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Dinosaur Bone Fossil Remains of Dinosaur Bones

agatized dinosaur bone and petrified wood in a museum display cabinet

What is Agatized Dinosaur Bone?

Agatized dinosaur bone is the fossilised remains of dinosaur bones in which the original cellular structure has been replaced with natural minerals.

When an organism is starved of oxygen soon after it dies the normal process of decaying cannot take place.  It can therefore remain in tact for a considerable length of time.

Being preserved in this way allows the process of petrifaction to eventually take place.

This happened because the skeletal remains of some dinosaurs were quickly covered with sediment or volcanic ash.  Dissolved minerals being carried in groundwater then slowly seeped into pores and cavities filling any available space.  This preserved the original tissue structure.

Once the water dried up the minerals left behind slowly crystallised.

The entire process took place over thousands of years.

Almost all fossils are bone or skeletal remains which have been buried under sediment or ash.  This preserves them sometimes in almost perfect condition until the process of petrifaction begins.

Dinosaur bone is found mainly in Colorado and Utah in the United States.  Agatized dinosaur bone as it's also known is a more accurate description of what it actually is.

The colours in the stone are the result of the different minerals in the sediment.

As well as quartz, agate and pyrite other minerals known to replace the cellular structure in dinosaur bone include common opal and calcite. 

Dinosaur bone is used primarily for decorative purposes.  It grades 6 to 7 on Mohs scale of hardness.

The dinosaur bone and petrified wood in our photo is on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.  Photo by Stone Mania.  The image is clickable and redirects to the original non-compressed photo.

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