WEBVTT

00:00:06.975 --> 00:00:09.476
Imagine being a fossil:

00:00:09.476 --> 00:00:11.799
touring the world's great museums,

00:00:11.799 --> 00:00:14.941
inspiring awe in onlookers of all ages,

00:00:14.941 --> 00:00:18.313
posing for hordes of fawning photographers.

00:00:18.313 --> 00:00:20.345
Sound like something you'd like?

00:00:20.345 --> 00:00:22.003
Well, good luck!

00:00:22.003 --> 00:00:25.876
At least 99.9% of creatures that have ever lived

00:00:25.876 --> 00:00:28.513
aren't preserved in the fossil record.

00:00:28.513 --> 00:00:29.865
But forget about them,

00:00:29.865 --> 00:00:30.848
everyone else will,

00:00:30.848 --> 00:00:32.561
and listen up!

00:00:32.561 --> 00:00:33.718
If you want your corpse

00:00:33.718 --> 00:00:37.413
in the exclusive 0.01% Club,

00:00:37.413 --> 00:00:40.063
the Hall of Preserved Fossil Fame,

00:00:40.063 --> 00:00:42.825
it will not be easy.

00:00:42.825 --> 00:00:45.481
You better work!

00:00:45.481 --> 00:00:47.916
Step one: die.

00:00:47.916 --> 00:00:51.116
It's a cold, hard fact of fossilization.

00:00:51.116 --> 00:00:53.148
Everything paleontologists find

00:00:53.148 --> 00:00:56.814
was once alive and, at some point, died.

00:00:56.814 --> 00:00:58.289
We'll skip the details

00:00:58.289 --> 00:01:02.125
and assume you had a long, fulfilling life

00:01:02.125 --> 00:01:04.917
so we can get to what is really important --

00:01:04.917 --> 00:01:07.130
how you die.

00:01:08.145 --> 00:01:10.336
There are many ways to become a fossil,

00:01:10.336 --> 00:01:13.714
so let's highlight your top death options.

00:01:14.621 --> 00:01:17.018
You could get yourself trapped in tree sap,

00:01:17.018 --> 00:01:19.129
which, when hardens, turns into amber

00:01:19.129 --> 00:01:22.304
and can survive intact for millions of years.

00:01:22.304 --> 00:01:26.658
But unless you find a really big tree to sit under,

00:01:26.658 --> 00:01:28.636
amber preservation will likely remain

00:01:28.636 --> 00:01:32.777
the domain of insects and other very small animals.

00:01:32.777 --> 00:01:34.914
Generally, the right place to be

00:01:34.914 --> 00:01:36.552
if you want to end up a fossil

00:01:36.552 --> 00:01:39.570
is wherever sediment is actively being deposited,

00:01:39.570 --> 00:01:41.970
like a lake or an ocean floor.

00:01:41.970 --> 00:01:43.755
A mountaintop or prairie?

00:01:43.755 --> 00:01:45.219
Not good!

00:01:45.219 --> 00:01:46.510
You need to get buried,

00:01:46.510 --> 00:01:47.718
the faster the better,

00:01:47.718 --> 00:01:50.221
because the longer you hang around on the surface,

00:01:50.221 --> 00:01:51.720
the more likely you'll get eaten,

00:01:51.720 --> 00:01:52.550
scavenged,

00:01:52.550 --> 00:01:54.054
or otherwise destroyed

00:01:54.054 --> 00:01:56.930
before ever having a chance to get preserved.

00:01:56.930 --> 00:01:58.719
If you can get buried someplace

00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:00.465
with little to no oxygen,

00:02:00.465 --> 00:02:02.909
like a bog or a deep lake bottom,

00:02:02.909 --> 00:02:03.971
even better.

00:02:03.971 --> 00:02:06.552
That lack of oxygen will slow down your decay

00:02:06.552 --> 00:02:09.446
and give you more time to fossilize.

00:02:09.446 --> 00:02:11.658
So, let's say you're lucky enough to die

00:02:11.658 --> 00:02:13.652
and get buried in a shallow sea

00:02:13.652 --> 00:02:15.972
under muddy, sandy sediments.

00:02:15.972 --> 00:02:18.080
What's your next move?

00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:19.300
One option is a process

00:02:19.300 --> 00:02:21.246
called permineralization.

00:02:21.246 --> 00:02:23.388
While all your soft parts decay away,

00:02:23.388 --> 00:02:27.327
your bones get saturated with mineral-rich waters.

00:02:27.327 --> 00:02:30.752
Bit by bit, microscopic crystals precipitate

00:02:30.752 --> 00:02:31.761
out of these waters

00:02:31.761 --> 00:02:35.229
to fill in the empty spaces and pores in your bones.

