Friday, November 29

When does a bone end up being a fossil?

Humans

As natural product in a bone gets changed by minerals in time, it ends up being a fossil. That can occur at various rates even within the exact same private

By Michael Marshall

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A restoration of the skull of a Homo naledi kid

Brett Eloff Photography/Wits University

This is an extract from Our Human Story, our newsletter about the transformation in archaeology. Register to get it in your inbox totally free monthly.

The word “fossil” is one that I type out rather regularly. You’ll typically check out stories about brand-new hominin stays in which they are referred to as fossils. Hang on. Fossils take a long period of time to form, so how old does a human bone or tooth require to be before it counts as a fossil? Need to …

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