Fossils
Window to the past
Drying & Desiccation
What is desiccation ?
Desiccation, also known as Mummification, is a very unique and rare
form of fossilization. Desiccated/mummified fossils are next in quality
to the frozen fossils. Bones and tissues of these desiccated organisms
of the desert are preserved, although they often fall apart at the slightest
touch. With desiccated fossils, even the skin and hair retain their original
color. For example, a fossil "mummy" of Anatosaurus was air-dried
before natural burial and when fossilized, there were impressions of the
skin in the hardened burial matrix leaving detailed surface pattern of
the skin. These extremely fragile fossils are rare enough that any collector
finding one is likely to turn it over to a museum. Such fossils are the
only accurate evidence available to the scientist trying to restore a bag
of bones and give it the proper clothing.
Conditions leading to desiccation
Desiccation results when organic material is found in conditions void
of moisture, where dehydration results and material can be preserved for
thousands of years. Obviously, one of the favorable environments where
desiccation occurs is in the arid regions. Another type of environment
where desiccation also occurs is dry caves. Now, about the time that the
mammoths were freezing in the northlands, other vertebrates crawled into
caves in the southern desert region and died. Dry caves of the Southwest
have a climate that preserves anything that crawls into a cave and dies.
In this aseptic environment, they become mummified. Not surprisingly, a
few of the Ice-Age animals did just that, such as the extinct ground sloth
found lying on or near the surface. The cave-dwelling sloth was also represented
by their dried dung.
Index
Amber || Casts & Molds
|| Compactions || Compressions
|| Coprolites & Gastroliths
Drying & Dessication || Freezing
|| Impressions || Molecular
Fossils || Permineralization
Reference || Trace
Fossils || Wax & Asphalt
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