00:02:35.829 --> 00:02:37.500
Otherwise, you'd better hope

00:02:37.500 --> 00:02:38.664
the sediments around you harden

00:02:38.664 --> 00:02:40.599
while your bones decay away

00:02:40.599 --> 00:02:43.134
and another sediment or mineral fills in the spaces

00:02:43.134 --> 00:02:44.723
your bones leave behind,

00:02:44.723 --> 00:02:48.694
creating a perfect cast of your skeleton.

00:02:48.694 --> 00:02:51.320
Over time, the sediments around your fossil

00:02:51.320 --> 00:02:54.479
will lithify or turn into rock.

00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:56.687
But you're not in the clear yet!

00:02:56.687 --> 00:02:58.530
Many things could happen

00:02:58.530 --> 00:02:59.420
to those sedimentary rocks

00:02:59.420 --> 00:03:00.826
that might destroy your chances

00:03:00.826 --> 00:03:02.733
of getting discovered.

00:03:02.733 --> 00:03:04.923
They could get uplifted into a mountain range

00:03:04.923 --> 00:03:06.422
and eroded away

00:03:06.422 --> 00:03:08.428
or carried along in an oceanic plate

00:03:08.428 --> 00:03:11.530
and subducted back into the Earth's mantle,

00:03:11.530 --> 00:03:14.842
melting your fossil into hot mush.

00:03:14.842 --> 00:03:17.011
Fingers crossed your rock surroundings

00:03:17.011 --> 00:03:18.760
will get gently lifted up

00:03:18.760 --> 00:03:20.553
by plate tectonics,

00:03:20.553 --> 00:03:22.013
sea levels will change,

00:03:22.013 --> 00:03:24.317
and you'll end up under dry land

00:03:24.317 --> 00:03:25.438
close to the surface,

00:03:25.438 --> 00:03:26.971
but not so close

00:03:26.971 --> 00:03:30.006
that erosion from wind and rain wipes you away

00:03:30.006 --> 00:03:32.982
before someone can come find you.

00:03:32.982 --> 00:03:35.993
The last step in this long process,

00:03:35.993 --> 00:03:39.904
an intrepid paleontologist has to come find you.

00:03:39.904 --> 00:03:41.916
Maybe she's a research scientist

00:03:41.916 --> 00:03:44.305
scouting for fossils your age and type

00:03:44.305 --> 00:03:46.305
or just an amateur collector

00:03:46.305 --> 00:03:49.307
hoping for a fortuitous find.

00:03:49.307 --> 00:03:52.385
She whacks away at layers of rock above you

00:03:52.385 --> 00:03:54.097
or spots your fossil exposed

00:03:54.097 --> 00:03:56.426
in a creek bank after a flood.

00:03:56.426 --> 00:03:58.612
And there you are,

00:03:58.612 --> 00:04:01.464
a magnificent scientific discovery,

00:04:01.464 --> 00:04:04.550
millions of years in the making!

00:04:04.550 --> 00:04:06.721
She and her colleagues gently extract you

00:04:06.721 --> 00:04:08.549
from the surrounding sediment,

00:04:08.549 --> 00:04:09.974
measure and photograph

00:04:09.974 --> 00:04:12.186
all the bits and pieces they find,

00:04:12.186 --> 00:04:14.826
and begin the complex task of reconstructing

00:04:14.826 --> 00:04:16.736
how and when you lived

00:04:16.736 --> 00:04:20.666
based on the evidence they find in your bones.

00:04:20.666 --> 00:04:24.506
Paleontologists will be some of your biggest fans

00:04:24.506 --> 00:04:28.048
along with all those admiring crowds at the museum.

00:04:28.601 --> 00:04:30.490
You made it!

00:04:31.094 --> 00:04:34.385
You spent years underground in obscurity,

00:04:34.385 --> 00:04:35.426
shedding blood,

00:04:35.426 --> 00:04:36.255
sweat,

00:04:36.255 --> 00:04:36.832
tears,

00:04:36.832 --> 00:04:39.257
and your internal organs.

00:04:39.257 --> 00:04:41.435
You worked yourself to the bone

00:04:41.435 --> 00:04:43.645
until your bones disintegrated

00:04:43.645 --> 00:04:47.209
and were replaced by minerals and sediments.

00:04:47.209 --> 00:04:50.181
But it was all worth it

00:04:50.181 --> 00:04:53.736
because you're a famous fossil!

00:04:53.736 --> 00:04:58.073
Now, you better hold that pose!