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The article mentions that similar fossilized diatoms are found in terrestrial rock dating back to the time of the dinosaur's extinction (believed to be from a l
by jmillikin 14y ago
The article mentions that similar fossilized diatoms are found in terrestrial rock dating back to the time of the dinosaur's extinction (believed to be from a large impact). Is it possible that these meteorites are ejecta from that impact, or even an earlier one?
- zinssmeister 14y agointeresting. I guess we can't really exclude the possibility, that this fossilized diatom cam from earth, traveled through space and came back to earth?
- jmillikin 14y agoIt's also possible that live diatoms were ejected and subsequently fossilized. Or even possibly that they continued to live and reproduce in space (diatoms are ~algae, so they really only need water and sunlight).
- daeken 14y agoDefinitely can't exclude that, and it's a testable hypothesis. We can compare rock compositions and determine with a fair degree of accuracy if it's a match for a terrestrial source.
- p3d4nt 14y agoAh, Occam's razor.