# Fossils
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossils/16889
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [October 31, 1999, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossils/16889 "1999-10-31T22:52:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)
#### Post date: [October 31, 1999, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossils/16889/1 "1999-10-31T22:52:00Z")
How old is the _youngest_ fossil we have? I’ve searched my books, but none really tell me the answer.
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### Author:  [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)
#### Post date: [October 31, 1999, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossils/16889/2 "1999-10-31T22:53:00Z")
Sorry guys, wrong thread. I’ll ask one of the administrators to move it.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [October 31, 1999, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossils/16889/3 "1999-10-31T23:12:00Z")
You might as well leave it here, where it’s going to end up eventually anyway. 🙂
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [November 1, 1999, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossils/16889/4 "1999-11-01T00:23:00Z")
Depends on what you count as a “fossil”. There are naturally preserved organisms or parts of organisms that are as little as a week old. Going back a few years to a few centuries, you have the bones of cattle and bison drying in the desert, or the shells of mussels and oysters being buried on the beach. Mineral replacement of bone material can be accomplished in a few years given the right chemicals in the groundwater.
## I suppose that what I am trying to say is that there is no set point where a dead organism switches from being considered just a dead thing to being a “fossil”.
Dr. Fidelius, Charlatan
Associate Curator Anomalous Paleontology, Miskatonic University
“You cannot reason a man out of a position he did not reach through reason.”
Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti…
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### Author:  [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)
#### Post date: [November 1, 1999, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossils/16889/5 "1999-11-01T00:27:00Z")
Jesse Helms/ Less than 100 years old.
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Yer pal,
Satan
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### Author:  [@JBENZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBENZ)
#### Post date: [November 1, 1999, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossils/16889/6 "1999-11-01T00:42:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Jesse Helms/ Less than 100 years old.
Wow…he’s a lot younger than he looks…must be all that branch water.
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JB
Lex Non Favet Delictorum Votis
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [November 1, 1999, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossils/16889/7 "1999-11-01T01:34:00Z")
Dr. F, how do you do those o’s with the slashes through them? Quoting the moose credits just doesn’t work without them.
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### Author:  [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)
#### Post date: [November 1, 1999, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fossils/16889/8 "1999-11-01T12:48:00Z")
At Lissa’s request, I’m moving this to General Questions. Please try to keep it over there by dealing with the question, not a creation/evolution debate.
Thanks.
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David B, SDMB Great Debates Moderator