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This "perfectly preserved dinosaur embryo" is a rock. It's in the perfectly preserved shape of a dinosaur embryo, but chemically, it's a rock. Generally speaki
by fvold 5y ago
This "perfectly preserved dinosaur embryo" is a rock.
It's in the perfectly preserved shape of a dinosaur embryo, but chemically, it's a rock. Generally speaking, that's what fossils are.
I bet Young Earth Creationists will be quoting this article for decades now. Thanks, Guardian, for the clickbait-y headline. Cheeses.
- BrazzVuvuzela 5y agoIt doesn't matter. YECs would say god created it to test them or the devil created it to trick them, it doesn't matter how precisely or imprecisely you word headlines about dinosaurs they still won't believe it. Stop worrying so much about whatever stupid things they think, you're not going to bring them to sanity around by being super pedantic.
- da-x 5y agoTrue. It is sad that even when science is concerned, actual news sites are fake news generators today.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Tagbert 5y agoBut this is not fake news. You are just using a more narrow definition of “preserved” than the article.
- krisoft 5y agoI don’t understand what you find clickbaity about the title. For reference now when I’m reading the article the title is: “Scientists find perfectly preserved dinosaur embryo preparing to hatch like a bird”. It is a clear and concise description of what the article is about.
- konart 5y agoThe title sound like they have found an embryo in some sort of permafrost with DNA and everything else.
- 0cVlTeIATBs 5y agoIt does seem that a creationist argument is that the presence of organic matter in fossils suggests their youth.
- krisoft 5y agoIt sounds like you have an objection with the term “perfectly preserved”? Words can have different meanings in different contexts. In the context of dinosaurs “perfectly preserved” means that even fine details can be discerned in the fossils. And yes fossils are rocks. Someone who knows the minimal amount about dinos will know this, and even if it’s the first time you encounter the concept the article explains it nicely. Titles are titles. They are short and thus they can’t provide a treatrise on the sum of all human knowledge. You need common sense to parse them.
- darig 5y ago
- bitexploder 5y agoAlso written purposefully ambiguously to entice readers to click in.
- zerocount 5y agoBecause "preserved" implies keeping something in it's pristine or natural state. This is a fossil. My immediate thought was it was "preserved" in amber. In any case, the sub-title declares it as a fossil, which is more accurate.
- mkl 5y ago"Fossil" is more general than rock. It would still be a fossil if it was preserved in amber: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil
- Symbiote 5y ago> Because "preserved" implies keeping something in it's pristine or natural state. No, it doesn't. It means something protected from decay, or kept intact, or protected. It's common to preserve food in vinegar, sugar or salt, often after cooking it. It's common to preserve plant and animals for study by drying them or pickling them (e.g. alcohol/formaldehyde).
- teh_klev 5y agoWould you like to challenge the British Geological Survey on their definition of a fossil? "Fossils are the preserved remains of plants and animals whose bodies were buried in sediments, such as sand and mud, under ancient seas, lakes and rivers."[0] Or the Natural History Museum: "A fossil is physical evidence of a prehistoric plant or animal. This may be their preserved remains or other traces, such as marks they made in the ground while they were alive."[1] [0]: https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discovering-geology/fossils-and-geological-time/fossils/ https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discovering-geology/fossils-and-geolog... [1]: A fossil is physical evidence of a prehistoric plant or animal. This may be their preserved remains or other traces, such as marks they made in the ground while they were alive.
- Maursault 5y ago> The specimen was one of several egg fossils that were forgotten in storage for decades. Found in storage. Doesn't make it clickbaity, but... > The research team suspected they may contain unborn dinosaurs, and scraped off part of Baby Yingliang’s eggshell to uncover the embryo hidden within. ...makes me wonder about their paleontology practices.
- teeray 5y agoThe title is like an InGen press release
- tempestn 5y agoYou may have a point, but giving the benefit of the doubt, perhaps they were just targeting the headline to people who understand what "perfectly preserved" realistically means in the context of dinosaur fossils. I certainly didn't consider upon reading it that they'd discovered a viable dinosaur embryo.
- zipswitch 5y ago
- dredmorbius 5y agoHigh levels of preservation of just about anything 60--80 million years old is rare and unexpected. Tyrannosaurus Rex is amongst the most iconic of all dinosaurs. All knowledge we have of them comes from 18 known specimens. Of those, only 8 are 50% or more complete. "Sue", one of the best preserved examples, discovered in 1990, is 85% complete. The "dueling dinosaur" specimen (found locked in battle with a Tricerotops) is 98% complete, the most perfect yet found, discovered in 2006. These finds are rare, they're often very partial, they're often distorted by geological processes. For example, Sue's skill is deformed due to movement of the substrates it was entombed in, a fabricated replica correcting this distortion is used on the mounted display at the Chicago Field Museum, the original is displayed separately. A "perfectly preserved" specimen is one that is intact, in its original arrangement, not damaged, and not distorted or scattered over the landscape (or more accurately, across the strata in which it was buried). Some respect for the time, processes, and good fortune involved here would be appropriate. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specimens_of_Tyrannosaurus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specimens_of_Tyrannosaurus
- freeqaz 5y agoYou nerd sniped me. Reading about the various famous fossils, their discovery, and restoration was really interesting!
- dredmorbius 5y agoI nerd-sniped myself ;-)
- bkandel 5y agoI don't think that's a comprehensive list, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrannosaurus#Resurgent_interest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrannosaurus#Resurgent_intere... mentions that 42 skeletons have been found in western North America. I don't have the page number, but I also remember reading in Steve Brusatte's "The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs" that there are some areas where T. rex's were so common that you can find teeth relatively easily. Agreed that findings this well preserved are incredibly rare and fortunate.
- simonh 5y agoAnd now the top thread is a pointless pedantic bun fight about precise use of perfectly acceptable terminology in the headline. Again. To no good purpose whatsoever.
- j4yav 5y agoThey should really add an HN guideline that title pedantry is discouraged. This is the fourth article I’ve jumped in the comments just today to find the top thread is about debating some word or other in the title.
- teh_klev 5y agoIf you read ever so slightly past the headline it says: "At least 66m-year-old fossil discovered in southern China reveals posture previously unseen in dinosaurs" Most people know what a fossil is and that it's rock (though other materials such as amber can do the same thing).
- brink 5y agoThank you for clarifying on "Young Earth" Creationists and not just globbing all Creationists together.
- whoomp12342 5y agois that where rocks come from? now I am sad looking at the ground