These were not intact living cells; the cells had been chemically altered over thousands of years.

But they were recognizably the remnants of cells, and the cellular features were consistent with the specific types of cells found in brain tissue rather than in other tissues.

The preservation of this level of cellular structure in a hot, humid environment, for 8,000 years, represents an extraordinary intersection of specific conditions that are not fully replicated elsewhere.

The near-neutral pH of the Windover pond, the rapid submersion of the bodies in the anoxic peat, the specific chemistry of the peat matrix — these factors apparently combined to produce a preservation environment in which even the most fragile biological materials could persist in altered but still recognizable form.

The Science Of Very Old Tissue — And What 1986 Technology Could Ask