Many species die off without a trace. If humans are to leave a lasting record, well need to make sure our DNA survives.
Every fossil is a small miracle. Only an estimated one bone in a billion gets fossilized— preserved for thousands, even millions of years—as Bill Bryson notes in A Short History of Nearly Everything. By that calculation, the 327-odd million people alive in the United States today will leave a fossil legacy of only 67 or so bones. That’s a little over a quarter of one human skeleton.
According to scientists who specialize in taphonomy (the study of what happens after an organism dies), fossilization is so unlikely that fewer than one tenth of one percent of all animal species have ever survived in a fossilized state. Only a handful, such as the well-known female skeleton Lucy, have been discovered.
If you’re determined to increase the chances that your humani corporis makes it for all eternity—or if you’re just curious to know how the select few survived—read on.
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