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3-D Fossils Found in Canada

Posted by michael on from the rocky-road dept.

smooth wombat writes "The BBC has a story with pictures of fossils found in Canada which are three dimensional. Even more interesting is that scientists consider the creatures, called rangemorphs, to be neither animal nor vegetable. In a related matter, geologists added the Ediacaran Period, in which these fossils lived, to their official history of Earth, the first new period to be added in 120 years."

36 comments

  1. Maybe someone can tell me what the story... by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: -1, Redundant

    ...really is about rather than the pop-science version. After all, fossils have been 3D since the dawn of time - well, almost anyway.

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    1. Re:Maybe someone can tell me what the story... by bandy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If I had to take a swag, I'd say that the significance is that they're fossils of soft-bodied critters [um, or "thingies"] that were found in 3D, as most are squashed flat by the process that fossilized them.

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      "You might as well get your son a ticket to hell as give him a five string banjo." -unknown minister
    2. Re:Maybe someone can tell me what the story... by GuyMannDude · · Score: 0

      Scientists are excited because this is a rare instance of a beautiful lifeform that has been petrified in media other than hot grits.

      GMD

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      watch this
    3. Re:Maybe someone can tell me what the story... by Madcapjack · · Score: 2, Insightful
      ...really is about rather than the pop-science version. After all, fossils have been 3D since the dawn of time - well, almost anyway.

      I've personally never encountered anything that had fewer than three spatial dimensions. But I'm sure what was meant was that the fossil was informative in all three dimensions.

      There is no God

      There is a God, but I don't know Her.

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    4. Re:Maybe someone can tell me what the story... by Chuck1318 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Also important is the fine detail preserved in the fossils, down to 30 micrometers.

    5. Re:Maybe someone can tell me what the story... by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Maybe applied mathematicians do it smoothly and continuously. Real mathematicians do it over the integers. :-)

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      Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
    6. Re:Maybe someone can tell me what the story... by bandy · · Score: 1, Informative

      New Scientist has an article about this very subject.

      --
      "You might as well get your son a ticket to hell as give him a five string banjo." -unknown minister
    7. Re:Maybe someone can tell me what the story... by WalksOnDirt · · Score: 2, Informative

      A somewhat more informative article is
      here

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    8. Re:Maybe someone can tell me what the story... by rburgess3 · · Score: 1

      No no no:
      {X : x E N} Mathematicians do it over the integers.

      {X : x E R} Mathematicians do it infinitely, and to prove it, they do it diagonally!

    9. Re:Maybe someone can tell me what the story... by Angry+Toad · · Score: 1

      This is directly related to my thesis work, so I'll pretend to know what I'm talking about.

      The main significance is that they're stunningly well-preserved examples of a fauna which predates the Cambrian Explosion - this might increase the chances that sensible attributions to extant animal phyla can ultimately be made.

      One hears a lot of nonsense about the Ediacarans, but there's a substantial body of opinion that they're nothing more than Cnidarians - and possibly Cnidarian-like Ctenophore ancestors (ie, Jellyfish and Anemones). An explosion of these creatures probably predated the explosion of biomineralization which marked the Cambrian Boundary.

      Of course you'll find people who argue for all sorts of bizzare interpretations of these thingies, but Simon Conway Morris has produced a really nice series of fossil Cnidarians (Cloudina, IIRC) which start in the Ediacaran and cross over the Cambrian boundary.

      They're probably just Cnidarians, with a few Ctenophore-like things and sponges thrown in. Maybe if we're lucky they'll even find a worm-like bilateral ancestor.

    10. Re:Maybe someone can tell me what the story... by PhraudulentOne · · Score: 1

      Looks like a cedar branch to me. Old cedar.

      --
      You create your own reality - Leave mine to me.
    11. Re:Maybe someone can tell me what the story... by freqres · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Right on. WTF?

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      Rampant Ninja related crimes these days...Whitehouse is not the exception
    12. Re:Maybe someone can tell me what the story... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've personally never encountered anything that had fewer than three spatial dimensions.

      No? How about your shadow there on the floor? How many dimensions does it have?

    13. Re:Maybe someone can tell me what the story... by Retric · · Score: 1

      I've personally never encountered anything that had fewer than three spatial dimensions.

      No? How about your shadow there on the floor? How many dimensions does it have?

      Shadow are still in 3d don't forget it start's at your body and ends on the floor. And even if your only going to talk about that part of the shadow that hit's the floor it's still 3d as the floor is not flat. Nor is it of 0 depth. Not to mention shadows also have color or alleast variations in intensity as the boundary at the edge of shadows are fuzzy becouse there light sorces are not point sorces. So you can say there 4d or even 5d if you count Time.

