Clicky.  This is an astounding find!  'Tis the sort of discovery that puts into perspective one's own age of relative astronomical tranquility on this orb.  :blink:

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and The Prat in the Hat

35,000 years old? I think these "scientists" need to recheck their dating techniques. The margin of error is >= 29,000 years.

What scientific dating methods would you have recommended for this endeavour, BWPS?

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and The Prat in the Hat

Chronostratigraphy or Geochronology. What they're using sounds like Biostratigraphy, which doesn't provide an absolute age.

I don't happen to agree, though, about it being astonishing. We already know that Earths bombarded with space-junk every so often anyways, the fact it was happening that long ago is just, well, kinda obvious, I suppose.

*winces

I suppose what struck me most, sven, was

1. the notion that we are able to find fragments of outer space material embedded in long dead terrestrial animal matter, and

2. the image in my mind of the scene: a herd of huge creatures slowly raises its eyes to the skies as the virtually atomised remains of some alien rock formation shower down upon the beasts, piercing their bodies and inciting general panic.

I was aware of prehistoric earth's troubled relationship with space debris in the past, but it never occurred to me that we might recover bits of extraterrestrial rock in fossilised remains. :)

I'm still curious about what scientific dating methods BWPS had in mind and how he arrived at that margin of error.

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and The Prat in the Hat

Quote from: ow_tiobe_sb on December 15, 2007, 07:27:47 AM
2. the image in my mind of the scene: a herd of huge creatures slowly raises its eyes to the skies as the virtually atomised remains of some alien rock formation shower down upon the beasts, piercing their bodies and inciting general panic.

exactly what i thought too.
Oh Ray Romano, where did all those jokes get ya?  Eat space dust, proboscidean! 

Quote from: ow_tiobe_sb on December 15, 2007, 07:27:47 AM

2. the image in my mind of the scene: a herd of huge creatures slowly raises its eyes to the skies as the virtually atomised remains of some alien rock formation shower down upon the beasts, piercing their bodies and inciting general panic.

'ell ye can see that any day...just wait around for a meteor shower to happen and wander out into a field of cattle and hope they get hit...I mean, I've seen that happen a few times now.  Course I am a sick bastard..but we already knew that!  :P

i am amazed as well. thank you.
i just read this book today, you might like it:
http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews2/0765311046.asp

Quote from: ow_tiobe_sb on December 15, 2007, 07:27:47 AM
I'm still curious about what scientific dating methods BWPS had in mind and how he arrived at that margin of error.

The Earth and Universe is only 6007 years old! How could mammoths even be around at that time?!

_{I'm for kidding.}