New transitional pterosaur fossil

[juvenissun]

Because fossilization is an exceedingly rare process. Something literally has to DIE in the perfect location, and not be moved. And these fossils are OLD, not everything can survive for millions of years.

Its entirely possible there WAS another Lucy.... And some European colonist inadvertently destroyed it drilling for oil in Africa in the 1800's.

Are you suggesting that Lucy, Ardi, or this new dino simply wondered to a perfect place and died there alone? You reminded me that I should start to consider where should I go so I might get preserved as a fossil in the future. Do you have any suggestion?

I better not let anyone else know when I figure it out. Otherwise, bunch of people will do the same and I will not become a precious fossil like lucy is now. Just imagine: everyone else is destroyed and I am the only one get preserved. Ha !

 

[laconicstudent]

Are you suggesting that Lucy, Ardi, or this new dino simply wondered to a perfect place and died there alone?

Obviously. Do you have a point? Are you about to make some fallacious argument about probability?

You reminded me that I should start to consider where should I go so I might get preserved as a fossil in the future. Do you have any suggestion?

Get buried in sediment, and leave an imprint before you decompose. Over the course of several million years, if left undisturbed, without breaking that imprint, the sediment will solidify into rock around your bones and around the imprint you left in the sediment.

And make sure that the site will not be geologically disturbed for several million years or so.

I better not let anyone else know when I figure it out.

What are you talking about. This is elementary school level geology.

Otherwise, bunch of people will do the same and I will not become a precious fossil like lucy is now. Just imagine: everyone else is destroyed and I am the only one get preserved. Ha !

Er. Ok.

 

[Mallon]

Are you suggesting that Lucy, Ardi, or this new dino simply wondered to a perfect place and died there alone?

Yep. Not all fossils are found on their own, however. There are numerous examples of bonebeds, too. But again, fossilization is a rare event. You should know that.

You reminded me that I should start to consider where should I go so I might get preserved as a fossil in the future. Do you have any suggestion?

Try a lagoon or a bog. Any place with still water and an anoxic environment.

 

[laconicstudent]

I'm confused. Is he trying to imply that we don't know how fossilization occurs? His sarcastic way of asking sort of implies it, but I have a hard time believing that he would be ignorant of something that is so elementary.

 

[Mallon]

I'm confused. Is he trying to imply that we don't know how fossilization occurs? His sarcastic way of asking sort of implies it, but I have a hard time believing that he would be ignorant of something that is so elementary.

That's juvie for you. Did you know that's a professor of geology?

 

[Sphinx777]

Any place with still water and an anoxic environment.

The term anoxia means a total decrease in the level of oxygen, an extreme form of hypoxia or "low oxygen". The terms anoxia and hypoxia are used in various contexts:


Anoxic waters

Anoxic event

Dead zone (ecology) or hypoxic zones

Hypoxia (environmental)

Hypoxia (medical)

 

[laconicstudent]

That's juvie for you. Did you know that's a professor of geology?

You can't be serious. He really claims that?

 

[Sphinx777]

Did you know that's a professor of geology?

Geology (from Greek: γη, gê, "earth"; and λόγος, logos, "speech" lit. to talk about the earth) is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structure, physical properties, dynamics, and history of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed. The field is a major academic discipline, and is also important for mineral and hydrocarbon extraction, knowledge about and mitigation of natural hazards, some engineering fields, and understanding past climates and environments.

 

[Mallon]

Onomatopoeia.

 

[Sphinx777]

Onomatopoeia.

An onomatopoeia or onomatopœia, from the Greek ὀνοματοποιία (ὄνομα for "name" and ποιέω for "I make"), is a word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes. Onomatopoeia (as an uncountable noun) refers to the property of such words. Common occurrences of onomatopoeias include animal noises, such as "oink" or "meow" or "roar". Onomatopoeias are not universally the same across all languages; they conform to some extent to the broader linguistic system they are part of; hence the sound of a clock may be tick tock in English and tik tak in Dutch or tic-tac in French.

 

[Chesterton]

Defenestration.

 

[Sphinx777]

Defenestration.

Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window. The term was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year 1618. The word comes from the Latin de (from; down from) and fenestra (window or opening).

Although defenestrations can be fatal due to the height of the window through which a person is thrown, or lacerations from broken glass, the act of defenestration need not carry the intent or result of death.

 

[Mallon]

Ha!

 

[philadiddle]

Ha!

hour angle, HA ((astronomy) the angular distance of a celestial point measured westward along the celestial equator from the zenith crossing; the right ascension for an observer at a particular location and time of day)
WordNet Search - 3.0

Ha
hahnium
The German group at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, who had (undisputedly) discovered elements 107 to 109, were dragged into the controversy when the Commission suggested that the name "hahnium", proposed for element 105 by the Americans, be used for GSI's element 108 instead.
Transfermium Wars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ha
abbreviation for (Placename) Hawaii

Ha
1. an exclamation expressing derision, triumph, surprise, etc., according to the intonation of the speaker
2. (reiterated) a representation of the sound of laughter

 

[USincognito]

I wonder what will happen if Assyrian and The Fijian post to this thread?

 

[juvenissun]

I wonder what will happen if Assyrian and The Fijian post to this thread?

Adding more quotes and defs.

 

[juvenissun]

Yep. Not all fossils are found on their own, however. There are numerous examples of bonebeds, too. But again, fossilization is a rare event. You should know that.


Try a lagoon or a bog. Any place with still water and an anoxic environment.

One question for you: Do we have the best (most complete) fossil record on (coastal) wetland dwelling animals?

I believe we do not. See if you can explain to me what are the reasons.

 

[juvenissun]

From http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2009/10/darwinopterus_transitional.php:

"Pterosaurs - the charismatic flying archosaurs of the Mesozoic Era - fall fairly nearly into two great assemblages: the primitive, mostly long-tailed basal forms (or 'rhamphorhynchoids') and the more strongly modified, consistently short-tailed pterodactyloids... Today see the publication of a remarkable new kind of pterosaur that bridges the gap between non-pterodactyloids and pterodactyloids, and it exhibits a surprising melange of characters."

Another gap filled in the evolution of God's creation.

The link does not work for me.

I was trying to check if anyone said anything about the depositional environment of this fossil. Seeing right from the image, it looks like the rock was a silt-rich sediment deposited in an oxygenated environment. Of course, if this thing flew, it could drop dead at any environment.

The argument is still the same, and it really bothers me: why is this type of "transitional" fossil so rare?

 

[Mallon]

One question for you: Do we have the best (most complete) fossil record on (coastal) wetland dwelling animals?

I believe we do not. See if you can explain to me what are the reasons.

Ask any palaeontologist, the best record we have is of hard-shelled marine invertebrates like clams. The reason being that they have hard parts and are continually being buried by sediment settling out of the water column.

 

[Mallon]

The link does not work for me.

I fixed it.

The argument is still the same, and it really bothers me: why is this type of "transitional" fossil so rare?

They're not. Transitional fossils are common. I've posted eight new threads on examples of transitional fossils discovered in the last year, and that's not all of 'em.