#fossils/rocks/bones

[lullabynursery]

They Might Be Giants Here Comes Science Stimboards Pt1 - I Am a Paleontologist!

🦴 ⚒️ 🦴 ⚒️ 🦕 ⚒️ 🦴 ⚒️ 🦴

[bonefall]

Odd question but I actually know very little about geology;

Does anyone have good resources where I can learn how places get iron in the soil? Like... how does that happen? How would you know if a place would be iron oxide-rich?

This is specifically about if BB!Cats have access to Ochre but I'm casting a wide net here

[deadcanine2006]

Went to the railroad today to put back some bones I found a few months ago (I'm moving and I'm not taking them)

Decided to ride my bike down the tracks till my gut told me to stop, so I did, and spread them out.

When I went back to my bike after spreading them, I noticed an entire raccoon spine next to where I stopped.

Also, after leaving the bones, I found a cool fossilized shell thingy right where the tracks met the road.

Nature has traded me a cool rock in return for me putting the bones back.

(here is my new rock)

[rabbitcruiser]

National Fossil Day

Fossils aren’t just interesting and fun to look at — they’re also proof of the existence of once-living things (like dinosaurs, animals, plants and even DNA remnants). Through these fossils we’re able to learn a lot about life from billions of years ago. We can even take a look at animals and life-forms that are no longer on the planet! These fossils (and the education around them) deserve to be preserved and explored. That’s why we celebrate National Fossil Day annually on the Wednesday of the second full week in October, with this year’s celebration being held on October 16. Show some appreciation for these incredible “time capsules” and the paleontologists who excavate them.

​National Fossil Day timeline

​1840s - 1850s​​​ Researchers discovered the Neanderthal

​Ancient human fossils were unearthed for the first time, proving the existence of the Neanderthal.

​1902 Proof of T-Rex ​

Researchers uncovered the first Tyrannosaurus Rex remains.

​1974​ Lucy was born

​​Scientists found fossils of a 3.5 million-year-old female hominin (an extinct human species) and named her “Lucy.”

How to Observe ​National Fossil Day

Hug a paleontologist

Check out local events

Visit Your Nearest National Park

Paleontologists are pretty incredible people. They go through lots of schooling and training to be able to study the fossils of all kinds of organisms. It’s because of them that we know a lot about the last few billion years of our planet’s history. Show your appreciation by giving them a hug, and asking them to tell you more!

Every year, the National Park Service partners with various organizations, universities, museums and more to celebrate National Fossil Day. Through field trips, classroom instruction and outdoor activities, they’re spreading awareness about this important holiday.

Many national parks are passionate about introducing future generations to the science behind fossils and paleontology. These may include anything from scavenger hunts, to multi-day ranger-led activities. Visit your nearest national park and discover all there is to know about this fascinating science!

4 Fun Fossil Facts

​They’re insanely valuable

​They can be enormous

​Anything can be fossilized

They’re ridiculously old​

​The highest amount ever paid for a dinosaur fossil was $8.3 million (they named it “Sue”).

The largest intact fossil ever discovered was a whopping 4 square miles! ​

​The smallest fossil on record was just 2/10 of a millimeter (it was of a 50-million-year-old parasite).

​Next time you're feeling old, just remember some fossils date back to 4.1 billion years.

Why ​National Fossil Day is Important

We can learn about our planet

We can understand the progression of time

We can look toward the future

A fossil is evidence of past life that’s been preserved in rock. This helps us discover all kinds of shells, plants, animals, and more that existed long before our time. This information helps us understand what was happening during each part of our planet’s history.

By looking at fossils, researchers have been able to understand how and when organisms appeared and disappeared throughout the passage of time. This is how they’ve been able to divide up the events in our planet’s history into different periods.

Each fossil tells a story of the organism it encapsulates, and the details of when it was on the earth. By examining fossils, we can use these stories to help inform us about the future, and how environmental factors (as well as man-made ones) will help influence our planet for future generations.

