300 million-year-old fossil skeleton in Utah could be the first of its kind

CNN ^ | November 5, 2021 | By Sherry Liang

[Red Badger]

An approximately 300 million-year-old fossil skeleton discovered at Canyonlands National Park in Utah could be the first of its kind, researchers say.

© Adam Marsh/National Park Service The fossil discovery at Canyonlands National Park was a rare intact skeleton.

The exact species and classification have yet to be determined, but the fossil is a tetrapod -- meaning animal with four legs -- and could be an early ancestor of either reptiles or mammals. Paleontologists have determined the fossil could be anywhere from 295 million to 305 million years old, between the Pennsylvanian and the Permian geologic time periods.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"Who are you calling a tetrapod?"

[wbarmy]

could be an early ancestor of either reptiles or mammals

or it could be an early bird, or snake ancestor, or even an early Democrat. What the heck do we know from a rock. Even the 300,000 year age is a total WAG from some other fossils, seashells, in the area. They have a big book of all kinds of seashells and date the fossil from the seashells found in the area.

The seashells have an assumed age from the idea of how many mutations must have occurred to make them look different than other sea shells.

That assumption goes all the way back to the first ideas about mutations and has never changed. Rock radioactive dating is selectively done to reinforce that original dating.

[Yo-Yo]

[MtnClimber]

It looks like it was carrying some sort of ruler.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Red Badger. Just once I'd like to see something dug up from the Pennsylvanian period by an paleontologist named Fred Waring.

[Red Badger]

It appears to be a crocodile.

A crocodile in a rock.

A Crocodile Rock!............................

[Red Badger]

In a blender?................

[SunkenCiv]

As long as he’s a credit to his gender.

[GeorgiaDawg32]

Elton? Is that you?

[Red Badger]

Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics..............

[dangus]

It might be odd to hear, “an ancestor of EITHER reptiles of mammals.” But birds, dinosaurs, and all living reptiles come from one side of a family tree, whereas mammals come from the other side. So the new convention is to regard land-reproducing ancestors of mammals as proto-mammals, not reptiles, although they fit the older definition of the latter.

Of course, this is all rot, since such “cladistics” (grouping animals solely with regard to their family tree) require naming all birds, “reptiles” and either calling all land vertebrates, “fish” or deciding that sharks, rays, coelecanths, lungfish, etc., aren’t really “fish” at all.

[Equine1952]

It’s an old Geometry teacher, who went down with his ruler measuring his junk.

[G Larry]

At first I thought it might be Mitt, but then I saw there was a spine.....

[G Larry]

At first I thought it might be Mitt, but then I saw there was a spine.....

[Pez149]

And just how do you know it’s 300 million years old??

Did it have a tag saying it was made in the year 300,002,021???

All you know is that you found a bone in the ground,
No More....

[Pez149]

Correction*
The year 300,000,000

[READINABLUESTATE]

Prehistoric salamander?

[JBW1949]

If it voted last year, it’s definitely a democrat....

[Pollard]

An approximately 300 million-year-old fossil skeleton discovered at Canyonlands National Park in Utah could be the first of its kind, researchers say.

Poor thing had no momma or daddy? That's sad.