Do bones last forever?

Based on a wide range of extrinsic and intrinsic factors, bone can last for a few months to a few geologic eras, but the truth is that nothing lasts forever. Even fossils and mummies will eventually be pulverized or broken down over the course of millions (or billions) of years.
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How long can human bones last?

By 50 years in, your tissues will have liquefied and disappeared, leaving behind mummified skin and tendons. Eventually these too will disintegrate, and after 80 years in that coffin, your bones will crack as the soft collagen inside them deteriorates, leaving nothing but the brittle mineral frame behind.
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Do bones ever decompose?

Bones do decay, just at a slower rate than other organic material. Depending on the conditions, this process usually takes a few years. Bones are largely a fibrous matrix of collagen fibres, impregnated with calcium phosphate.
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How many years do bones take to decompose?

After skeletonization, if scavenging animals do not destroy or remove the bones, acids in many fertile soils take about 20 years to completely dissolve the skeleton of mid- to large-size mammals, such as humans, leaving no trace of the organism.
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Can bones last for millions of years?

Its bones are protected from rotting by layers of sediment. As its body decomposes all the fleshy parts wear away and only the hard parts, like bones, teeth, and horns, are left behind. Over millions of years, water in the nearby rocks surrounds these hard parts, and minerals in the water replace them, bit by bit.
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Jake once said...



Can bones melt?

Bones states that bones cannot melt. Bones - like everything else - can in fact melt at the right temperature and pressure.
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Are teeth a bone?

Teeth and bones look similar and share some commonalities, including being the hardest substances in your body. But teeth aren't actually bone. This misconception might arise from the fact that both contain calcium.
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How long till a body turns into a skeleton in a coffin?

Generally speaking, a body takes 10 or 15 years to decompose to a skeleton. Some of the old Victorian graves hold families of up to eight people. As those coffins decompose, the remains will gradually sink to the bottom of the grave and merge.
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Are our bones wet?

ARE BONES DRY? Dead bones are dry and brittle, but living bones feel wet and a little soft. They are also slightly flexible, so they can absorb pressure. Like most parts of the body, bones have a network of blood vessels and nerves running through them, and they bleed when broken.
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Why are people buried 6 feet under?

Medical schools in the early 1800s bought cadavers for anatomical study and dissection, and some people supplied the demand by digging up fresh corpses. Gravesites reaching six feet helped prevent farmers from accidentally plowing up bodies.
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What is the oldest bones ever found?

Scientists determine age of some of the oldest human bones Some of the oldest human remains ever unearthed are the Omo One bones found in Ethiopia. For decades, their precise age has been debated, but a new study argues they're around 233,000 years old.
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Do teeth stay in skulls?

The skull is made up of several plate-like bones. These include the upper jawbone (maxilla) and the lower jawbone (mandible). Our teeth are embedded in these bones.
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What does death smell like?

A decomposing body will typically have a smell of rotting meat with fruity undertones.
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Is it painful when the soul leaves the body?

He said, “When the soul leaves the body, it can take a long time or it can happen very quickly. No matter how, it is painful. It is painful for the one who is dying, and it is painful for those who are left behind. The separation of the soul from the body, that is the ending of life.
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Do skeletons decompose in water?

Putrefaction and scavenging creatures will dismember the corpse in a week or two and the bones will sink to the seabed. There they may be slowly buried by marine silt or broken down further over months or years, depending on the acidity of the water.
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Do bugs get into coffins?

Coffin flies have that name because they are particularly talented at getting into sealed places holding decaying matter, including coffins. Given the opportunity, they will indeed lay their eggs on corpses, thus providing food for their offspring as they develop into maggots and ultimately adult flies.
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Why do they cover the legs in a casket?

They cover the legs in a casket because the deceased is not wearing shoes in many cases due to the difficulty of putting them on stiff feet. Also, funeral directors may recommend it to save money, for religious reasons, in the event of trauma, for easier transportation, or with tall bodies.
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Where does the soul go after it leaves the body?

“Good and contented souls” are instructed “to depart to the mercy of God.” They leave the body, “flowing as easily as a drop from a waterskin”; are wrapped by angels in a perfumed shroud, and are taken to the “seventh heaven,” where the record is kept.
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What is the hardest bone in your body to break?

The thigh bone is called a femur and not only is it the strongest bone in the body, it is also the longest. Because the femur is so strong, it takes a large force to break or fracture it – usually a car accident or a fall from high up.
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What's the strongest bone in your body?

The femur is one of the most well-described bones of the human skeleton in fields ranging from clinical anatomy to forensic medicine. Because it is the longest and strongest bone in the human body, and thus, one of the most well-preserved in skeletal remains, it makes the greatest contribution to archaeology.
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Are teeth alive?

It is a common misconception that teeth are not alive.

It is a fact that most of the parts which make up teeth are actually living cells. Similar to hair and fingernails there is a part on a tooth that is not alive – that part is called the “enamel”.
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Do human bones burn in fire?

In fact, in many ways the changes we see due to fire are the same as normal diagenesis over time – just a lot quicker. It is important to note that the skeleton does not 'turn to ash' upon burning. Even within modern crematoria, which burn efficiently and at high temperatures, the skeleton will survive.
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Can fire destroy bones?

Bones are some of the most resilient parts of the body and burn at significantly higher temperatures than the rest of the body. Normal fires don't reach temperatures high enough to burn bone.
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Can u burn a human body?

An average human body takes from two to three hours to burn completely and will produce an average of 3 to 9 pounds (1.4 to 4.1 kilograms) of ash. The amount of ash depends usually on the bone structure of the person and not so much their weight [source: Ellenberg].
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