Geologists Find 500-Million-Year-Old Feces

Site Notices

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Geologists Find 500-Million-Year-Old Feces

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:01:11 AM EDT

OK, who forgot to flush?

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Swedish geologists have found fossilized feces from a worm that lived some 500 million years ago, media reports said Wednesday.

The tiny piles of feces were found embedded in rock-face near Malmo in southern Sweden by geologists Mats Eriksson and Fredrik Terfelt, the newspaper Sydsvenskan reported.

Eriksson told the newspaper they examined the level of phosphorus of the samples and that "we realized pretty soon that it could not be anything other than coprolites — in other words, fossilized dung."

Terfelt described the find as "unique."...

That's some old sh1t.

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,191607,00.html

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:02:27 AM EDT

[#1]

Wonder what it smelled like....

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:02:28 AM EDT

[#2]

They just want you to THINK it's 500 million years old!

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:04:28 AM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
They just want you to THINK it's 500 million years old!

How do you explain Crap Circles?

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:05:10 AM EDT

[#4]

Go figure, my roommate was a 22-year-old piece of shit...

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:06:11 AM EDT

[#5]

No shit?!

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:06:59 AM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
Quoted:
They just want you to THINK it's 500 million years old!

How do you explain Crap Circles?

www.museumofconceptualart.com/images/crapcircles/circle2.jpg

That's dis-cusstin

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:09:30 AM EDT

[#7]

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:14:42 AM EDT

[#8]

I dare anyone to say anything politically incorrect about us coprolites!

We've got civil rights and I'll get the ACLU to sue anyone who slanders us:

http://www.coprolites.org/home.html

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:28:38 AM EDT

[#9]

In before the Bible literalists.

A proud Catholic "Genisis is sybolism" person.

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:30:52 AM EDT

[#10]

Heck thats nothin, I just dropped one that was 600 million years old. No, really.

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:32:53 AM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
A proud Catholic "Genisis is sybolism" person.

No shiite?

Did you run that past your priest?

Eric The(Ecumenical)Hun

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:38:18 AM EDT

[#12]

DOODY!!!!

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:40:35 AM EDT

[#13]

I clicked on this...........why?

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:43:55 AM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
I clicked on this...........why?

its in'tri'stin.

they found 500 mil year old worm dump.
anyone ever seen any fresh worm dump?

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:47:33 AM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
OK, who forgot to flush?

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Swedish geologists have found fossilized feces from a worm that lived some 500 million years ago, media reports said Wednesday.

The tiny piles of feces were found embedded in rock-face near Malmo in southern Sweden by geologists Mats Eriksson and Fredrik Terfelt, the newspaper Sydsvenskan reported.

Eriksson told the newspaper they examined the level of phosphorus of the samples and that "we realized pretty soon that it could not be anything other than coprolites — in other words, fossilized dung."

Terfelt described the find as "unique."...

That's some old sh1t.

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,191607,00.html

Well, that's really something to get excited about!

Posted: 4/13/2006 9:47:41 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
Heck thats nothin, I just dropped one that was 600 million years old. No, really.

You need fiber.

Posted: 4/13/2006 10:04:27 AM EDT

[#17]

If its fossilized, then it looks like a rock. A very small rock if it came out of a worms ass.

Can you polish a fossilized turd?

Posted: 4/13/2006 11:51:28 AM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
Quoted:
A proud Catholic "Genisis is sybolism" person.

No shiite?

Did you run that past your priest?

Eric The(Ecumenical)Hun

Which one? They are no more in agreement than anyone else.

I was pointing out I am a Christian and not a non believer.

Creation through Evolution with the influence of God. "Notice I didn't say, control of God."

Posted: 4/13/2006 11:55:00 AM EDT

[#19]

Google the term "coprolite"

Posted: 4/13/2006 12:00:02 PM EDT

[#20]

Quoted:
In before the Bible literalists.

A proud Catholic "Genisis is sybolism" person.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!?!?!? Here we are, minding our own business, having a nice intellectual discussion about fossilized worm scat, and you have to go and turn it into ANOTHER DAMNED CREATION vs. EVOLUTION THREAD!!!

