environment in the church basement the bones further decomposed leaving a mostly brown-grey lumpy powder after about two or three centuries of exposure.

Without human intervention (special treatment, burial) the human bodies that survive exposure are rare. But there are a few. There was a murder in the Alps about 5,300 years ago that was recently discovered because the body is almost perfectly preserved. ( https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scie...e-aged-man-with-dark-skin-and-eyes-180982744/ )

There are plenty of examples of bodies intentionally preserved over the past 500 years. Also a few examples of fortuitous preservation. But the reality is that the bodies of 99.998% of everyone who ever lived and died are forever gone from this earth. Likewise, about 99.99997% (according to a few fossil hunters with fancy degrees) of all Jurassic period fauna is forever gone.

((note - I don't claim to be "smart," I didn't stay in that motel they advertise about, but I do read a whole lot.))