Source

[pumpkinsplicelatte]

Knowing how weird frogs can be I wasn't sure if these were fake frogs or not

Xenomorph frogs - Sculptures by Li Changchun

2018

[strangestcase]

Geological horror. You find a geode and crack it open and the crystal lining its walls is human blood that can't be genetically matched to anyone. You find a human skeleton but every one of the bones is made from rock, a rock that you know can't be whittled into those shapes. You find layers of clay and loam that sport ancient fossils at the top and the still-rotting corpses of modern animals at the bottom.

[chickadeefrog]

sometimes i be thinking about this guy. he is called "monito del monte" or "colocolo opposum".

we first found a fossil of this dude from 11 million years ago and then when we met this dude we were like "ah shit, check his bones! they match right up with that rock I found".

[starryknight-dragonarts]

The Bone King Gender: Male Background: The Bone King (Name redacted) is the title held by the leader of a desert tribe who need to be harsh to withstand the harsh conditions. They tend to rob dragons who pass through their territory but can also be bartered with to grant travelers safe passage for a steep cost since they also need dragons to keep coming with resources when times are harder and the herds have moved on. Rather than having a royal lineage, his tribe's leadership is based on a meritocratic system, where the roles of leadership are vested to individual dragons on the basis of talent, effort, and achievement, rather than wealth or social class. You have to prove that you are the best for the job to win any sort of position of power, and the Bone King needs to be the Strongest warrior and capable of keeping the Tribe surviving. Sometimes a Bone King will oversee the training of a potential successor who has shown promise but anybody in the tribe is capable of challenging the current Bone King. The Current Bone King was not one of the ones trained by the previous Bone King, he worked his way up to be the strongest, and eventually toppled the previous Bone King. Personality: Despite his menacing appearance, his own dragons mostly all admire him. He is a fair ruler, above all the most important thing to this Bone King is honor. He will still attack and rob travelers, but he will never resort to using underhanded tricks in life or in battle. This Bone King is honest to a fault, keeps his word, and sticks to the decisions he makes, so if he says he is going to kill somebody it's not just him stating his intentions it is a fact, and it's very hard to make him change his decisions once he has declared them. This doesn't always lead to the best actions all the time but he so far has kept his Tribe surviving. Strengths: Decisive, Strong, Selfless Weaknesses: Stubborn, Uncompromising, Headstrong Powers: Earth Stats Elemental Energy: 6/10 He has above average energy, but his stamina is limited. He needs to be strong and make due with very little so every little resource is used to its full potential. Elemental Control: 9/10 The Bone King is incredibly well trained in his elemental power, every use of his element needs to be used to count, and he trained for a long time to be the most powerful dragon in his village. Intelligence: 6/10 The Bone King is a wise leader with many experiences under his belt. He knows how to take care of a village of Dragons in the Desert, but outside of that he's not very experienced in matters that are not strictly necessary to him and his dragons to survive.

Combat Ability: 9/10 The Bone King is an expert in close quarters combat. He will tank his way through attacks to get close to his enemies and then overwhelm them with constant attacks so they can't focus or pull off an elemental attack against him.

[casually-cool-collecting]

An actual chunk of Dinosaur Bone!

[1nkstains]

A Captain Marvel fic idea? Who would've guessed???

so. okay so. just. we all know bruce wayne loves dinosaurs. he has a dinosaur in his batcave, he canonically thinks they rock.

billy batson's parents were archeologists.

so-

Billy couldn't believe his eyes. The meeting had been normal, interspersed with profoundly unhelpful interjections from Solomon. Normal, that is, until Superman brought up a small mystery.

Something "strange" had been found in Metropolis, and Superman was concerned that it might be related to another one of Luthor's weird, convoluted schemes. It had been left under a Superman statue, out of sight for anyone lacking x-ray vision. Everyone looked on curiously as he lifted a cloth bag and carefully set it on the conference table, pulling it open to reveal-

"A spinosaurus vertebra?"

The whole room turned to look at both Batman and Billy, who were staring down at the fossil with stars in their eyes. The piece was big, not massive, but large enough to hold with two hands. Superman frowned at them curiously.