Damn it man, think before you post.

CO

Posted: 4/13/2006 12:05:59 PM EDT

[#21]

If scientists focused their attn elsewhere, imagine what kind of shit we'd accomplish...

Posted: 4/13/2006 12:10:20 PM EDT

[#22]

I understand they weren't sure what they had until the broke it open and found a peanut and a kernel of corn ...........................................

Posted: 4/13/2006 12:12:33 PM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
If its fossilized, then it looks like a rock. A very small rock if it came out of a worms ass.

depends on the worm, some critters got pretty big back them.
Can you polish a fossilized turd? yes

edit: are you down with the brown????

Posted: 4/13/2006 12:14:05 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
DOODY!!!!
members.cox.net/macallan_the/doody.jpg

Posted: 4/13/2006 3:20:44 PM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:
Quoted:
They just want you to THINK it's 500 million years old!

How do you explain Crap Circles?

www.museumofconceptualart.com/images/crapcircles/circle2.jpg

You ever have a Cocker Spaniel? Mine used to crap in circles...

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:06:28 PM EDT

[#26]

How can something be dated reliably to such a date? Sorry, I don't buy into it just because some scientist trying to justify his latest grant says so.

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:16:38 PM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
How can something be dated reliably to such a date? Sorry, I don't buy into it just because some scientist trying to justify his latest grant says so.

Have you heard of 'half life'? By that, I don't mean the game.

Wow, 500 milliion year old shit!

Geologists and paleontologists get off on this kind of thing. It's really quite scary. Personally I think that most of that money should go to cancer research, but that's just me.

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:21:20 PM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:
Quoted:
How can something be dated reliably to such a date? Sorry, I don't buy into it just because some scientist trying to justify his latest grant says so.

Have you heard of 'half life'? By that, I don't mean the game.

Sure. But how many times can you reliably continue to cut a number in half (to measure decay) before the number you are left working with is so small of a fraction of the original, that it can't be considered reliable? I mean, we are talking about something purported to be a half a BILLION years old. Thats alot of half-lives...

Measuring half-lives also makes the ASSUMPTION that the rate of decay has remained constant throughout the period being measured. There is no way ANYONE can say that as none of us were there to record it.

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:22:07 PM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
How can something be dated reliably to such a date? Sorry, I don't buy into it just because some scientist trying to justify his latest grant says so.

Have you heard of 'half life'? By that, I don't mean the game.

Sure. But how many times can you reliably continue to cut a number in half (to measure decay) before the number you are left working with is so small of a fraction of the original, that it can't be considered reliable? I mean, we are talking about something purported to be a half a BILLION years old. Thats alot of half-lives...

It depends on what the original isotope was. Some isotopes have half lifes in the BILLIONS of years. Obviously they couldn't have used carbon dating on this.

Also, rate of decay IS constant. That's the principle on which this type of dating is based.

ETA: I'd like to apologize if my initial response came across as arrogant or otherwise assholish.

Also, the article doesn't say how they dated the "substance". Maybe they are just using relative age, then they could be wrong!

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:23:45 PM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:
If its fossilized, then it looks like a rock. A very small rock if it came out of a worms ass.

Can you polish a fossilized turd?

Does this answer yer question?

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:30:59 PM EDT

[#31]

It depends on what the original isotope was. Some isotopes have half lifes in the BILLIONS of years. Obviously they couldn't have used carbon dating on this.

Also, rate of decay IS constant. That's the principle on which this type of dating is based.

I have to disagree. None of us could know the conditions during the entire time period, and thus an assumption has to be made. Lets face it - we are making a "best-guest" based on an assumption of decay rates remaining a constant and not subject to variables through long periods of time and unknown conditions.

ETA: I'd like to apologize if my initial response came across as arrogant or otherwise assholish.

Nope, you didn't - its cool...

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:32:21 PM EDT

[#32]

Quoted:
Measuring half-lives also makes the ASSUMPTION that the rate of decay has remained constant throughout the period being measured. There is no way ANYONE can say that as none of us were there to record it.

Experimentation has shown that the rate of decay 60 million years ago was the same as today's decay rates.

