Question: How long does it take for a dinosaur to rot down to just its bones so you can examin them

Ceri-Wyn Thomas answered on 18 Jun 2010:

Fun question! It depends on many things: The weight and mass of muscle and fat on the dino’s body; the nature of the environment it decayed in (decay bacteria like moist environments so if a dino keeled down dead in a desert- chances are it’s skin and muscle would dessicate or dry out and this would prevent decay for a long while). Also scavengers could strip the flesh off a dead dinosaur within hours leaving nice goo-free bones. So, really depending on these different things it could take weeks to months (or just days if it was small and its tissue was eaten quickly after death). Marine plesiosaurs and pliosaurs etc would probably decay faster since microbes and other beasties in the water would quickly strip the flesh away (this happens to dead whales a lot today).