this post was submitted on 19 May 2024
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Science Memes

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top 29 comments
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[–] [email protected] 65 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)

Technically a fossil is any remnant of an organism or its activities, not just petrified bones.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fossil

But they also said “the fossil”, not “a fossil”, so maybe they were talking about a specific fossil.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

But they also said “the fossil”, not “a fossil”, so maybe they were talking about a specific fossil.

This had me in stitches. Thanks :D

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If I’m gonna be a pedant, I’ve gotta take it to the extreme.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I normally hate ultra pedants, but this I can respect

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Of course it's company policy never to, imply ownership in the event of a dildo... always use the indefinite article "a" dildo, never "your" dildo.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

It's okay. Nine times out of ten, it's an electric razor.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Omg the pedentry needs to stop. Specific to what ever fossil is being refered too.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Nothing of the bee remains, but we know it existed from the shape of this flower. It's an idea of what the female bee looked like to the male bee... as interpreted by a plant.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

One of my favorite xkcd's

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago

Based.

Carved in stone.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Sometimes, original material does survive fossilization.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

At least, older than our words.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Neolithic, but not too neo; mostly just lithic.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Oddly we needed to create the idea of poetry first to make that metaphor work.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Wait, what does this mean? I genuinely thought fossils were the bones, preserved through lack of oxygen

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (3 children)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zBzDfvvdgA

Fun facts, we know next to nothing about dinosaurs that lived in jungles or mountains due to preservation conditions. They just disappear and do not get buried fast enough. We know the most about wetland dinos because those tend to have better conditions (e.g. bogs) to preserve things.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago

Humanity's closest living relatives, the Chimpanzees, live in forests. They diverged from our lineage 6.5-7.5 million years ago, and there are almost no fossils for them. Except for a statistical fluke, someone studying solely the fossil record could be excused for thinking that they never existed at all... but they do!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Love me a good bog…

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Hey, that's not fun!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Petrified forest are not trees that turned to stone. Petrified forests are trees covered in mud or something that hardened, then tree rotted away and the hollow(in the mold of the tree) was filled in by another type of rock, creating a something that looks like a petrified tree.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

That's really good!