Who put the rate of decay thing in your ear?

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:34:14 PM EDT

[#33]

Experimentation has shown that the rate of decay 60 million years ago was the same as today's decay rates.

Could you post a link to that? I'm curious...

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:35:12 PM EDT

[#34]

The devil put that shit there to deceive us.

That shit can't be more than 6,000 years old.

I don't even think that shit is real. I think they found a rock and said "Look at this shit here."

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:35:32 PM EDT

[#35]

Quoted:

It depends on what the original isotope was. Some isotopes have half lifes in the BILLIONS of years. Obviously they couldn't have used carbon dating on this.

Also, rate of decay IS constant. That's the principle on which this type of dating is based.

I have to disagree. None of us could know the conditions during the entire time period, and thus an assumption has to be made. Lets face it - we are making a "best-guest" based on an assumption of something remaining a constant and not subject to variables.

ETA: I'd like to apologize if my initial response came across as arrogant or otherwise assholish.

Nope, you didn't - its cool...

The external conditions are not supposed to affect the half-life of an isotope. Atomic decay is caused by internal atomic forces.

science.howstuffworks.com/nuclear2.htm

With that, I'm off to study the devil's science!

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:42:09 PM EDT

[#36]

Quoted:

Experimentation has shown that the rate of decay 60 million years ago was the same as today's decay rates.

Could you post a link to that? I'm curious...

Google SN1991T. That's a supernova. The fade rates of gamma radiation were accurately predicted.

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:47:11 PM EDT

[#37]

The external conditions are not supposed to affect the half-life of an isotope. Atomic decay is caused by internal atomic forces.

science.howstuffworks.com/nuclear2.htm

With that, I'm off to study the devil's science!

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

Nothing devilish about science. I just don't automatically buy into everything they purport to be truth...

BTW, years ago I was a geology major and had all the courses including anthro, paleo, etc. before I came to my senses and switched to a major that would actually get me a job!!

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:50:47 PM EDT

[#38]

Google SN1991T. That's a supernova. The fade rates of gamma radiation were accurately predicted.

I'm not very familiar with cosmology, so I'll check this out as well - thanks.

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:52:52 PM EDT

[#39]

so this crap is something they observed, they tested and they proved ? No doubt using the geological time table that a bunch of old men made up in the 1800s .
And you get all emotional about it ? Why? because it takes "faith" to believe such WS (?)

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:55:54 PM EDT

[#40]

This is exactly why I never became an evolutionary biologist.......

Creation vs. evolution debate aside, I had no intention of showing up on TV babbling excitedly because we had just discovered 500 million year old worm doo doo.

That's not the kind of life I want.

"Hey Bob! Look at this!"

"Why, that looks like fossilized worm doo doo, Bill!"

"I think it is Bob!"

"We gotta tell somebody about this!!"

"I'll call CNN! The guys on the Salisbury dig are SOOOOO gonna be jealous!!"

Etcetera.

If I ever found myself in such a conversation, I would kill myself.

Posted: 4/13/2006 4:59:03 PM EDT

[#41]

Quoted:
so this crap is something they observed, they tested and they proved ? No doubt using the geological time table that a bunch of old men made up in the 1800s .
And you get all emotional about it ? Why? because it takes "faith" to believe such WS (?)

Dude.....mellow out.

I am as big a creation believer as you will find, but you need to mellow out on this one.

Some swedish dudes found some worm poo. And somebody had to write an article about it.

Imagine being the poor reporter who is assigned to covering the fossilized worm poop beat.......

"Maybe next year they will let me report on the sewer system!"

Posted: 4/13/2006 5:00:29 PM EDT

[#42]

Quoted:
Quoted:
If its fossilized, then it looks like a rock. A very small rock if it came out of a worms ass.

Can you polish a fossilized turd?

Does this answer yer question?
i2.tinypic.com/ven1q1.jpg

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!!

DON'T POST STUFF LIKE THAT WITHOUT A WARNING!!!

MAY THE FOSSILIZED FECES OF A MILLION WORMS BE FOUND IN YOUR NOSTRILS!!!