posted
With advances in underwater technology allowing us to examine such ships as the Titanic and the Bismark, I have noticed that there were no bodies seen in the wrecks. But other bodies have survived for hundreds of years in fresh water bogs in Europe. At what point does a body decompose at sea, and how do bog bodies survive so long.
-------------------- I like free speech. It lets me know who the idiots are. Posts: 407 | From: Ireland | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
To the best of my recollection from stuff I've read here and there:
In the ocean, bodies are generally picked clean by bottom-dwelling scavengers in months, and the bones eventually scattered and buried in a thick layer of silt. Old shipwrecks are usually covered in a layer of dead organic matter (dead microbes, fish poop, etc) that has difted down.
The bog mummies in Europe were preserved by the anerobic (oxygenless) quality of the soil and water, as well as tannic acid that naturally exists there. Tannic acid is used to make leather.
ETA: Spanked in a less wordy way by ILS
Posts: 48 | From: near Portland, Maine | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Perhaps because -- Seas, lakes, rivers etc. have fish, crustaceans and other critters that eat meat.
Bogs don't have fish, crustaceans and other critters that eat meat.
Also, IIRC bogs have much lower concentrations of oxygen which makes things last longer.
Posts: 629 | From: Greenwood, IN | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
Just to add - I think there might be an unwritten rule that most under-water documentary makers follow to not show human remains, when they might find them, as a matter of respect for the 'burial' site of these soles.
Posts: 287 | From: Sacramento, CA | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by ILS: ...as a matter of respect for the 'burial' site of these soles.
Both human and Solea solea souls?
Seaboe
-------------------- Education is not the filling of a hard drive, but the lighting of a bulb. -- Yeats via Esprise Me Posts: 5562 | From: Seattle, WA | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
IIRC there were a number of articles about the pairs of shoes found near the Titanic. The shoes were tanned leather and the only remains of the people that drowned and sank to the bottom.
-------------------- President Bush said what? And you believed him?? Heeeere's your sign Posts: 85 | From: Park Forest, IL | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by hardhead: IIRC there were a number of articles about the pairs of shoes found near the Titanic. The shoes were tanned leather and the only remains of the people that drowned and sank to the bottom.
I remember that picture. It was very obvious that they had been worn when the body hit the bottom, judging by the position of them, but the body had gone. But, do bones completly dissapear? This was really what I was getting at, especially inside a wreck away from water currents and scavengers.
-------------------- I like free speech. It lets me know who the idiots are. Posts: 407 | From: Ireland | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
The calcium in bones apparently get turned into coral over time. This takes an very large amount of time though and I suspect documentry footage of the titanic is edited so that bones aren't shown to make them appear more tastefull.
Posts: 824 | From: England | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by abigsmurf: The calcium in bones apparently get turned into coral over time. This takes an very large amount of time though and I suspect documentry footage of the titanic is edited so that bones aren't shown to make them appear more tastefull.
Umm... isn't coral an animal? Are you saying that the coral polyps absorb/break down the bones, from which they create their calciferous structures? (This may in fact be the case; I'm not a marine biologist, but I'd never heard this.) Do you have a cite?
-------------------- [God said] "I'll just sit back in the shade while everyone gets laid; that's what I call intelligent design." - Chris Smither, "Origin of the Species" Posts: 411 | From: Fairfield, CT | Registered: Aug 2005
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