Why do bones take so long to decompose?
In: Biology
Because they’re composed of relatively biologically inert minerals. Our flesh and tissues decompose because they’re organic and can be readily broken down into their constituent molecules by bacteria and other decomposers in the environment.
Our bones are composed largely of calcium phosphate, which is a fairly stable compound that just kind of lingers around, since there’s not a lot of decomposers that have the biochemical tools to break that compound apart and digest it. As a result, bones break down much more slowly.
If I asked you to poke yourself to break your skin (anything that would make you bleed), you might do it.
If I asked you to break a bone you probably would not.
Skin, hair, internal organs are built “soft and easy”, for the most part. It is easy to hurt, but also easy to repair. You can walk arround and be a fully functional person with some scratches. When we are born most of these structures are fully built, and only grow.
I cannot think of any one bone that I could break and still be at 100%. My nephew, who is a few weeks old and thinks I am a mattress ( he has been sleeping for over an hour on me) , is still growing his bones. His bones will keep developing until about 20, when most are either fully ossified (hardened), some will never fully ossify, like ribs.
Basically, bones are made to be hard to breakdown, or just break because it is hard to fixed them. My cat scratched me 2 days ago, the scar will be gone within a week
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