Can formalin be recovered from fossils?

Question

Preservatives such as ethanol and formalin were used in fossils or entombment. I wish to recover such preservatives.
Can it be done? If yes, who can do it?

The fossils (or remains) were buried underground for million years. Could all formalins have evaporated/reacted away? Formalin created cross-linkages (bridges) between proteins. Have all such cross-linkages been broken? Please advise.

Answer 1

Since I'm assuming you're talking about ancient "fossils," unless these fossils were frozen, then the ethanol and formaldahyde contents of formalin would have evaporated away, or in the case of formaldehyde, reacted away.

Please realize that your use of the word "fossil" is completely wrong. Fossils refer to situations where the entire original remains of the body have disappeared, to be replaced by other material that takes up the shapes of the remains. Fossils are created by natural processes and have nothing to do with formalin. I assume you're talking about mummies, burials, etc., in which case they would not be fossils.

If you're talking about recent burials (maybe within the past few years and probably in a cool climate), you might be able to recover some of the ethanol or formaldehyde, but what would be the point?