"It seemed to be fossilized, but it doesn't look like a bone-"

"Of course you wouldn't recognize it," Batman scoffed, and Billy barely managed to tear his eyes away from the vertebra long enough to look over at him. "Spinosaurus fossils are incredibly rare, this vertebra would be worth thousands." Billy nodded seriously, leaning forward to look down at it.

"Gosh, it's perfect," he murmured, feeling Batman step closer to get a good look as well.

Across the table, Flash cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Nerds!"

[fallendaria]

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆ 𝒲𝒾𝓉𝒸𝒽! ℛℴ𝓍𝓎 ⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧

Inspired by @daydreamsia ✮⋆˙

I loved the idea of Roxy as a witch of earth/rocks so much and it got me thinking about bones/fossils because I wanted to connect her witch powers to her fairy form

I didn’t know much about the lore of the witches in Winx club so I went to the wiki and it said that they are kind of the opposite of fairies and their magical abilities are based on the dark aspects of magic so I thought about her hypothetical witch powers. She’s the fairy of animals so maybe she can be the witch of animal bones. This would include all types of bones, claws, shells, feathers etc. She’d use bone magic/animal magic which is more witchcraft based. I also read up on some cool bone magic abilities on the powerlifting wiki thingie.

May be a bit morbid but I can imagine witches studying these type of practices in cloud tower.

✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧

[mediumgayitalian]

Nico sits by his cabin and watches.

He cannot help the frustrated little growl that comes out of his mouth, nor can he help his frustration at the frustration, and then some. He feels it bubbling in his stomach until it reaches just the right amount of pressure and it explodes across his insides, curling his hands into fists, gritting his teeth, forcing tears to burn hot behind his eyes. He shakes himself to rid him of it. It does not help.

Down a line of cabins, Will pauses at a windowsill.

Nico knows what has made him pause not necessarily because he can see that far but because, in fact, he knows exactly what is resting on the windowsill. Because, in fact, he put it there.

Because, in fact —

Well.

His face burns. He drops his chin onto his knee, scowling.

Because.

It is a rock. Anyway. It is stupid. It is not even that cool of a rock. It is a moderately sized limestone fossil he found in the lake. It has the muddled impression of a bunch of plants on it. He doesn’t even know what kind. You can barely even tell it’s a fossil. The naiads, when they had seen him holding it, scoffed. He nearly launched it back in only he didn’t want them to laugh, too.

“Shoulda left it in the fucking forest,” he hisses to himself. He’s angry. He’s — ashamed, he supposes, and he’s frustrated still, and all in all he’s just mad, and heat burns unpleasantly under his skin. He desperately fights the urge to shadow travel over to the almost-shadowless cabin and wrench the wretched thing away, launch it into the sea where it belongs. But he doesn’t, because he is too late, and Will has already seen.

He cocks his head.

He looks around as if he might find who left the gift. Or if he might find the recipient. But no — he is not looking for a recipient. And his hands reach out, slowly. And gently brush over the roughened outlines.

And he smiles.

It is a small, shy thing. Pleased. Crooked in the middle and showing the slightest hint of his snaggletooth. Nico has a flashing image of the shape of it next to the straight teeth surrounding it indenting pale skin until it is bruised and bleeding. His arm aches. He shivers. Will’s smile is small, still, and his sunset-bright eyes soften like skylight.

He puts his palm flat on the rock, now. It doesn’t quite cover it.

With his other hand he reaches into his bag. He pulls out a textbook, and drops it carelessly onto the ground. A bundle of herbs is quick to follow, and then another, and then a wrapped square of ambrosia. A water bottle.

A bone is next. Yellowed. Ulna. Sharpened, so one end is really a blade. Or, it’s conical, so more of an…impaler. A spike.

Nico left it on the roof earlier this morning because he chickened out of the porch.

Will holds it very gently.

He sets it on the windowsill, next to the fossil.

The rock.

And then he picks up the rock, and holds it for a minute. It is heavy. Nico knows. Dense, from the millions of years of matter inside of it and the terabytes of whispers it has pushed between particles. Secrets of the depths. Will holds it carefully, so carefully, and Nico imagines the ever-constant warmth from his large hands seeping into the porous rock. He imagines it sinking into its core and tingling. Like his stomach sings, now.

