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LJ Idol Week 3: Coprolite
Nov. 6th, 2011 10:14 pmThis weeks's topic is Coprolite.
First, I wanted to check to make sure it is what I think it is, when I read the prompt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprolite
Fossilized animal dung… Yep, exactly what I thought it was…
This isn't shit that has dried out so that it is as hard as a rock. This shit actually was in the right place/time to actually turn into a rock.
I'm not a paleontologist, so I don't deal with coprolites. Like most cat-owners, other than my daily doo, my main experience with proto-coprolites is scooping the litter box every day. And most of the time, they are nowhere near rock hard. So, what am I going to write about?
How bout a bit of self-referential thinking about coprolites?
When you think about it, fossilization has got to be incredibly rare. How much rarer for something that doesn't even have a structure to get fossilized? Most animals and plants, when they die, they start rotting, decaying to feed other organisms. Some eat specific items, like hair beetles and wool moths. (Just think how deep the planet might be in fur if nothing ever evolved to eat it.) Others, like fungi, are more generalists, and will eat any type of wood. One wonders if some type of fungi will soon evolve to feed on plastics?
Death leads to life. On a long enough scale, nothing we do will be permanent, until we colonize space. we will need to learn much better recycling than what we currently do, though probably will want to do quite a bit of it via biological means.
this post is for Week 3 of LJ Idol
First, I wanted to check to make sure it is what I think it is, when I read the prompt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprolite
Fossilized animal dung… Yep, exactly what I thought it was…
This isn't shit that has dried out so that it is as hard as a rock. This shit actually was in the right place/time to actually turn into a rock.
I'm not a paleontologist, so I don't deal with coprolites. Like most cat-owners, other than my daily doo, my main experience with proto-coprolites is scooping the litter box every day. And most of the time, they are nowhere near rock hard. So, what am I going to write about?
How bout a bit of self-referential thinking about coprolites?
When you think about it, fossilization has got to be incredibly rare. How much rarer for something that doesn't even have a structure to get fossilized? Most animals and plants, when they die, they start rotting, decaying to feed other organisms. Some eat specific items, like hair beetles and wool moths. (Just think how deep the planet might be in fur if nothing ever evolved to eat it.) Others, like fungi, are more generalists, and will eat any type of wood. One wonders if some type of fungi will soon evolve to feed on plastics?
Death leads to life. On a long enough scale, nothing we do will be permanent, until we colonize space. we will need to learn much better recycling than what we currently do, though probably will want to do quite a bit of it via biological means.
this post is for Week 3 of LJ Idol