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'Missing link', Fossil of Seal Found
- Thread starter eugenius
- Start date
painted wolf
Grey Muzzle
The seal fossil record is getting better and better. 
Still not quite as good as the whales, but it's coming together nicely.
I can't wait to read the paper. :jiggy:
wa:do
Still not quite as good as the whales, but it's coming together nicely.
I can't wait to read the paper. :jiggy:
wa:do
tumbleweed41
Resident Liberal Hippie
Why does man look like an ape?
Because there's only so many ways to be a well-adapted, carnivorous, semi-terrestrial/semi-aquatic mammal, maybe?
Sounds like it was bigger than an otter, though. The Toronto Star article mentioned that this fossilized specimen would've been about a metre long. I'm not really up on my otters, but AFAIK they're quite a bit smaller than that.
Something just occurred to me: why is it that most of the time, fossils get found in remote, adverse places like the high Arctic (this guy and Tiktaalik come to mind), the Alberta badlands or the Gobi desert?
I wonder if paleontologists don't secretly wish that the next big fossil find will be somewhere in the Carribean a short distance from a swim-up bar.
tumbleweed41
Resident Liberal Hippie
Agreed.
painted wolf
Grey Muzzle
Similar lifestyle brings about a similar body plan. Sharks, icthyosaurs and dolphins for example.
Don't I wish! :biglaugh:
I also have to add that I find the "missing link" thing obnoxious... but then I'm not often a fan of science reporting. "missing link" is annoying but at least it's mild.
wa:do
LittleNipper
Well-Known Member
So which are the real fossils ---- the brown bones or the white bones?
Looks more like a mink than an otter, to me.
In re fossil finds. It seems reasonable that you'd find more fossils in regions of low geologic and biologic activity.
The Earth's a much bigger target than the moon, for example, and has six times the gravitation pull, yet the moon's pockmarked with crater's of all sizes, while there's hardly a crater to be found on Earth.
There's essentially no geologic or biologic activity on Luna, while most of Earth's surface is so active that anything deposited there quickly disappears.
In re fossil finds. It seems reasonable that you'd find more fossils in regions of low geologic and biologic activity.
The Earth's a much bigger target than the moon, for example, and has six times the gravitation pull, yet the moon's pockmarked with crater's of all sizes, while there's hardly a crater to be found on Earth.
There's essentially no geologic or biologic activity on Luna, while most of Earth's surface is so active that anything deposited there quickly disappears.
tumbleweed41
Resident Liberal Hippie
The brown, constituting about 65% of the skeletal structure.
painted wolf
Grey Muzzle
See, the skull screams seal to me... but then I see it with different eyes.
Well, I'd hardly call Greenland low in geologic activity... Glaciers are major geologic forces.
We also find a lot of fossils in places like New Jersey... but most of that is private owned and so fossil hunting is pretty tough to to.
Most good fossils (that aren't sold on the open market or poached) are found on public land... it's easier for universities and museums to get permits to look there... and no need to worry about land owners taking it and selling it for a quick profit.
We also have the benefit of a nice thick atmosphere, that causes all smaller rocks to burn up before hitting. And the moon does a good job of "trash sweeping" helping to deflect, if not turn away, larger rocks.
wa:do
Around here, there's usually a fair number of shale rocks lying around at the beach. It's always fun to show kids how to crack the rock open to look for fossils, especially when they luck out and find a trilobite.
doppelganger
Through the Looking Glass
Because these are places where they were more likely to be in conidtions where they'd be preserved, whereas the Caribbean with all its moisture and warmth is not.
painted wolf
Grey Muzzle
I need to go up there for a visit... All we have here is rocks, crackem open and you find more rock.
Glaciers didn't leave us much.
Not so much... back then the climate would have been much different.
Indeed, there are quite a few fossils from the Caribbean... including fossil monkeys from Cuba.
But a lot of it comes down to the age of the rocks and the nature of their formation.
wa:do
A lot of marine fossils are pretty common. I remember pulling the car over next to shale banks in upper New York state and finding a dozen crinoid (sp?) and other, unidentified imprints within half an hour. On top of the mountains just east of me there's a shale cap peppered with several fossils per square meter in some places.
doppelganger
Through the Looking Glass
Sure, but not the rich diversity of older finds that are discovered in places like the Gobi Desert or nearer the poles where conditions are more conducive to preservation and accidents that specifically aid preservation (like landslides and sandstorms). For example.
Most of what dies will be re-consumed by the biosphere and it's typically in unusual circumstances that fossils will be preserved for really long periods of time. These circumstances tend to occur more in certain geographical areas, like the Gobi Desert and at the poles. And not all of these finds are so old that the climate was so radically different than it is today. Our friend above, for example, is purportedly 23 million years old, which would put him around the beginning of the Miocene.
painted wolf
Grey Muzzle
Yet the Sarah desert is equatorial and was a shallow salt sea and it is just bursting with dinosaur fossils.
The Great Rift Valley is also a great place for fossils.
Florida is outstanding for mammal fossils from the Ice Age.
I think if you look at the good fossil locations you will find they run a wide range of habitats and geographical regions. From Florida to Greenland and the Great Rift Valley to Antarctica.
Tropics like the Messel shale to Tundra mammoths.
The Miocene was generally warmer and dryer than today. The forests were dying off and the grasslands started to spread.
wa:do
The Great Rift Valley is also a great place for fossils.
Florida is outstanding for mammal fossils from the Ice Age.
I think if you look at the good fossil locations you will find they run a wide range of habitats and geographical regions. From Florida to Greenland and the Great Rift Valley to Antarctica.
Tropics like the Messel shale to Tundra mammoths.
The Miocene was generally warmer and dryer than today. The forests were dying off and the grasslands started to spread.
wa:do