do y'all even know how long it takes for a body to rot away ?! there's perfectly well preserved corpses dead for thousands of years lying in some muck or other. we even unearthed some, put them in museums... anway, average decomposition time would definitelly be longer than two days and, depending on the way these so called zombies would strut about, skeleton take months, years even, to decompose... that's provided it sits somewhere moist and warm, with plents of oxygen avaliable. bones are tough stuff. i guess i don't have to bring out dinosaurs to proove that point, do i.
zombies would be a considerable threat that would not rot away in 2 days. thankfully though, the laws of physics are and will continue to keep us safe from such a danger. C:
Skeletons aren't capable of moving without flesh. You need muscles which decay very quickly. We find preserved human, and other animal species, remains usually in places where bacteria have difficulties living or where scavengers are incapable of getting them. Being wet and moist isn't a requirement either. Most places on Earth aren't dry enough on Earth to stall rotting. Two days is a pretty short time period, but they wouldn't last more than a year or two.
Also, dinosaur bones are not tough. What people usually call dinosaur bones aren't actually bones. They are minerals (rocks) that just took the shape of where the bones used to be. It's similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casting but it takes a lot longer. They aren't bones. Scavengers eat bones too as do certain types of bugs.
Also, the laws of physics allow the creation of zombies. They happen to insect species all the time usually in the form of parasites taking control of their mind. Have fun sleeping with that one.
There's also the fact that rigor Mortis would set in as well as the fact that even tho rotting would take a rather long time the atrophy to the muscles would cause immobility in limbs rather chaotically leading to hordes of zombies doing a mix of crawling and hobbling on one leg at nothing near walking pace.
But they're still living. Technically not dead. And we've recently found that they're perfectly conscious as well, in the case of ant cordyceps. Their bodies are completely controlled by the fungus, but their minds are still pristine. Untouched. Forced to observe itself doing what the fungus commands.
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· 5 years ago
@sir_spiderman guess who isn't getting invited to the skeleton army...
It depends on the type of zombie now. I can believe in a zombie parasite that stops the brain's immune system while simulataneously keeping the brain still functioning. Without an immune system, your body will start to rot pretty fast.
Rigor mortis ending after only a day doesn't matter as normally for muscle relaxation to occur Processed oxogen would normally be required to be distributed however with rigor mortis the subject is dead and that cannot happen so the muscles have to be broken down by enzymes to the point that the contraction is forcefully ended which would be what leaves the zombies in barely moving states of near harmlessness
http://www.cracked.com/article_18683_7-scientific-reasons-zombie-outbreak-would-fail-quickly.html
"Insects are a major pain in the ass for living humans, and in some cases, being able to swat away flies and having an immune system is the only thing keeping us from having our eyes and tongues eaten out by maggots. Zombies in any part of the world with a fly problem are going to be swarming with maggots in short order, meaning that most of their soft tissues will be infested, and their eyes will be very quickly useless.
We'll scale up a bit: In America alone, we have bears, wolves, coyotes and cougars, all of which can put well-armed, thinking, fast-moving humans on the menu, if the conditions are right. To most predators, the "right conditions" are when the animal is weak or infirm, or otherwise generally unable to defend themselves, like a walking corpse. Hell, just think of the millions of stray dogs out there who'll quickly learn that zombies are an easy meal."
(Fun fact: in rare cases maggots have been laid, hatched, and eaten the eyes of living, functioning humans).
Granted the above link is not a scientifically sourced article, but it covers most of the points being talked about here so it seemed relevant
Ok but can you imagine if the zombie apocalypse affected corpses even retroactively, and we'd see these pristinely preserved bog bodies or mummies or Ötzi or Lady Dai walking around? Celebrity zombies!
