Archeological Specimens 

- means an object or specimen found in an archaeological site of

archaeological, ethnological or historical importance, interest or significance and includes
explorers' documents, human remains or associated burial objects.

Fossils Tissues and Archeological Specimens plays a huge role on how geologist and
paleontologist discover how it is like in the past.

- Examples of this are the mummies we found on tombs, artifacts that can be found in a historical
place, the fossil of an ammonites, and of course the bones of the dinosaurs.
If you ever wondered what is a Paleontologists it is a group of people who use fossil remains to
understand different aspects of extinct and living organisms. Individual fossils may contain
information about an organism's life and environment.
Fossils are the preserved remains of an ancient organism. Most people mistakes that Fossils
are not the remains of the organism itself. Fossil are rocks.
Preserved remains become fossils if they reach an age of about 10,000 years. Fossils can
come from the Archaeaean Eon (which began almost 4 billion years ago) all the way up to the
Holocene Epoch (which continues today). The fossilized teeth of wooly mammoths are some of
our most "recent" fossils. Some of the oldest fossils are those of ancient algae that lived in the
ocean more than 3 billion years ago. 

Fossilization – it is the process of remains becoming a fossil. Fossils are rare, because most
organism decompose quickly after they die.

For an organism to be fossilized, the remains usually need to be covered

by sediment soon after death. Sediment can include the sandy seafloor, lava, and even
sticky tar.
 
Over time, minerals in the sediment seep into the remains. The remains become
fossilized. Fossilization usually occur in organisms with hard, bony body parts, such
as skeletons, teeth, or shells. Soft-bodied organisms, such as worms, are rarely
fossilized. 

Microfossils
Even though most of us have only seen dinosaur fossils in museums, most fossils are not that
big. Some of them are so small, you can't see them without a microscope.

Archaeologists use artifacts and features to learn how people lived in specific times and
places.
Prepared Fixed Tissues – these are the tissues that was achieved by chemical or physical means, such as
Physical methods include heating, micro-waving and cryo-preservation (freeze drying).

Chemical fixation is usually achieved by immersing the specimen in the

fixative (immersion fixation) or, in the case of small animals or some whole
organs such as a lung, by perfusing the vascular system with fixative
(perfusion fixation). For some specialised histochemical procedures fixatives
have occasionally been applied in the vapour form. For example
paraformaldehyde and osmium tetroxide can be used to vapour-fix freeze-
dried tissues.

Fixative solutions may contain a single fixative agent dissolved in a solvent

such as water or alcohol or more commonly, a buffer solution to stabilize pH.
Some popular fixative solutions contain several different fixing agents in
combination, the rationale being that the defects in one agent can be
compensated for by the addition of another. For example acetic acid is
present in some formulations to counter the shrinkage caused by other agents
such as ethanol. 

Classification of fixing agents and the

mechanisms of fixation
Traditionally fixing agents were termed “coagulant” or “non-coagulant”
based on their effect on soluble proteins in solution. 7 Coagulant fixatives
were said to result in a permeable meshwork of protein strands whereas non-
coagulant fixatives which are additive in nature, formed extensive cross-links
producing a less permeable gel. These terms are still encountered in modern
histological literature but a more systematic approach has recently been taken
to classification. 2
There are two major mechanisms which are important in fixation of proteins
and protein complexes: denaturation, and addition and cross-link formation.
Denaturation: Most commonly this effect is induced by dehydrants such as
the alcohols or acetone. These reagents remove and replace free water in cells
and tissues and cause a change in the tertiary structure of proteins by
destabilizing hydrophobic bonding. Hydrophobic areas, frequently found on
the inside of protein molecules, are released from the repulsion of water and
become free to occupy a greater area. In hydrophilic areas of protein water
molecules are loosely bound by hydrogen bonds and removal of water also
destabilizes these bonds. The changes produced in the conformation of the
protein molecules cause a change in the solubility of the protein, rendering
water soluble proteins insoluble, a change that is largely irreversible if the
protein is returned to an aqueous environment. 2, 7
Addition and cross-link formation: The non-coagulant fixing agents
chemically react with proteins and other cell and tissue components,
becoming bound to them by addition and forming inter-molecular and intra-
molecular cross-links. Because these agents are reactive compounds they
bind to a variety of chemical groups in tissues, often affecting the charge at
the site of attachment. This can have an effect on the subsequent staining
characteristics of a particular protein as well as altering its molecular
conformation and thus its solubility. For example, tissue fixed with
formaldehyde stains poorly with eosin because formaldehyde reacts
extensively with amino groups to form methylene bridges and thus these
groups are no longer available to bind negatively charged dye molecules such
as those of eosin.
The extent to which additive fixatives form cross-links varies considerably.
For example glutaraldehyde is more effective at forming cross-links than
formaldehyde. 8 This explains why it so effectively preserves the
ultrastructure of cells and is the fixative of choice for electron microscopy. It
also explains why glutaraldehyde-fixed tissues stain poorly with conventional
dye-staining methods. The chemical reactions of tissue fixation are quite well
understood in the case of some agents such as formaldehyde but our
knowledge of the mechanisms involved with some other agents is
incomplete.
Antigen-retrieval methods in immunohistochemistry have shown that some
of the reactions of fixation are reversible, particularly those of formaldehyde,
but there is considerable variation in the quality of antigen preservation with
various agents. The preservation of antigenicity has become a very important
consideration when choosing a fixative.
The broad objective of tissue fixation is to preserve cells and tissue
components in a “life-like state” and to do this in such a way as to allow for
the preparation of thin, stained sections.

The aim of fixation

The aim of fixation is to preserve cells or tissues in as near a life like condition
as possible, prevent autolysis and putrefaction, and protect the tissue from
subsequent processing.  Fixatives have different actions e.g. crosslinking,
precipitative, coagulative etc.