Nitpick, but fossils are specifically records of life. Footprints left in petrified mud can be fossils. But a snowflake isn't alive, so a preserved snowflake can never be a fossil.
An ichnofossil is the fossil of activity of a living thing.
But specimen seems like it might work as long as you’re not using wet / embalmed with it.
Vitrification maybe almost works, but doesn’t seem to really work for a snowflake.
Aquastasis ? (Joking)
Apologies. After reading this I’m now wracking my brain trying to figure out what would be the correct word to apply to creating a /mold/ model / sample of a snowflake.
Now we just need some special rule to make them into fossils… maybe if they’re over 20,000 years old- double the specimen quasi rule.
Or, what if the observer of the snowflake held the philosophical belief that we live in a single living universe, as did the ancient Stoics? [2]
It appears that we have at least two clear instances where preserved snowflakes can indeed be considered fossils.
[1] https://asm.org/articles/2019/january/snow-is-coming-whats-t...
[2] https://modernstoicism.com/modern-stoicism-expert-panel-post...
reader9274•2mo ago
A week or two? That's a huge margin there
Ferret7446•2mo ago