I know that fossilization is a process by which the tissues of dead animals and plants are converted into stone. We have many examples of this (fossilized wood, dinosau fossils). But, has a human body ever been found to be fossilized? How long does the process take?
I have no idea how long it takes.
Come to think of it, bones are calcium carbonate already… already rock. So I guess as soon as the rest of you is done rotting, you are considered a “fossil.”
Fossils have been found of archaic Homo sapiens, of Neandertals (either a subspecies of Homo sapiens or a related species within Genus Homo), and of modern H. sapiens (H. sapiens sapiens), specifically the famous “Cro-Magnons”.
Not quite the same thing, but there are also assorted mummies from various cultures (Egypt, obviously), either deliberately created as in the case of the ancient Egyptians, or somewhat more accidental, as in the case of sacrifice victims found mummified in the Andes, or north European sacrifice victims found in peat bogs. The famous La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles also contained at least one human skeleton.
This site, while of an apparent creationist slant, does list some examples.
More from Okinawa.
A Macedonian Press Agency release announced an 11 Million (!?!) year old human fossil find in 1996.
A report from the People’s Daily reports some from China’s Zhejiang Province.
Between tomfoolery (Moab Man, Mt. Rushmore) and some obvious agendas, it behooves one to read what they find on the subject skeptically.
And don’t forget to check out the Cave Being of Ras el Khaima. 
I wonder if mummies are considered fossils… nah.
I bet that bones found out in the wild (underground silly) after a thousand years are considered fossils.
What the OP is talking about is not fossilization per se, but petrification.
A fossil is any evidence of ancient life that is preserved in a sediment or sedimentary rock. Fossils can include unaltered bones, wood, foot prints, etc, as well as remains that have been petrified or replaced by minerals.
Petrification, a mineralization process, occurs in some fossils. Dissolved minerals in ground water penetrate the original bone, shell, wood, or whatever and crystallize inside. The fossil becomes hardened and stonelike. In replacement, the bone itself dissolves and be replaced by minerals that preserve its exact form
When my genetics professor was asked this, he said, “There are no human fossils, but we have found plenty of old bones-- man hasn’t been here long enough for fossils to form.”
The definition he presented to describe a fossil is “the remains of a once-living creature, wherein the original cellular structure has been replaced, molecule by molecule, with non-living substances, typically glass.”
Evidently, many consider any very old remains to be fossils, whether their original cellular structure is intact, as some of these links will show:
-David
SoulFrost, I’m afraid your genetics professor didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. As I said, “fossil” simply applies to any remains of organic life preserved naturally:
From Merriam Webster:
This is the standard definition you will find in pretty much any paleontology text.
As for the second part, he is obviously confusing petrification with fossilization. The part about “glass” is nonsense; possibly he simply meant silicates. But silicates are not equivalent to glass.
I definitely agree with the last bit. I don’t think any of the info found on creationist websites is trustworthy. In fact, this makes the topic a bit difficult to search for, since Googling “petrified human remains” mostly yields Creationist sites.
To return to the OP, there are of course lots of human fossils, some of which have been mineralized/petrified.
On of the most famous of the latter was the original specimen of Java Man, Pithecanthropus erectus (now classified as Homo erectus). As the site mentions, the cranium was “heavily mineralized,” in other words, petrified.
Never insult Albus Dumbl…
You may be right. Then again, all of the fossils he showed us (mostly trilobites and such) did seem to be made of some glass-like material…
-David
Trilobites were unique among arthropods in that their skeltons, in addition to chitin, also contained calcite (calcium carbonate), which is very durable. You may have been looking at the original material that composed their shells, not a mineralized replacement.
The longer a fossil has been buried and exposed to groundwater, the more likely it is to become mineralized/petrified. Therefore recent remains tend to be unaltered or less-altered bone/shell, and very old remains are frequently petrified or replaced by minerals. However, there is no absolute correlation. Some very ancient fossils, as some trilobites, retain the original material they were composed of, while some much more recent ones, such as some human remains, have become mineralized. It really depends on the local environment and the fossil’s history.
Now THAT would be cool-- to see an actual, unaltered, part of something that lived so long ago. Thanks for the info!
-David
Have some fun with this topic. Google the Cardiff Giant.
Ah, yes, Sylvester Stallone.