Perhaps more carefully than anything, Will slips the rock into his satchel. He situates it in the dead center of the pocket, and adjusts his weight to hold it. It bulkens the leather. Bends it awkwardly. But Will only traces the bowed edges of it with a bandaged finger (papercut — on the corner of an incident report. He had jumped, and then pouted. Slide his finger in between his lips, yanking it sheepishly and guiltily out a moment later. Shook his head chidingly. Mouthed, to himself: sepsis).

His hand glides over and hovers over the sharpened bone. There are sigils on the end of it. Opposite to the spike. They mean ‘accuracy’ and ‘protection’ and ‘darkness’ and ‘shadow’ and ‘summon’. Nico has drawn matching lines up his arm, under his sleeves. As Will’s palm wraps around them Nico’s arm burns. His breath shutters, and he curls into himself. Somewhat.

Will smiles that same small crooked smile and tucks the bone shard into his bag. And then —

And then.

And then: he looks up. Looks over.

Meets Nico’s eyes.

Nick panics. He scrambles away. Except he doesn’t and he is frozen where he sits with his tailbone to cold marble and his nails dug into his flesh and his eyes wider than oceans. Breathing quick. Breathing shallow.

Will smiles that same smile. He rocks back on his heel. He tugs on the shoulder strap of his satchel.

He waves.

It is shy. Head ducked and smile hopeful. He fidgets and bites his lip. He blinks, long, blond eyelashes catching the fading light and refracting it sparkling up to the heavens.

Nico holds his breath and waves back.

Will beams. There is no shyness here and Nico’s heart pounds. He can hear Will’s giggle right in his ear even though he can’t really and watches him touch his three middle fingers to the bottom of his mouth, move them deliberately down and outward. Watches his lips form: thank you! Feels his heart stutter and shake in his chest.

Smiles, himself.

Just a little.

[darksilvania]

Fossil TINKATINK, Fossil TINKATUFF & PTENKATON (Fairy/Rock)

And here are the next fossil forms, this time is the TINKATON line, who now uses the many fossils from the ravine to create digging tools.

Their hands and feet are covered in dirt from digging so much in search of more bones, and with time this dirt has become a protective layer, like boots and gloves.

TINKATINK uses the skull of an Austriadactylus and a fossilized egg as a shovel and pail, the sand around its feet resembles flip-flops

TINKATUFF uses the skull and bones of a Pteranodon Sternbergi as a pickaxe and the dome of a Pachysephalosaurus as a helmet

PTENKATON has made a Jackhammer out of several bones, with the skull resembling that of a Tropeognatus, and the dome of a Stygimoloch as a helmet

They have an ability called "Earth Mover" that boost the power of ground type moves, so, despite being rock types they have acces to all the "bone" and "drill" moves

[reddpenn]

I'm back from the rock show! Here are the Cool Rocks I got!

Let's start with the fossils this time.

This year I finally tracked down a Tully Monster, which is my state fossil! He's not a complete fossil, but you can see his eyestalk and the bottom of his proboscis very clearly.

A big chunk of dinosaur bone from Utah! Dino bone is easy to ID due to its distinct pattern, where agate and jasper have filled in the porous structure of the bone.

This is a coprolite, a piece of fossilized dinosaur poop! This one is from Madagascar.

This one is a stromatolite, a rock formation created by a colony of bacteria! Stromatolites are some of the oldest fossils on Earth. In fact, the microbes that make them were likely the very first lifeforms on the planet. And they're still around today, mostly unchanged from their ancient ancestors, and still making rock formations! This little stromatolite came from Madagascar.

A giant chunk of Turritella agate, which I won at the silent auction! Turritella agate is made of a bunch of fossilized snail shells all packed together and filled in with agate. (Despite the name, they're not actually Turritella snails, but rather Elimia tenera.) When cut and polished, it reveals beautiful organic patterns. This stuff comes from Wyoming.

