It depends. Fossilization is not an event, it's a process. The process can continue long, long after the formation of what we might call a fossil. Petrification is the process of replacing organic tissues with minerals. Petrified wood can form in a few decades--but it will still be mostly wood. Complete mineralization usually takes hundreds of thousands of years. Under careful laboratory conditions, mineralization of about 20% has been accomplished in weeks.
In addition, various sorts of concretions and precipitates can form quickly, Their is a stream in France where object suspended in a water fall become encased in limestone in months. This is not true petrification, because none of the substance of the objects is mineralized. But this can seal objects INSIDE stone reletively quickly, and this protects them an allows them to fossilize. As kid, we found quite a few trillobites and such encased in nodules that most likely formed this way, possible in days, and have lasted several hundred million years.
The so called "London hammer" if it isn't a deliberate hoax, is a similar case of a recent object, cemented into a concretion within months or years of its loss. This is easily explained, because the hammer was a miner's tool, and was most likely lost in a limestone cave. Limest...
It depends. Fossilization is not an event, it's a process. The process can continue long, long after the formation of what we might call a fossil. Petrification is the process of replacing organic tissues with minerals. Petrified wood can form in a few decades--but it will still be mostly wood. Complete mineralization usually takes hundreds of thousands of years. Under careful laboratory conditions, mineralization of about 20% has been accomplished in weeks.
In addition, various sorts of concretions and precipitates can form quickly, Their is a stream in France where object suspended in a water fall become encased in limestone in months. This is not true petrification, because none of the substance of the objects is mineralized. But this can seal objects INSIDE stone reletively quickly, and this protects them an allows them to fossilize. As kid, we found quite a few trillobites and such encased in nodules that most likely formed this way, possible in days, and have lasted several hundred million years.
The so called "London hammer" if it isn't a deliberate hoax, is a similar case of a recent object, cemented into a concretion within months or years of its loss. This is easily explained, because the hammer was a miner's tool, and was most likely lost in a limestone cave. Limestone dissolves and re-cements over and over again, which is what produces all the amazing cave formations. A hammer dropped into a saturated pool or left in the mineral rich stream would trigger concretion very quickly. The stone that formed would be very real limestone, just not very old.
Then again, some fossils are casts, in which the organics rot or leach away after the print is made. These can range from prints to life casts. In this case, the question is how long it takes the surrounding sediment to form stone. Again this may be relatively fast or extremely slow. Cement is a synthetic stone that forms in hours. There are natural analogs that form in days. Natural sandstone, chalk, and slate take millions of years (chalk is not forming anywhere today though--conditions are not right).
Hundreds of thousands to sometimes millions as for how it's done it's very complex involving countless variables, most animals don't actually become fossils and those that do normally need to have a high mineral percentage. Mind you get countless different types and forms of fossils, each needing different requirements and variables to be made possible.
Ether way the reason fossils are so rare is because when an animal dies it's flesh is eaten and bacteria finishes off any left overs, the mineral left over cir-cum to erosion and corrosion. the best way to become a fossil is to die and be buried in sand, soil or mud. Somewhere were you are protected from the elements and scavengers and the best place for that would be by the sea or a river. Then it comes down to luck and time. if it's lucky after incomprehensible amounts of time minerals from the rocks gradually impregnate the bone, shell or wood, changing its chemical composition, sometimes a fossil will hold nothing of the original creature save it's shape, in other words there is no DNA or any biological make-up left over.
Sometimes fossils get crushed to powder by the layers formed over the years, sometimes fossils dissolved into hollow shells, other times the rock and ground covering them is itself eroded, moved or expe...
Hundreds of thousands to sometimes millions as for how it's done it's very complex involving countless variables, most animals don't actually become fossils and those that do normally need to have a high mineral percentage. Mind you get countless different types and forms of fossils, each needing different requirements and variables to be made possible.
Ether way the reason fossils are so rare is because when an animal dies it's flesh is eaten and bacteria finishes off any left overs, the mineral left over cir-cum to erosion and corrosion. the best way to become a fossil is to die and be buried in sand, soil or mud. Somewhere were you are protected from the elements and scavengers and the best place for that would be by the sea or a river. Then it comes down to luck and time. if it's lucky after incomprehensible amounts of time minerals from the rocks gradually impregnate the bone, shell or wood, changing its chemical composition, sometimes a fossil will hold nothing of the original creature save it's shape, in other words there is no DNA or any biological make-up left over.
