To Understand Fossils, These Paleontologists Are Making Faux-ssils

A lizard foot after it endured compaction in clay and extreme pressure-cooking, to mimic fossilization. (Credit: Evan Saitta, Tom Kaye)To learn more from fossils they find in nature, paleontologists are trying to create their own. For decades, paleontologists have been experimenting with heat, pressure, and other factors to mimic nature’s ability to preserve the bodies of living things as fossils. Trying to copy fossilization in a laboratory would allow paleontologists to better understand the process and learn more about the history of life on our planet from the fossils they find. In a study published in the journal Palaeontologyon Wednesday, one team presented a method for simulating the fossilization process that has made some of the most realistic-looking artificial fossils yet. The researchers packed feathers and lizard parts into clay tablets before subjecting them to the traditional high-temperature, high-pressure method for simulating the fossilization process.