That's all the fossils I brought home! Now on to the minerals!

I was very responsible and didn't come home with a million agates this year, but I couldn't resist this gorgeous rain flower agate! Hailing from Nanijing, China, these agates are naturally polished by the Yangtze River and have a unique, frosted finish.

Another cabochon for my cab collection! This is afghanite, a blue mineral that isn't related to the sodalite family, but likes to grow alongside it.

It fluoresces!

Vesuvianite, a mineral that gets its name because it was first discovered on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius! The dark crystals growing on its surface are garnets. This piece is showing off a great example of vesuvianite's crystal habit and terminations.

A huge zircon crystal! Zircon is the oldest mineral on planet Earth. There's a deposit in Australia which has been radiometric dated to be about 4.4 billion years old! Not this guy, though. This one is from Pakistan.

It fluoresces!

An AMAZING specimen of anatase! It's extremely rare for anatase crystals to grow this large. In fact, the only other anatase crystals I've seen in person had to be viewed under a microscope!

Here's the most expensive piece I came home with - a South African diamond! Can you believe I didn't have a diamond in my collection yet? That problem has been remedied.

It fluoresces!

And finally, my friends and I broke open a few geodes at the geode-cracking booth. I picked out some Trancas geodes from Mexico.

This locale produces weird, wavy, wormy crystals! These formations occur when quartz (in the form of chalcedony or hyalite) grows atop hair-thin, curly crystals of anhydrite.

They fluoresce!

And that was my haul from the rock show!

[useless-catalanfacts]

A fossilized coral reef from 38 million years ago

These are the Toll Caves (coves del Toll), located in Moià, Central Catalonia. But 38 million years ago, this was under the waters of an inner sea.

In this point, there used to be a coral reef which was home to many other species. The sea disappeared and the coral reef was fossilized, becoming the rock. Over time, the rain water penetrating into the rock created 1,148 meters of pits, galleries, and rooms, turning the rock into a cave.

Later, in the Quaternary (the last 2.5 million years), the cave was used as a shelter by prehistoric animals such as cave bears, cave hyenas, and cave lions, in an area populated with wild horses and woolly rhinos. For this reason, it's considered one of Europe's most important palaeontological sites, sometimes called the "Palace of Quaternary Fauna". The palaeologic excavations have found the remains of 35 different mammal species, some of which are now extinct.

Prehistoric humans also used the cave. Archaeologists have found remains of human activity since the Middle Palaeolithic until the Bronze Age. The most significant human activity is the Neolithic burials (6,000 years ago).

After that, a landslide covered the southern entrance to the cave, meaning that the cave remained hidden and untouched for over 3,000 years. This is the reason why palaeontologists found so much information, because nobody had dug nor moved around the strata. The cave was rediscovered in 1952.

This is not an isolated case. The same fossilized coral reef is found in the nearby Toixoneres cave, which eventually also became home to cave bears, wolves, mammoths, cave hyenas, and other animals. Neanderthal humans also lived in this cave between 200,000 and 35,000 years ago. In 2023, archaeologists found the bones of a 4th Neanderthal, a young person who lived 52,000 years ago. In this case, the most surprising thing is that the Neanderthal's bones showed marks of having been cut with human-made tools, pointing at a possible case of cannibalism. It's not the first evidence of Neanderthal cannibalism, but it is the first evidence of it found in Catalonia.

Photos from Coves del Toll, GeoParc de la Catalunya Central and Turisme a Catalunya. Information source: GeoParc de la Catalunya Central and Parc Prehistòric de les Coves del Toll.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Paleontologists have uncovered dozens of fossils in northern B.C., only one of which came from a dinosaur that was previously known to that area. Victoria Arbour, curator of paleontology at the Royal B.C. Museum, said it was her team's third time to the Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park, about 200 kilometres south of the B.C.-Yukon border. The area is rough terrain, so the team has to be flown in by helicopter.  Usually, well-preserved dinosaur bones are found in deserts, where rocks are exposed, but Arbour said that on this particular mountain, her team hit the "mother lode of fossils."

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Tagging: @newsfromstolenland