  2. Re:Maybe someone can read the story? by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Or was your post just a way to get a first post?

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  3. Re:Maybe someone can read the story? by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 1

    Read a story introduced by the title "3-D Fossils Found in Canada"? I'm as likely to read that as a story titled "New Pentium PC does arithmetic".

    --
    Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
  4. Amazing fossils, but not because they're 3d by thomastheo1 · · Score: 1

    Think of common fossils like trilobytes or ammonites. They are preserved in 3D. Of course, they have exosceleton/shell.

  5. Um... by CableModemSniper · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn ?

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    Why not fork?
  6. Prior fossils by metamatic · · Score: 3, Funny

    No wonder all those dinosaurs died out, if they were 2-dimensional. I mean, how would they eat 3D plants?

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  7. neither animal nor vegetable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Maybe it's a fruit?

    1. Re:neither animal nor vegetable by Wandering+Wombat · · Score: 1

      Well, you see, it gets cold in Canada... and oh so lonely... and maple syrup trees are just so warm and inviting...

      --
      I like to place meaningful quotes in my sig, so people will know that I know what meaningful quotes are.
  8. Blasphamy! by ksemlerK · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    This evolution crap just makes no sense. God created the heavens and earth in only 7 days, not several billion years. The earth is only 6000 years old, not 6.5 billion. This is blasphamy, and the fossil record is no proof of evolution. All a fossil proves is that somthing existed at one time, but no longer does. Most of these cretures probably existed pre-flood, so it has little relevance to today's life. Adam set death into this world, not God.

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    1. Re:Blasphamy! by g0bshiTe · · Score: 1
      The earth is only 6000 years old, not 6.5 billion.
      Wanna buy a bridge? Convienently located in Manhattan.
      This is blasphamy, and the fossil record is no proof of evolution. All a fossil proves is that somthing existed at one time, but no longer does.
      Noah musta had one hell of a time building the Ark, between running from T-Rex and hiding from Raptors.

      Free your mind, open it to thought and ideas. You may not agree with them, I don't agree with religon, yet there is truth to some of the stories, morals.
      Judge not, lest ye be judged.
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  9. Pokemon! by Turn-X+Alphonse · · Score: 1

    YAY! Finally! We can take it to some random guy in some random company and revive it, where it will be used to battle other common animals and have a type advantage :D

    --
    I like muppets.
  10. Just in time! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


    Upcoming Doctor Who episode:

    Doctor Who and the Ediacarans

  11. Re:Maybe someone can read the story? by Rob+Riggs · · Score: 1
    I'm as likely to read that as a story titled "New Pentium PC does arithmetic".

    Yes, but is it correct arithmetic?

    --
    the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
  12. Seeing them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Do you need special glasses to see them?

    1. Re:Seeing them by iggymanz · · Score: 2, Funny

      yes, but there are side effects to wearing the special glasses. Besides headaches, everything will look monochrome, and billboards will only have "OBEY" and "MARRY AND REPRODUCE" written on them. Your money will read "THIS IS YOUR GOD" Some people will look like hideous space aliens, and will speak into their watches about you, "he can SEE!".

    2. Re:Seeing them by OldSchool · · Score: 1

      Ah yes. They Live.

    3. Re:Seeing them by freqres · · Score: 1

      And Roddy Piper will go around kickin the shit out of people to get them to wear the shades.

      --
      Rampant Ninja related crimes these days...Whitehouse is not the exception
  13. Of course by momerath2003 · · Score: 1

    Well, if it's not an animal or vegetable, then it must be a mineral!

    (Besides, it is a fossil)

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    1. Re:Of course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No because "vegetable" is only a subset of "vegetal".

  14. Ediacarans.... by psyconaut · · Score: 1

    ..coming to a drive-in near you in glorious Three-Dee(tm)!

    -psy

  15. Langton was right! by Randym · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The finds show that the organisms were assembled in fractal patterns from frond-like building blocks. They were unable to move and had no reproductive organs, perhaps reproducing by dropping off new fronds .

    Does Chris Langton know about this? It appears that his cellular automata self-reproduction structures may have been right on the money!

    Useful tool: http://www.complex.iastate.edu/information/downloa d/Trend/examples/langton.html

    --
    DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.
  16. Re:Blasphamy! [sic] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am a devout Christian, and I disagree with you.

    However, I like listening to other viewpoints. To that end, spelling might make your point sound better. The operative word is "blasphemy."

    And /. is very much a secular forum. Making claims against the Bible isn't going to carry much weight among people who oftentimes don't even accept the Bible itself.

    FWIW.

  17. Re:Maybe someone can read the story? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or better yet:

    Pentium PC does your arithmetic

    Then, I think, you'd have something.