Originally Posted by swingaleg:
“Question for keyser.......
Something bothers me about fossils........I did actually start a thread about this many years ago but don't think the question ever got resolved to my satisfaction
Palaeontologists and the popular press often speak of 'dinosaur bones'.......but do they ever find actual bones or is it only ever fossilised bones, ie stone
I just can't imagine that bone would survive for 100 million years under any conditions
so..........bone or stone ?”
“Question for keyser.......
Something bothers me about fossils........I did actually start a thread about this many years ago but don't think the question ever got resolved to my satisfaction
Palaeontologists and the popular press often speak of 'dinosaur bones'.......but do they ever find actual bones or is it only ever fossilised bones, ie stone
I just can't imagine that bone would survive for 100 million years under any conditions
so..........bone or stone ?”
Both.
There are actually many different ways of preserving fossils.
And recently people have begun to slice through fossil bones to discover organic material still preserved deep within the matrix - the first being the incredible discovery of Tyrannosaurus rex collagen and even blood cells. Just type in T.rex collagen and you will find it a fascinating subject.
Wiki is actually pretty good on fossils - there are plenty of links on there as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil





