How do things get fossilized instead of decaying?
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some fossils are just imprints of leaves like a stamp. When you have something buried by sediment in certain situations like a mud slide and drys, the imprint is left. After it decays that mud turns to stone over a long time and can be found by chance.
Bone fossils are preserved in a similar way. Bones don’t decay as easily as soft tissue, and if a scavenger can’t get to the bones and damage them, and the bones don’t get broken when they are being covered by history, different minerals will end up being absorbed by the tissue and replacing the matter that decomposes leaving the stuff in the bones that wouldn’t decay in the shape of the bone supported by rock in place of what would decay.
Adding to the answers here, fossilization is the exception rather than the rule, and usually requires an organism to be buried in sediment soon after death so there is less opportunity to decay or get eaten. The vast majority of organisms that die don’t get fossilized.
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