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> it was an enormous four-legged herbivore protected by a spiky, plated armor. It weighed approximately 3,000 pounds. > To give you an idea of how intact the m
by danans 6y ago
> it was an enormous four-legged herbivore protected by a spiky, plated armor. It weighed approximately 3,000 pounds.
> To give you an idea of how intact the mummified nodosaur is: it still weighs 2,500 pounds!
How does it weight less as a stone fossil than as an organic life form mostly made of water?
Most stone is 2-3 times as dense as water
https://www.thoughtco.com/densities-of-common-rocks-and-minerals-1439119 https://www.thoughtco.com/densities-of-common-rocks-and-mine...
- skykooler 6y agoBecause it wasn't fossilized; it's mostly original material.
- danans 6y agoWow, that's wild, almost like Black Swan wild. I was so predisposed to assume fossils are solid stone that I missed that. Still, living things are mostly water, and I doubt the mummified 2500 pounds is mostly water. Another response to my question suggests that just the outer shell is stone in the inside is empty. In that case, the mass is coming from the stone shell, and is not very analogous to the living animal's mass, which still makes the phrasing in the article a bit dubious. Perhaps though it contains some original carbon that can be used to do some very old radiocarbon dating, which could improve geological strata based dating of other fossil finds.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- catalogia 6y agoAs far as I can gather, that's not true and the soft tissue was in fact mineralized. Dinosaur "mummies" are fossils of mummies. This dinosaur 'mummy' is fairly unique insofar the soft tissue was mineralized without first being desiccated. Chemical traces of things like pigmentation can remain in fossilized soft tissue, I suppose that counts as "original material", but this thing isn't made out of meat anymore.
- throwaway_pdp09 6y agoSadly I don't believe that's possible. It would be beyond fantastic if it were.
- JadeNB 6y ago> How does it weight less as a stone fossil than as an organic life form mostly made of water? > Most stone is 2-3 times as dense as water Presumably because the water was completely filling a volume, whereas the stone is very much not.
- smcameron 6y agoOnly half of it is there. The back half of the thing is gone.
- pvaldes 6y ago> How does it weight less as a stone fossil than as an organic life Because you are comparing different things. The fossil comprises only the anterior part of the animal. The tail and posterior legs are missing.