Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
SOME ANCIENT
REMAINS
MUMMIES, FOSSILS, AND
COPROLITES
16
The remains of most dead organisms are either consumed as food by other
living organisms, or decay and vanish relatively fast. Decay processes begin
just a few hours after death; within a relatively short period of time (only
a few weeks or months) after death, the carcass of an animal, for example,
is reduced to a bare skeleton. Under extremely unusual circumstances,
however, the remains of dead organisms are neither consumed by other
organisms nor do they decay. In exceptionally dry places and in anaerobic
environments, for example, they undergo slow compositional changes that
may ultimately result in the preservation, sometimes down to microscopic
detail, of the body and its morphology. Natural and human-induced
processes that result in the preservation of dead organisms are discussed in
the following pages.
16.1.
MUMMIES AND MUMMIFICATION
One of the natural forms of preservation of dead remains is mummification; a
mummy
is simply the body of a dead animal whose tissues have been diage-
netically altered but whose morphology and structure have been preserved.
Although the term
mummification
is generally used in relation to the purpose-
ful preservation of dead humans and animals, it actually has a wider mean-
ing - it also refers to the natural preservation of dead corpses (see Fig. 81).
Dead bodies can be naturally mummified under a variety of environ-
mental conditions, such as (1) at extremely low temperatures, about and
below the freezing point of water, in extremely cold regions of the world; (2)
in very dry and hot environments, as in desert areas and in some caves and
rock shelters; or (3) under anaerobic (oxygen-free) conditions, as in bogs (see
Chapter 8).
