The only known skull suffered a large amount of distortion during the time of fossilisation and discovery, as the cranium is dorsoventrally flattened, and the right side is depressed.
12.
The appearance of limited fossilisation initially led the explorers to think the bones were from the last caver into the chamber, who had subsequently never made it back out alive.
13.
Without the incentive to develop high-level skills in their second language, learners may undergo " language fossilisation ", or a plateau in their language level.
14.
Owing to the lack of mineralization in many of the forest specimens, the traditional characterization of " fossilisation " fails for these forests and " mummification " may be a clearer description.
15.
Bone-being one of the most resistant materials to the process of fossilisation-often preserves internal detail, which allows the histology and growth of the scales to be studied in detail.
16.
The fossil material described by this species includes a rare example of a complete skull and mandible, often crushed in the fossilisation process, that was preserved in the soft limestone of a body of fresh water.
17.
Surrounding the fleshy tube of the siphuncle are structures made of aragonite ( a polymorph of calcium carbonate which during fossilisation is often recrystalized to calcite, a more stable form of calcium carbonate [ CaCO3 ] ) : septal necks and connecting rings.
18.
Just like microbial mats, environments which could produce this mode of fossilisation became increasingly restricted to harsher and deeper areas, where burrowers could not establish a foothold; as time progressed, the extent of burrowing increased sufficiently to effectively make this mode of preservation impossible.
19.
This work at Makapansgat began a research interest in the institute which is still actively pursued today namely, research into'taphonomy' literally the'laws of burial', or the study of the processes involved in the history of an organism from death to ultimate fossilisation and discovery.
20.
He is said not to have reached full size, dying as a mature adolescent and that the process of his fossilisation was so perfect it preserved even the injuries and diseases he sustained in his lifetime including-amongst others-lumps where his ribs healed after their break and the raging infection on his middle toe.
