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tl;dr's aside, this is a fantastic article and should be read in it's entirety. I must say, "formidable paleontologist" Jack Horner comes off as a royal a-hole

tl;dr's aside, this is a fantastic article and should be read in it's entirety. I must say, "formidable paleontologist" Jack Horner comes off as a royal a-hole: "But, when I asked Horner about DePalma recently, he said at first that he didn’t remember him: “In the community, we don’t get to know students very well.”"

throwaway5752 8y ago
You get the feeling that Robert DePalma might be the Andrew Wiles of paleontology. It's kind of rare when you read something in plain sight - in the New Yorker - and you recognize it should be much, much bigger news than it is.
- throwaway5752 8y ago
  I'll stop here, but this is a bit of an avocation of mine, and this is unthinkably amazing. To think something like this existed... I almost think there has to be catch, because it's too good to be true. "He planned to remove the entire burrow intact, in a block, and run it through a CT scanner back home, to see what it contained. “Any Cretaceous mammal burrow is incredibly rare,” he said. “But this one is impossible—it’s dug right through the KT boundary.” Perhaps, he said, the mammal survived the impact and the flood, burrowed into the mud to escape the freezing darkness, then died. “It may have been born in the Cretaceous and died in the Paleocene,” he said. “And to think—sixty-six million years later, a stinky monkey is digging it up, trying to figure out what happened.” He added, “If it’s a new species, I’ll name it after you.”" and "The block told the story of the impact in microcosm. “It was a very bad day,” DePalma said. “Look at these two fish.” He showed me where the sturgeon’s scutes—the sharp, bony plates on its back—had been forced into the body of the paddlefish. One fish was impaled on the other. The mouth of the paddlefish was agape, and jammed into its gill rakers were microtektites—sucked in by the fish as it tried to breathe. DePalma said, “This fish was likely alive for some time after being caught in the wave, long enough to gasp frenzied mouthfuls of water in a vain attempt to survive.”"
  - GuiA 8y ago
    That's the mind blowing thing about fossils. The chances of one forming are one in millions... but there have been so many living organisms on Earth that finding them turns out to be pretty trivial. One of my most mind blowing memories as a child involves tripping on a rock in my grandparents' yard, pulling it out, and revealing on its surface the perfect carbon imprint of some fern-like looking plant. And then we have the one in a million chance of finding the one in a million site, which leads to what the article describes. Pretty awesome.
    - throwaway5752 8y ago
      Ah, it's a bummer, but sounds like there is reason for skepticism: https://twitter.com/SteveBrusatte/status/1111669545285107714 https://twitter.com/SteveBrusatte/status/1111669545285107714
      - pfdietz 8y ago
        That the first paper doesn't talk about dinosaurs is reason for skepticism? He didn't tell us everything in the first paper, therefore it's probably bullshit? Please.
        cryptokernel 8y ago
        LOL! Just leaving this here: Earn cryptos by accomplishing tasks https://coincircle.com/l/50VVxbObg3 https://coincircle.com/l/50VVxbObg3
        throwaway5752 8y ago
        I didn't say that. But that link I provided was a working paleontologist, so I figured his skepticism was worth noting. I couldn't tell you if it's bullshit or not, as a non-expert in the field.
      - mr_toad 8y ago
        I see a lot of expression of scepticism, echo-chamber style, but not much ‘reason’. The central attack seems to be a straw-man; that it’s not a dinosaur graveyard, something that was never claimed in the article at all. It’s like they read the title, and jumped on Twitter without reading the whole article. Also, some random comments about colonialism.
zone411 8y ago
This article is written by Douglas Preston - a co-author of the bestseller Pendergast series and several other fiction and non-fiction novels. Took me by surprise when I saw the name.

throwaway5752 8y ago

You get the feeling that Robert DePalma might be the Andrew Wiles of paleontology. It's kind of rare when you read something in plain sight - in the New Yorker - and you recognize it should be much, much bigger news than it is.

throwaway5752 8y ago
I'll stop here, but this is a bit of an avocation of mine, and this is unthinkably amazing. To think something like this existed... I almost think there has to be catch, because it's too good to be true. "He planned to remove the entire burrow intact, in a block, and run it through a CT scanner back home, to see what it contained. “Any Cretaceous mammal burrow is incredibly rare,” he said. “But this one is impossible—it’s dug right through the KT boundary.” Perhaps, he said, the mammal survived the impact and the flood, burrowed into the mud to escape the freezing darkness, then died. “It may have been born in the Cretaceous and died in the Paleocene,” he said. “And to think—sixty-six million years later, a stinky monkey is digging it up, trying to figure out what happened.” He added, “If it’s a new species, I’ll name it after you.”" and "The block told the story of the impact in microcosm. “It was a very bad day,” DePalma said. “Look at these two fish.” He showed me where the sturgeon’s scutes—the sharp, bony plates on its back—had been forced into the body of the paddlefish. One fish was impaled on the other. The mouth of the paddlefish was agape, and jammed into its gill rakers were microtektites—sucked in by the fish as it tried to breathe. DePalma said, “This fish was likely alive for some time after being caught in the wave, long enough to gasp frenzied mouthfuls of water in a vain attempt to survive.”"
- GuiA 8y ago
  That's the mind blowing thing about fossils. The chances of one forming are one in millions... but there have been so many living organisms on Earth that finding them turns out to be pretty trivial. One of my most mind blowing memories as a child involves tripping on a rock in my grandparents' yard, pulling it out, and revealing on its surface the perfect carbon imprint of some fern-like looking plant. And then we have the one in a million chance of finding the one in a million site, which leads to what the article describes. Pretty awesome.
  - throwaway5752 8y ago
    Ah, it's a bummer, but sounds like there is reason for skepticism: https://twitter.com/SteveBrusatte/status/1111669545285107714 https://twitter.com/SteveBrusatte/status/1111669545285107714
    - pfdietz 8y ago
      That the first paper doesn't talk about dinosaurs is reason for skepticism? He didn't tell us everything in the first paper, therefore it's probably bullshit? Please.
      - cryptokernel 8y ago
        LOL! Just leaving this here: Earn cryptos by accomplishing tasks https://coincircle.com/l/50VVxbObg3 https://coincircle.com/l/50VVxbObg3
      - throwaway5752 8y ago
        I didn't say that. But that link I provided was a working paleontologist, so I figured his skepticism was worth noting. I couldn't tell you if it's bullshit or not, as a non-expert in the field.
    - mr_toad 8y ago
      I see a lot of expression of scepticism, echo-chamber style, but not much ‘reason’. The central attack seems to be a straw-man; that it’s not a dinosaur graveyard, something that was never claimed in the article at all. It’s like they read the title, and jumped on Twitter without reading the whole article. Also, some random comments about colonialism.

zone411 8y ago

This article is written by Douglas Preston - a co-author of the bestseller Pendergast series and several other fiction and non-fiction novels. Took me by surprise when I saw the name.