ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Bitter Springs type preservation

Okay kiddo, have you ever had a really cool rock or shell that you wanted to keep forever? Well, there are some people who want to do that with really old things like animals and plants that lived a long, long time ago. They want to keep them so we can learn from them and discover more about what the world was like back then.

Bitter Springs type preservation is one way that scientists can do this. It's a special way of keeping ancient animals and plants from rotting away that involves using chemicals. You know how we use soap to clean our hands or clothes? Well, scientists use chemicals like soap to clean and preserve fossils.

But it's not just any kind of soap, it's a special kind that has certain minerals in it. These minerals help keep the fossils from getting damaged by the air and sunlight. And that's a good thing because fossils are very sensitive and can easily break apart or decay if they are not taken care of properly.

So, bitter springs type preservation is kind of like wrapping up a present really nicely, so it looks great for a long time. Except in this case, the present is a really old animal or plant and the wrapping is a special soap with mineral ingredients. It's a way to keep old things around for us to learn from and enjoy, even after thousands or millions of years!