Shortest time to fossilization

[CelticChic]

Does anyone know the hypothetical minimum time fossilation would take? We were discussing this at work and tried to google it, but couldn't really find any numbers.

No idea how we got on this subject though :p

[Berthold]

It depends on what kind of fossil you have in mind. The term "fossil" includes a lot more things than the term "petrefact".

If we take the definition of petrefaction a bit generously to mean, "retention of shape with simultaneous loss of the original substance", then the shapes in volcanic deposits (such as at Pompeii) may be among the petrefacts formed most quickly.

ETA: If you take one definition of "fossil", of course, anything deposited in the Holocene is not a fossil, but a subfossil.

[Dlx2]

Does anyone know the hypothetical minimum time fossilation would take? We were discussing this at work and tried to google it, but couldn't really find any numbers.

No idea how we got on this subject though :p

"Fossil" specifically refers to any organismal remains older than 10,000 years. This does not necessarily require mineralization. Mineralization is required for the persistence of certain tissues and of bones in certain environments.

Mineralization can occur very fast, though. Normal mineralization of bone begins within a few months of burial. Mineralization of soft tissue often occurs even faster; work by Derek Briggs suggests that soft tissue mineralization in sites like Solnhofen, Burgess Shale, etc probably occurred within one to two weeks of the death of the organism.

[CelticChic]

Thanks! I was unaware that fossil had such a specific definition nor had I heard the term petrefact.

This probably should've gone in the "dumb questions" thread :)