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Scientists Found a 520-Million-Year-Old Miracle: a Fossil With Brains and Guts Intact
(www.popularmechanics.com)
it's a worm larva btw
this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024
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Here's a much better source for this than Popular Mechanics.
Ty for this by the by =) I see it's teeny-tiny, and that it's not so much that the soft tissue was found, but that the outline of its internal organs were left on record from lack of compression. I'm not sure how that happened, let alone how someone found such a small thing.
Could you maybe edit the original post to include this better source?
Oddly enough, that source doesn't imply soft tissues were preserved. They can tell some things about its brain and guts based on outlines left behind. And also from what they know of other arthropod fossils from the same era - undercutting the uniqueness.
This one is special because it isn't smushed flat like most fossils in this deposit.
Yes, the title is complete BS. The half life of DNA alone is ~500 years.
Hey thanks. Didn't notice that article about this. It's much better
Intact butts you say?
Someone can probably fill me in here. There are always so many wondrous finds coming out of China. I think I once heard why, but I can't exactly remember why. Is it because of the exposed striations in sandstone faults x difficulty to develop in the desert x lack of humidity x overall mass of area that has given rise to this? I am pretty sure someone can give me a clearer picture here somewhere between a paleontologist or a geologist.
A lot of wondrous finds in China are because they made it the fuck up.
It's a meme in science circles to double check studies that come from China.
I know that there are a series of faux-findings. Because I believe I read one in a book...? About chicken bones being used. And I know that there is a black fossil market including fake fossils. But the west went through their own bone wars and it makes me think that perhaps this is just an alternative of that. But I think there are so few great discoveries here in America exclusively by this point on account of everything being so moist and developed (although I know bogs can preserve things). I believe all the latest findings coming out of China are all from a desert portion of the country. And that perhaps being under-developed in that space and perhaps faults being exposed by say...earthquakes or something make the striation more visible which in turn leads to more fossils being detectable? I am not sure though, because I know very little about China as a whole and am not a geologist or a paleontologist.
Just last month I was thinking about asking somewhere if there was any chance we could ever find more than the usual stuff or if there would be no way for a perfect preservation to happen naturally. Guess I have my answer now.