Dinosaurs existed on earth like millions of years ago. There is no doubt that one gets excited when they hear about dinosaurs.
However, certain remains of dinosaurs still exist today for research purposes. In fact, if looked deeply into it, you will realize that not every animal’s remains are stored, but what’s up with dinosaurs that makes the bones of it last for a huge span of time without decaying.
It is crazy to realize that these dinosaur remains are still surviving on today’s date with such great technology.
But the question arises how they are preserved and not get deteriorated with time, when the shelf lives of these bones are so less. In order to know these questions, let us first look into the main question.
How are these bones preserved?
The thing is, if a certain body is put in an excess dry area and is mummified, the deterioration procedure takes like dozens of decades.
This is because of the absence of oxygen present in it. This shows why pyramids hold mummies without decaying for such a long period.
Talking about dinosaurs, a huge range of dinosaur remains are found under the water bodies and the warm places.
There are many museums and research centers which have preserved life size dinosaur models to work on it more.
But the question arises why did they not decompose yet?
Preservation process:
The bones which we are talking about are generally not the bones but fossils.
By now you must be knowing that the dinosaur bones are known as the fossils but fossils are not exactly bones.
However, the process of fossilization is quite complicated. It involves different stages altogether.
But what?
1) Freezing:
Ice plays an important role in preserving any dead body or any remains of a creature. The relationship between body temperature and rot came into existence in the 1860s, which is why the bodies can be stored eternally with the help of ice and other preservatives.
However, freezing makes the preservation process successful until a point where the ice doesn’t melt. Therefore, this is not a very great means of fossilization but it plays a vital role overall.
2) Crystallization:
Amber helps in hardening the remains making it last for thousands and millions of years abandoning the body untouched completely. This process is quite complex but is definitely a significant process of fossilization.
3) Fossilization:
The main way by which the bones are fossilized is by this process. It is boxed carefully in the sedimentary rocks.
Fossil Decay:
Erosion is quite common and can happen unlikely.
But still, any erosion could not affect these remains actually because they are left untouched beneath the earth but the only creature which can cause harm to these remains are humans.
Humans find sedimentary rocks under the earth surface and try to extract the fossils without causing any disturbance to the rocks in which the remains are closeted. This procedure is quite hard and the people who do it, put all their efforts into it.
However, if the fossils are extracted ahead of time, they will last till eternity without any chance of eroding.
It does not matter if they are placed in a warm environment, because they don’t have any remains of calcium or collagen therefore there is no presence of bacteria that would feed on it. It becomes a mineral basically.
Conclusion:
By the above discussion, one thing is clear that like each part of a creature, bones too make a comeback to the earth.
The only difference that takes place is, it does not remain a bone exactly, after the process of fossilization. However, certain bones make their best to last a little longer than usual, but they definitely do not last till eternity due to the environment conditions.
There is no doubt that the process of preservation takes trillions of years to turn into a bone into a fossil.
It is crazy how fossils help us look back in times that we have never witnessed. It is a reminder of a life circle. But till the end, if one wants to break the circle of this life, life should be moved out from the usual equation, which leaves behind nothing but stones.
