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Prehistoric lizard found trapped in amber


Saru

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The complete fossil of a 23 million-year-old lizard has been discovered preserved in a piece of amber.

Mexican scientists are currently examining a complete fossil of a lizard that has remained entombed in a chunk of amber for some 23 million years, according to a recent report in La Jornada en Linea.

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Most species of insect or animal that have been found preserved in amber etc have become recent topics of question,most recently,being the most questionable of sources,carbon dating.Just like our questioning of accuracy of any process has been deemed inaccurate.Carbon dating has been deemed inaccurate &,via it's sources due to surrounding contaminations of nearby materials etc. No-one is able to be specific.My questioning is why these scientists seem so specific in their judgement of when & where these creatures existed & as to why they are judged by a seemed theorized date in Earth's history.

Edited by GirlfromOz
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Carbon dating isn't meant to date that far back in history due to the half life of it. They can look at heavier elemental half lives to determine this age range as well as already established strata in the rock layers where it's found.

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Most species of insect or animal that have been found preserved in amber etc have become recent topics of question,most recently,being the most questionable of sources,carbon dating.Just like our questioning of accuracy of any process has been deemed inaccurate.Carbon dating has been deemed inaccurate &,via it's sources due to surrounding contaminations of nearby materials etc. No-one is able to be specific.My questioning is why these scientists seem so specific in their judgement of when & where these creatures existed & as to why they are judged by a seemed theorized date in Earth's history.

The article says that they have dated the Chipas amber bed to 23M years ago. I am sure they didn't use carbon dating as it is too old for that but there are various experimental methods used to date amber http://www.gemologyproject.com/wiki/index.php?title=Amber none of which is very exact but 23M years, give or take a million years, should be good enough for this find.

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Poor little lizard...

Cool article and find.

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Huh. Considering how well preserved the lizard is, I think I'll adjust my mortuary details, such to where I'm encased in amber. :w00t:

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Huh. Considering how well preserved the lizard is, I think I'll adjust my mortuary details, such to where I'm encased in amber. :w00t:

Would not work, you would have to encased in tree sap, which then has to fossilize.

Good luck.

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I'd be willing to go out into the forests of the Great Northwest and start gathering sap to preserve Pallidin. Agter he starts hardening, I'm going to carve my initials into the amber though.

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I'd be willing to go out into the forests of the Great Northwest and start gathering sap to preserve Pallidin. Agter he starts hardening, I'm going to carve my initials into the amber though.

Pallidin?
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Pallidin?

See post #6 above.....

pallidin

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Edited by DieChecker
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It's cool that it still has its skin

Edited by coolguy
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I'd be willing to go out into the forests of the Great Northwest and start gathering sap to preserve Pallidin. Agter he starts hardening, I'm going to carve my initials into the amber though.

You bring up a good point.

I wonder how long it takes various tree saps to actually harden into what we call "amber" I suppose I could Google that.

Maybe I could "fast track" the hardening through UV lamps. Just kidding of course.

Even still, I presume that preservation starts with sap encasement before final hardening. Perhaps the degree of tissue preservation is dependent on the type of tree sap(how the sap affects tissues, etc...). I don't know.

In any event, you are more than welcome to carve your initials.

Ah heck, maybe I should just make it simple and encase my dead body in fast drying liquid plastic.

But to be in amber sounds more archealogicaly appealing. :passifier:

Edited by pallidin
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You bring up a good point.

I wonder how long it takes various tree saps to actually harden into what we call "amber" I suppose I could Google that.

Maybe I could "fast track" the hardening through UV lamps. Just kidding of course.

Even still, I presume that preservation starts with sap encasement before final hardening. Perhaps the degree of tissue preservation is dependent on the type of tree sap(how the sap affects tissues, etc...). I don't know.

In any event, you are more than welcome to carve your initials.

Ah heck, maybe I should just make it simple and encase my dead body in fast drying liquid plastic.

But to be in amber sounds more archealogicaly appealing. :passifier:

Not quite the same, your chances of fossilizing in liquid plastic are not as good as in a mineral or biological agent (in fact, your chances of fossilizing at all are pretty slim). Even in plastic anaerobic bacteria your body carries around all the time would decompose you.

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Carbon dating has been deemed inaccurate

Creationist garbage.

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Creationist garbage.

Yes but it is really irrelevant here since carbon dating isn't doable past 60K years or so. Why it was brought up regarding a 20M year old lizard is beyond me.

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You bring up a good point.

I wonder how long it takes various tree saps to actually harden into what we call "amber" I suppose I could Google that.

Maybe I could "fast track" the hardening through UV lamps. Just kidding of course.

Even still, I presume that preservation starts with sap encasement before final hardening. Perhaps the degree of tissue preservation is dependent on the type of tree sap(how the sap affects tissues, etc...). I don't know.

In any event, you are more than welcome to carve your initials.

Ah heck, maybe I should just make it simple and encase my dead body in fast drying liquid plastic.

But to be in amber sounds more archealogicaly appealing. :passifier:

What about raw maple syrup? We could probably get ahold of a ton of that and lay you out in a box and encase you in it.... :clap:

Probably it would not be transparent though. Not immediately anyway.

Probably work real well if we freeze dried you first... get rid of the decomposition agents and water.

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Yes but it is really irrelevant here since carbon dating isn't doable past 60K years or so. Why it was brought up regarding a 20M year old lizard is beyond me.

Because Earth is "only 6000 years old"? :innocent:

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Because Earth is "only 6000 years old"? :innocent:

First it was 60K as in 60,000 years, not 6000 and the reason is beyond 60K years there isn't enough trace C14 to separate from the background radiation. Some use an accelerator method in certain circumstances that can extend the time to 100K years.

Edited by Merc14
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First it was 60K as in 60,000 years, not 6000 and the reason is beyond 60K years there isn't enough trace C14 to separate from the background radiation. Some use an accelerator method in certain circumstances that can extend the time to 100K years http://lmgtfy.com/?q=carbon+dating

I am talking about those who claim that 14C is unreliable. They claim it can't be because the Earth is only 6000 years old. Sorry for the confusion.

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I am talking about those who claim that 14C is unreliable. They claim it can't be because the Earth is only 6000 years old. Sorry for the confusion.

Ahh, the man road dinosaurs crowd. Silliness squared.

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Yes but it is really irrelevant here since carbon dating isn't doable past 60K years or so. Why it was brought up regarding a 20M year old lizard is beyond me.

Carbon dating wasn't mentioned in the article, creationists don't know what they're arguing against most the time.
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Someone please straighten me out but aren't there dozens of these methods of dating things based on the varying half-lives of the elements involved and isn't C-14 only one used for quite recent things that contain organic matter?

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