It turns out they've found that several of the bog bodies (at least in Ireland), aside from being incomplete corpses to begin with, were tortured to death, and would likely be fairly incapable of movement overall. Even assuming there is a complete bog body that is almost entirely in tact that hasn't been found, it would still have to claw it's way OUT of the bog it's been trapped in to begin with. A similar problem would exist for undiscovered mummies (especially ones laying in sewage) having to find a way out of their sarcophagi, out of their tomb, potentially out of their pyramid, and then to civilization before the sun and vultures take care of them. Alternative is just being stuck until some unfortunate Explorer happens upon them
The ones in museums would be realistically a greater risk, but this also depends on what kind of display they're in
Well I was more addressing the retroactive virus. Theoretically magic could eliminate a lot of the corpse's own mobility problems (unless it moves like a literal puppet and requires that amount of concentration in which case it would be inefficient for the caster and entirely too weak to accomplish much), although even with magic forcing it to move, depending on where the corpse is, particularly for bog bodies, it may not be enough. I'm not an expert, but if you've ever seen people stuck in mud, you know they can get literally quite immobilized. Apply the kind of suction/pressure found in the muck in some of these ancient bogs that have been sitting for centuries, and even with magic, a corpse in the kind of conditions they're often found in my opinion would likely still not be able to get out without additional aid from the surface. Sarcophagus would potentially be simpler if the spell caster could ensure the corpse had a way of exiting it's tomb and sarcophagus
Brute strength in that case could potentially be an option (assuming the magic also reinforced the corpse to be able to withstand that kind of applied force), although if the tomb is underground you then could potentially run the risk of structural collapse if the corpse also has to force it's way out of that. As a side note, a lot of cultures actually took (often bizarre) precautions against their dead coming back to life, so depending where you're at, those could be something that has to be taken into account. It would be much simpler for the caster to get hold of normal, recently buried skeletons. Preferably (as dark as it is) from a place where there are a lot of people dying from something and very little effort put into the burial ceremonies
So a budding necromancer should just follow the trail of tears (probably a few mass graves left unfound) and wander around Germany and Vietnam before trying to take over the world?
Technically speaking, visiting recent places of war, disease (assuming the virus has died off and wouldn't harm the necromancer), and genocide where the bodies were not burned/mutilated significantly would likely be one of the most efficient ways to ensure you have a zombie army with limited decay in as short a time as possible that won't have to battle against coffins etc
There isn't anything in basically any mainstream zombie apocalypse stuff to suggest that there is any difference between death and undeath other than either a virus, fungus, etc controlling the corpse and in more than one it is shown that rotting still happens
zombies would be a considerable threat that would not rot away in 2 days. thankfully though, the laws of physics are and will continue to keep us safe from such a danger. C:
Also, dinosaur bones are not tough. What people usually call dinosaur bones aren't actually bones. They are minerals (rocks) that just took the shape of where the bones used to be. It's similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casting but it takes a lot longer. They aren't bones. Scavengers eat bones too as do certain types of bugs.
Also, the laws of physics allow the creation of zombies. They happen to insect species all the time usually in the form of parasites taking control of their mind. Have fun sleeping with that one.
They are eat dead things so they are as much predators to zombies as cows are to grass
"Insects are a major pain in the ass for living humans, and in some cases, being able to swat away flies and having an immune system is the only thing keeping us from having our eyes and tongues eaten out by maggots. Zombies in any part of the world with a fly problem are going to be swarming with maggots in short order, meaning that most of their soft tissues will be infested, and their eyes will be very quickly useless.
We'll scale up a bit: In America alone, we have bears, wolves, coyotes and cougars, all of which can put well-armed, thinking, fast-moving humans on the menu, if the conditions are right. To most predators, the "right conditions" are when the animal is weak or infirm, or otherwise generally unable to defend themselves, like a walking corpse. Hell, just think of the millions of stray dogs out there who'll quickly learn that zombies are an easy meal."
Granted the above link is not a scientifically sourced article, but it covers most of the points being talked about here so it seemed relevant
The ones in museums would be realistically a greater risk, but this also depends on what kind of display they're in