Mineralized fossil bone Fossil bone can be mineralized in several ways.
Permineralized fossils have their original pore space infilled with minerals.
Permineralization is commonly confused with petrification , in which the original material of an organism is replaced with minerals, and the pore space is infilled with minerals. In other words, petrification is a combination of permineralization and replacement. I plan to eventually present some truly petrified bone eventually. In either case, the boundary between the original, open pore space and the replaced material is quite obvious, because of variations in the shape and orientation of the crystals infilling the pores. My thanks to Jun Resultay for loaning some thin sections of permineralized fossil dinosaur bone.