Many Dino Fossils Could Have Soft Tissue Inside from the National Geographic Society
This is a fascinating report concerning the “fossilized” soft tissue discovered last year.
The traditional view of the fossilization process should result in no soft tissue remaining.
In a nutshell, when a creature dies, it’s soft tissue rots (or is eaten) away, leaving the bones and hard parts, which then get covered and slowly mineral-laden water erodes them replacing them with rock in, essentially, and exact replica so exact that you can see the original growth rings, etc.
Only on the rarest of occasions does soft tissue or skin imprints get fossilized, but they, too, are converted to mineral in the process.
The discovery last year yielded what appears to be un-mineralized soft tissue. After a year’s research, the team has discovered this may not be as rare as previously thought, and if so, the whole process of fossilization may have to be re-thought.
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