Is it possible to artifically fossilize bones?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Yes, originally. My original question concerns taking a bone and replacing the necessary components with mineral deposits, in effect turning the skeleton to stone, exactly like one'o dem fancy dinosaurs like that thar Adam and Eve had to run away from.

Thanks, that rules out plastic injection, etc., and being encased in mineral deposits.

 

[Halfcentaur]

You'd think somebody would've done it.

 

[Dinwar]

And what else could I be talking about but the mineralization of bone? Is there another term for fossilization, or is it only a term applied to a process that takes a long time?

The technical definition of a fossil is "the remains or traces of an organism more than 10,000 years old." That's it--no discussion of mineralization, no discussion of the process, it doesn't even need to be a hard bit of the animal (I've been unable to build a consensus as to whether or not the organism in question even needs to be dead). The reason for such a loose definition is that certain animals (snails, for example) produce structures that are almost entirely mineral, and there is often simply no way (barring some fun toys like mass spectroscopers and special types of nuclear reactors) to tell if a shell is ten million years old or if someone dug it out of a beach last week.

Also, "fossilization" isn't a process--there IS NO strict definition for it, and in fact you generally don't see paleontologists discussing it. We talk about mineralization, or molds, or casts, or the like (lots of bones are mold-and-cast structures). Some of the most exciting dinosaur fossils are mold structures, in fact--they show the feathers. Some of the other most exciting dinosaur fossils are ones in which the original material is relatively unaltered. We've found squishy bits of T. rex, which (because it's pre-Holocene) are perfectly valid fossils.

Given that, there are multiple ways you can preserve yourself long enough to become a fossil. First, you can mineralize your bones. Not exactly easy, but not terribly difficult either--there are some places we can toss your corpse that will do most of the work for us (the hard part is keeping the critters away). We could also press you into certain coral reefs for a few years--some reefs grow at a tremendous rate, and will entomb you relatively quickly. Then it's just waiting for time to pass. We can also have you run across some beaches while you're still alive. Your footprints will become trace fossils. This would also work if you dug a basement for a house in a depositional environment (near some rivers, or near dunes, places like that).

 

[Halfcentaur]

I see. I could swear back in elementary school they had diagrams about the "process of fossilization" showing a dead dinosaur laying on the bottom of a river or lake, and then they show the mud in the water and minerals slowly replacing the the bones.
Good to know, thanks a lot for the information.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You'd think somebody would've done it.

Meh, who would want to?

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I see. I could swear back in elementary school they had diagrams about the "process of fossilization" showing a dead dinosaur laying on the bottom of a river or lake, and then they show the mud in the water and minerals slowly replacing the the bones.
Good to know, thanks a lot for the information.

Truth! I was stunned to know that everything I knew was wrong as well.

 

[Dinwar]

The diagram isn't false, so much as incomplete. That is in fact one method of fossilization. It's just that there are a number of other ways as well, that aren't included in that diagram.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The diagram isn't false, so much as incomplete. That is in fact one method of fossilization. It's just that there are a number of other ways as well, that aren't included in that diagram.

Such as? Miracles, perhaps?

 

[Halfcentaur]

Meh, who would want to?

Why,... me ! To be found by extraterrestrial synthetic organic mecha archaelogists. Like that robot boy in AI.

 

[Olowkow]

The diagram isn't false, so much as incomplete. That is in fact one method of fossilization. It's just that there are a number of other ways as well, that aren't included in that diagram.

It seems like the OP's question is about "mineralization" then, which is one form of fossilization. Can one artificially mineralize a large bone? How long would it take?

 

[I Ratant]

I want my bones to be rock hard and deadly when I am gone.

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I prefer my boner to be rock hard and friendly.
And then I'll come.

 

[Halfcentaur]

Seriously though, petrified wood tables are worth a lot, aren't they?

 

[I Ratant]

If that's a joke, it wasn't very good.

If it wasn't, get yourself to the nearest mental hospital.

