What is freezing ?

This type of fossilization preserves an organism wholly without any significant alteration to the chemical composition of the organism. The parts of the organism that are usually preserved are muscles, tendons, and skin. Generally in a typical fossilization the hard parts of the organism are preserved by replacement of the organism's soft parts by other stable organic materials or mineral substance from the environment. This type of fossilization requires special circumstances to preserve the soft organic parts by encompassing the organism in an inert environment to prevent any or little changes within the organism. Freezing is one of the ways to slow down the decomposition of the soft parts.

What are the conditions for freezing ?

So how did organisms situate themselves into such circumstance for millions of years? Assuming that the organism is an animal, it probably first fell into a "melted-out ice" crevice and found themselves entombed in a fatal and "freezing" predicament. A common example of such fossilization is a woolly mammoth frozen in a permafrost region of Siberia and Alaska. They probably died during the late Ice Age. Rarely paleontologists come across mastodons, woolly rhinoceros, horses, moose, bison, musk oxen, and other animals.

Index

Amber || Casts & Molds || Compactions || Compressions || Coprolites & Gastroliths

Drying & Dessication || Freezing || Impressions || Molecular Fossils || Permineralization

Go back to Home Page

Feed Back