Sometimes fossils get crushed to powder by the layers formed over the years, sometimes fossils dissolved into hollow shells, other times the rock and ground covering them is itself eroded, moved or experienced corrosion revealing the fossil on the surface where it will be battered by the elements and destroyed etc.
How are fossils made? Need to die in a area with high mineral concentration, near a seabed or river (sometimes a volcano eruption helps) and be buried quickly. Then time and luck.
In addition, various sorts of concretions and precipitates can form quickly, Their is a stream in France where object suspended in a water fall become encased in limestone in months. This is not true petrification, because none of the substance of the objects is mineralized. But this can seal objects INSIDE stone reletively quickly, and this protects them an allows them to fossilize. As kid, we found quite a few trillobites and such encased in nodules that most likely formed this way, possible in days, and have lasted several hundred million years.
The so called "London hammer" if it isn't a deliberate hoax, is a similar case of a recent object, cemented into a concretion within months or years of its loss. This is easily explained, because the hammer was a miner's tool, and was most likely lost in a limestone cave. Limest...
In addition, various sorts of concretions and precipitates can form quickly, Their is a stream in France where object suspended in a water fall become encased in limestone in months. This is not true petrification, because none of the substance of the objects is mineralized. But this can seal objects INSIDE stone reletively quickly, and this protects them an allows them to fossilize. As kid, we found quite a few trillobites and such encased in nodules that most likely formed this way, possible in days, and have lasted several hundred million years.
The so called "London hammer" if it isn't a deliberate hoax, is a similar case of a recent object, cemented into a concretion within months or years of its loss. This is easily explained, because the hammer was a miner's tool, and was most likely lost in a limestone cave. Limestone dissolves and re-cements over and over again, which is what produces all the amazing cave formations. A hammer dropped into a saturated pool or left in the mineral rich stream would trigger concretion very quickly. The stone that formed would be very real limestone, just not very old.
Then again, some fossils are casts, in which the organics rot or leach away after the print is made. These can range from prints to life casts. In this case, the question is how long it takes the surrounding sediment to form stone. Again this may be relatively fast or extremely slow. Cement is a synthetic stone that forms in hours. There are natural analogs that form in days. Natural sandstone, chalk, and slate take millions of years (chalk is not forming anywhere today though--conditions are not right).
Ether way the reason fossils are so rare is because when an animal dies it's flesh is eaten and bacteria finishes off any left overs, the mineral left over cir-cum to erosion and corrosion. the best way to become a fossil is to die and be buried in sand, soil or mud. Somewhere were you are protected from the elements and scavengers and the best place for that would be by the sea or a river. Then it comes down to luck and time. if it's lucky after incomprehensible amounts of time minerals from the rocks gradually impregnate the bone, shell or wood, changing its chemical composition, sometimes a fossil will hold nothing of the original creature save it's shape, in other words there is no DNA or any biological make-up left over.
Sometimes fossils get crushed to powder by the layers formed over the years, sometimes fossils dissolved into hollow shells, other times the rock and ground covering them is itself eroded, moved or expe...
Ether way the reason fossils are so rare is because when an animal dies it's flesh is eaten and bacteria finishes off any left overs, the mineral left over cir-cum to erosion and corrosion. the best way to become a fossil is to die and be buried in sand, soil or mud. Somewhere were you are protected from the elements and scavengers and the best place for that would be by the sea or a river. Then it comes down to luck and time. if it's lucky after incomprehensible amounts of time minerals from the rocks gradually impregnate the bone, shell or wood, changing its chemical composition, sometimes a fossil will hold nothing of the original creature save it's shape, in other words there is no DNA or any biological make-up left over.
Sometimes fossils get crushed to powder by the layers formed over the years, sometimes fossils dissolved into hollow shells, other times the rock and ground covering them is itself eroded, moved or experienced corrosion revealing the fossil on the surface where it will be battered by the elements and destroyed etc.
How are fossils made? Need to die in a area with high mineral concentration, near a seabed or river (sometimes a volcano eruption helps) and be buried quickly. Then time and luck.