 FACT: During one scene in the university laboratory when Peter is  (partly) explaining to Frank why the fossilized man is so important,  he mentions that sphagnum is a polysaccharide. For those of you who  are not fluent in chemistry, a polysaccharide is a general term for  a large molecule composed of several linked sugar molecules (such as  glucose, for example). However, sphagnum is no such thing, it is a  type of moss, nothing more. Its chemical composition does slow down  the decomposition of living tissue but the chemical substances  involved are mostly tannins, which are unrelated to polysaccharides.