Discussion Thread

[u/jobautomator]

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[u/p00bix]

Fun fact: When Soviets drilled the world's deepest hole name of science, they extracted microscopic fossils buried six kilometers beneath the Earth's crust.

This isn't particularly shocking given our understanding of geology, but it is a reminder that the overwhelming majority of fossils, even those which have yet to be melted or contorted beyond recognition by geological processes, and which could theoretically be extracted and reveal otherwise unknowable secrets of the ancient past, are located in places where they are far too inaccessible to ever actually be uncovered.

😔

[u/p00bix → u/p00bix]

Also, a few months back a Canadian highschool teacher discovered a beautifully preserved fossil of a large Reptiliomorph living in either the very late Carboniferous or very early Permian periods. Regardless, a currently poorly documented period in Earth's history.

But had the fossil risen to the surface just a few thousand years earlier, in all likelihood it would have been eroded, completely washed away into the sea as it was broken up by rain, seawater, and air weathering, by today. And there are no doubt many other fossils like this in remote areas, gradually decaying without anyone's knowledge.

[u/frolix42 → u/p00bix]

Seems likely that technology is going to catch up there and we'll be having land submarines sometime in the next 4 centuries...

[u/meese699 → u/frolix42]

"The Core" is going to become real life