Mineralization Rate in Vertebrate Fossilization Is Condition-Limited, Not Time-Limited

Authors

  • M. Nailor

    Author

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.67690/95cw5253
Abstract

Creationist treatments of fossilization frequently cite laboratory experiments that produce mineralization in days to years and present them, implicitly, as evidence that complete fossilization of vertebrate remains occurred over short timescales. Mainstream reviewers correctly object that demonstrating the initiation of mineralization is not the same as demonstrating the completion of fossilization, and that early-stage experiments cannot be linearly extrapolated to a finished fossil. This paper accepts that objection and advances a narrower, falsifiable thesis: that the rate-limiting variable in early diagenetic mineralization is geochemical condition, phosphate and silica availability, pH, fluid chemistry, diffusion through the enclosing sediment, and microbial mediation, rather than the mere passage of time. Here I compile peer-reviewed experimental and field studies on bone alteration, soft-tissue phosphatization, wood silicification, and concretion growth, and for each I document what was actually measured and what may legitimately be inferred. Where a study provides sufficient time-series data (wood silicification), I fit a decelerating kinetic continuation rather than a linear one, and find an extrapolated practical-completion time consistent with the original authors’ published estimate of tens to hundreds of years, well within the prior prediction I made of a 2,000 year maximum tested here. I conclude that the experimental record removes ‘requires deep time’ as a necessary inference for extensive mineralization.

Author Biography
  1. M. Nailor

    Sindonologist and gerontologist specializing in the biology of aging and disease, Matt Nailor holds a Doctor of Divinity (D.D). His research focuses on the evolutionary theory of aging, which accounts for senescence through mutation accumulation, antagonistic pleiotropy, and disposable soma theory. This work engages origins science, with particular attention to molecular aging, mutation rates and accumulation, biological evolution, genetic variation, and historical linguistics.  Independent research in geology come from working with world famous stone mason Roger Hopkins in Desert Hot Springs California. 

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Published
2026-07-07
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Vol. 1 No. 3 (2026): Scientific Research and Discovery
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