davidH

This has always puzzled me.
These really really old fossils - millions of years old are looked for on the surface.
Most aren't excavated.

Why is this?
I cannot see a skulls lying on the surface of the earth for 7 million years and not being chewed by some scavenger or at least buried.
Surely in 7 million years - even bones on the surface would have desintergrated - wind blowing sand and dust.
I just can't get my mind around why they aren't buried.

It's not as if these are feak finds - people employ local tribes people because of their good eyesight to help them detected these bits of skull etc.

Any offers?

John Hancock

It's a cosmic wonder to me!

elwoodblues

First off, any bone that's millions of years old isn't bone anymore. It's fossilized, and is now stone.

Second, the fossils are buried for large amounts of time. At some point, due to erosion or seismic activity, they're brought up close to the surface.

Third, what's this doing in Political Discussion?

Laurentius

Stop wondering about stuff you're supposed to have studied in Middle School, folks, and do some research on the net. Meanwhile think over the fact that piling dust becomes rock in the end. Given the right circumstances, bone can too.

Anyway, check out some good sites and they'll tell you everything you need.

AVE

(elwoodblues proved a few minutes faster to basically say what I wanted to say...)

[ September 10, 2002: Message edited by: Laurentius ]</p>

Krieger

You sound like a conservative.

Chupa-arbol

The fossils that we find were buried, very soon after the organism died. Over time, the rock encasing the fossils was eroded away, bringing the bones to the surface.

Abacus

My guess is that if these fossils are several million years old, they haven't been lying around on the surface for all of that time. Due to erosion via wind or water, they just recently came to the surface.

What does this have to do with politics?

Doubting Didymus

We generally find only fragments on the surface, if it is really on the surface. Often these things are mostly buried, and have just started poking through.

Laurentius

Here's a link to politics:

Native Indians in some US areas forbid scientists to dig up scheletons and study them. Some of these scheletons have proved to have belonged to people that had inhabited North America before the arrival of the populations later known as Native Indians.

Some may say it is a religious or a cultural issue, but I definitely it's politics.

AVE

John Hancock

Think they'll vote for Bush?