this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 152 points 2 months ago (2 children)

There are fossilized humans. Fossilization really doesn't take that much time, geologically speaking; it just requires very specific conditions.

[–] Copythis@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago (4 children)

About how much time are we talkin here?

[–] Geobloke@lemm.ee 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] meep_launcher@lemm.ee 11 points 2 months ago (3 children)
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[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago

I know there's some animal fossils in New Zealand that date back to its colonization by the ancestors of the Maori, so about the 1400s. Though I don't know if they are partially or fully fossilized.

[–] psud@aussie.zone 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Human species before H. Sapiens

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[–] obstbert@feddit.org 13 points 2 months ago

Also makes you wonder what fossils they mean, of the same species or then already extinct ones.

Because according to a quick Wikipedia search the oldest hominid fossils (?) are something like 7 millions years old

That's much much shorter than dinosaurs where around but hey " hominins are around long enough to unearth hominin fossils"!

[–] Mr_Fish@lemmy.world 128 points 2 months ago (6 children)

It is more chronologically accurate to show a t-rex being hit by a car than it is to show a t-rex eating a stegosaurus

[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 59 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I said I'm sorry. But if you're going to let your T-Rex out at night you should at least put a reflective collar on it.

[–] Frozengyro@lemmy.world 30 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Hi, I was just calling because I live down the street from you, and your daughter come to my house today and she kick my t-rex.

Your daughter come to my house today, And she come on my property and then she kick my t-rex. And now my t-rex needs operation.

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 36 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How cruel.

My T-Rex ist mostly armless

[–] Frozengyro@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

That would be a knee slapper if I could reach.

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[–] irish_link@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago

This is the comparison I was looking for. It’s great to explain that media shows them together but untrue, it is a totally different idea to explain the staggering time difference between the two.

[–] Zzyzx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 months ago

And people mocked me for my human-tyrannosaur slashfic on ao3. Well, who's laughing now?

[–] ziggurat@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

You made me scroll up to the picture again, looking for a T-Rex or a car

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 124 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

This is only mind blowing because popular media likes to show every dinosaur at once. Like there's a lot of things depicting stegosaurus fighting T-Rex; but these animals never would have met. They're from entirely different periods.

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 97 points 2 months ago (2 children)

How dare you suggest DinoTrux lied to us!!!

[–] OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world 36 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

If gasoline is made from dinosaurs, what did the Dinotrux run on?

[–] argh_another_username@lemmy.ca 46 points 2 months ago

The blood of their enemies!!!

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

DinoTrux drove the earth for such a long time BP Oil^®^ existed while DinoTrux drove the earth.

[–] Gloomy@mander.xyz 24 points 2 months ago

You can tell because non of them has feathers.

[–] negativenull@lemmy.world 41 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

We live closer to the time of T-Rex than T-Rex lived to the time of Stegosaurus.

67 million years separate us from T-Rex.
83 million years separate T-Rex from Stegosaurus. (150 million years between us and Stegosaurus)

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 2 months ago (4 children)

on a similar note: When cleopatra lived, the pyramids were already ancient

[–] neatobuilds@lemmy.today 18 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Cleopatra lived closer to t-rex than us

[–] Pregnenolone@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

You were born after cleopatra died 🫠🤑👻

Follow me for more Greece facts.

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[–] LanguageIsCool@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago
[–] FoD@startrek.website 67 points 2 months ago (3 children)

This meme made me gasp loud enough that my girlfriend was worried something was wrong.

Then I had to explain that I'm 41 years old and was just shocked by a dinosaur fact.

[–] fossilesque@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

To be fair, things can fossilise very quickly given ideal conditions. Still dinosaurs reigned for a lot more time than mammals and frankly nature is still feeling the loss in certain ways.

https://www.americanforests.org/article/the-trees-that-miss-the-mammoths/

[–] negativenull@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Another fun fact (dino facts are the best facts): There are more "dinosaur" species alive today than there are mammal species.
11,000 bird species alive today (approx)
6,000 mammal species alive today (approx)

[–] GlenRambo@jlai.lu 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] fossilesque@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 2 months ago

Also, my favourite fact is we know almost nothing about dinosaurs from jungles and mountains. Most of our knowledge comes from wetland and oceanic creatures because of the way fossils are formed.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

Forty-one?! You're practically a fossil!

[–] nothacking@discuss.tchncs.de 30 points 2 months ago (6 children)
[–] Akasazh@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

There's always a relevant xkcd

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[–] JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world 28 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Birds are considered to be dinosaurs. Birds exist now. We are finding dinosaur fossils now.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

That's what the XKCD that was posted says. Mostly.

[–] kbal@fedia.io 24 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Does getting buried in pumice count as becoming a fossil? Because Pompeii was only a couple thousand years ago.

[–] SARGE@startrek.website 7 points 2 months ago (3 children)

From wikipedia: A fossil (from Classical Latin fossilis, lit. 'obtained by digging')[1] is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age.

Answer: yes. It does count. Specifically carbonization.

Personal take: when I think of a "fossil", I think of the stereotypical mineralized bones. Like the T-Rex in the museum of natural history that most people have seen from various movies and TV shows. Thinking of human and human predecessor bones as fossils is just weird to me.

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[–] borokov@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Also, water you are drinking has probably been peed by dinosaure. Several time. But probably not peed by a human.

[–] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] greenhorn@lemm.ee 7 points 2 months ago

Second relevant xkcd of the comments https://what-if.xkcd.com/74/

[–] Siegfried@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well, there are human fossiles aswell and we have been here for a pretty short time.

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[–] Jumpingspiderman@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

Well, there are plenty of hominid fossils and we humans are plentiful.

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 11 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Which makes me ask, why were mammals able to evolve to produce an apex predator that relies on it's inventiveness (Humans) in quite a short time, but no similar "dinosaur" got to that point in a much longer period?

We're searching planets for signs of life as a pre-cursor to intelligent life, but there's no guarantee that life will evolve in the same direction as ours.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Corvids and psittacines display human child level intelligence. They use tools. They recognize other people. Hell the psittacines can mimic speech.

I personally suspect it's a matter of energy density. Birds have to use almost all of their available calories on flying. Doesn't leave a lot of energy left over for a massively hungry brain. No clue what's holding back penguins, emus, and cassowaries.

[–] Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk 5 points 2 months ago

Most birds are extremely light and efficient. Their bones have evolved to be light weight to help with this. Some species even fly in a V formation to conserve energy.

Evolution doesn't mean get better or smarter. It just means the species can survive and keep reproducing. Emperor Penguins in Antarctica for example, where they nest in a place where there are no predators. It seems insane the hardship and their silly walk which takes forever. But it works.

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[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

"Hey, isn't that Dave's skull?"

"Can't be, I just saw him this morning. Sure looks like him though. Weird."

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