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I thought it was fine!
Much of the stuff here isn't and shouldn't be taken deadly serious!

 

[Dinwar]

Mineralization isn't exactly a simple topic either. If you're talking permineralization it may happen fairly quickly; all you'd need is a supersaturated solution that won't dissolve the bone, dump the bone in, and watch the pretty crystals form (you may want to drill a few holes in it first, just to make sure you get into the marrow part). Petrification would take longer, as you have to gradually remove the squishy material and replace it with minerals (though this happens to some unfortunate people while they're still alive--I forget the name of the disease, but basically your muscles mineralize).

As for how to do it, my father recently demonstrated a fast way to grow calcite--crush up some concrete fairly fine (I'm guessing quarter-down gravel; from 1/4" pieces on down, making sure to have plenty of fines [silt and clay sized bits]). Dig a hole and toss your bones in, in an area that gets plenty of rain (my dad did this in the Great Black Swamp). Put a metal plate with some holes in it over top of the bones, and put your crushed up concrete on top. Let it sit for a few years (the longer the better, but it won't take more than a decade or so). My dad basically did that, minus the bones part, and ended up with a solid chunk of dirty calcite--dirty because it wasn't the off-white of a stalactite, it was a brownish color from the soil around it.

Wood is more difficult. Most petrified wood is mieralized with silica, which is soluble in water under the right conditions. GETTING the right conditions is the fun part, particularly because you have to do it without destroying the wood. I'm not sure if the process would be inexpensive enough to justify the cost, particularly because the BLM doesn't consider petrified wood a fossil (they classify it as a mineral, which means MUCH less paperwork to dig up large chunks).

 

[Dinwar]

I'm an idiot. I truly am. One of the greatest fossil sites on the planet is less than 50 miles from me and I forgot all about it.

Simple way to form a fossil: Get a bunch of tar, heat it up to the point where you can push a corpse into it, and push the corpse into it (sorry for the graphic terms, but when you're dealing with paleo you're dealing with dead things). The tar will penetrate the bones as the flesh is stripped away (lots of processes will strip the flesh away; if you want to facilitate the process you can do that bit yourself, but I will warn you that most methods sacrifice some of the structural integrity of the bones, meaning you increase risk of breakage if you use cleaned bones), and will fill in the pore space. This is basically permineralization but without minerals (minerals by definition are solid, while tar is not). I'm not 100% sure how long the bones will survive--it's several million years, but hundreds of millions of years may be a bit of a stretch. Tar is, after all, an organic soup subject to being eaten by various microbes. But that's a very fast way to create fossils exactly like those from the Pliocene to the Holocene.

 

[MG1962]

Halfcentaur, if you want to leave a good impression, ask upon your death to be lowered gently to the bottom of the Mississipi river then arrange to have some of the mud gently built up over you.

Wait an uplift or two and the world may discover an exquisite sample of a half man half goat. Boy that will fire up some creationists in a couple of million years lol

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Halfcentaur, if you want to leave a good impression, ask upon your death to be lowered gently to the bottom of the Mississipi river then arrange to have some of the mud gently built up over you.

Wait an uplift or two and the world may discover an exquisite sample of a half man half goat. Boy that will fire up some creationists in a couple of million years lol

Wouldn't the Kennewick River be a better choice?

 

[I Ratant]

Wouldn't the Kennewick River be a better choice?

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Good choice!
And include totems of all the world's religions, to excite the furor!

 

[MG1962]

Wouldn't the Kennewick River be a better choice?

LOL - the body was still largly organic material. The OP is shooting for a full blown fossil

 

[BillC]

Halfcentaur, if you want to leave a good impression, ask upon your death to be lowered gently to the bottom of the Mississipi river then arrange to have some of the mud gently built up over you.

Wait an uplift or two and the world may discover an exquisite sample of a half man half goat. Boy that will fire up some creationists in a couple of million years lol

The world will still only be six thousand years old then.