Rocks - Tumblr Posts
“The seven continents on Earth today are each built around a stable interior called a craton, and geologists believe that craton stabilisation some 2.5—3 billion years ago was critical to the emergence of land masses on Earth.
Little is known about how cratons and their supporting mantle keels formed, but important clues can be found in peridotite xenoliths, which are samples of mantle that are brought to the Earth’s surface by erupting volcanoes.”
“The research used a new thermodynamic model to calculate that the unusual mineralogy developed when very hot molten rock— greater than 1700 °C—interacted with older parts of the mantle and this caused the growth of silica-rich minerals.
“For more than 1 billion years, from 3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago, volcanoes also erupted very unusual lavas of very low viscosity—lava that was very thin, very hot and often contained variable levels of silica,“”
![Picture Of The Year 2017 [OC] [1080x780] - Author: Username160203 On Reddit](https://64.media.tumblr.com/194101d2318302a4dcbb4b3dd9049b3f/fc7ddbd1e64a19c5-e7/s500x750/49e24b6e47567af5388de053fd26e0b2b23ad4a4.jpg)
What do these three have in common (besides being awesome)?
They were all found at the same quarry - Dinosaur National Monument.
A volcanologist finally answered the burning question on the tip of everybody’s tongues what Would eating lava be like?
hey, @bunjywunjy - this might be your jam (and any other dinosaur enthusiasts, it’s a heck of a read)
Wednesday 16/6/21 - Cool Dinosaur Feather Facts
Microraptor, @Microrapterr on twitter
Hey Dino-Nerds. Rather than organise a structured information piece every time I wanna talk about Dinosaurs, I thought I could cover this topic more often if I just did a fun information dump every now and then. Today I will focus in on dinosaurs feathers, how and what we know about them, and just some cool factoids you may have not known.
How we know about feathers
A lot of sceptics will rag on modern dinosaur reconstructions with the preface of "all we have are their bones, so we have no way of knowing what they looked like in life." Well the thing about fossilation is that it's a game of chance on how well the remains are preserved. While it is true some species are known only from single bones, other species won the lottery and we have even soft tissues fossilised in what palaeontologists refer to as "dinosaur mummies".
Top: Borealopelta "Mummy", which preserved true skin and armour shape, as well as stomach contents of its last meal Bottom: Edmontosaurus "Mummy", which preserved forelimb "hoofs" and skin over the animal's face and back
Feathers actually preserve better than most soft tissue, and the first dinosaur understood to definitely have them had traces of feathers surrounding their bones (Archaeopteryx).
Left: the first discovered fossilised feather, Top Right: Archaeopteryx skeleton with the shape and impressions of feathers surrounding arms and tail, Bottom Right: the parts of the wing this primary feather likely came from.
Even when feathers aren't preserved, many dinosaurs with advanced wing-like arm feathers (called primaries and secondaries) had marks on their arm bones called Quill Knobs that would have served as an anchor point for these larger feathers in a living creature. The presence of Quill Knobs confirms feathers in species even when there are no specimens with visible feather preservation.
Quill Knobs in modern birds vs Dakotaraptor, a dromeosaur "raptor" dinosaur
It wasn't just the Bird Dinos!
I've previously said that feathering was a trait probably ancestral to all dinosaur groups. But when I say feathers, I don't mean the fully structured fan shape of modern bird feathers. Many scientists refer to them as protofeathers, or quills, because they would've been simple soft spines jutting from the animal's skin.
Psittacosaurus, Emily Stepp
Simple quills have been found preserved in many dinosaur groups, not just the meat eaters close to birds (therapods). The basal ceratopsian (horn faced) dinosaurs Psittacosaurus and Protoceratops have fossils of a brush of quills on their lower back.
Lord of the Spear
Ubirajara, Gabriel Ugueto
This tidbit is specifically about a recent dinosaur discovery. Ubirajara (Tupi for Lord of the Spear) was described in 2020 and was found to have what authors described as "spikes" on their shoulders, and a mane of feathers on its neck, back, and arms. There was no practical defensive use for these large quills and its feather mane, and most scientists agree that Ubirajara wouldve used them exclusively for display; a Cretaceous Peacock! This has excited many palaeontologists on how extravagant other feathered dinosaurs could get in their displays.
Dinosaurs Not Green Confirmed
In the best preserved feathers, we can observe the microscopic details of the actual structure of the integument. Scientists determined through comparison with feathers of living birds, they could determine pigmentation of some ancient feathers by the shape and size of the molecules making them up.
There are dinosaur species... WHERE WE KNOW THE ACTUAL COLOURS THEY WOULD'VE HAD IN LIFE. ISN'T THAT JUST THE COOLEST?!?!?
Microraptor was an oddball flying dromeosaur with wings on its legs too. And we now know they had feathers of iridescent black, like a raven.
Microraptor, Emily Willoughby
Anchiornis was a small paravian dinosaur that we know had black and white feathers on most of its body, and a red crest on its head.
Anchiornis, (my own art)
Sinosauropteryx was a small agile dinosaur with very primitive feathers. It had a very long tail that was striped white and orange like a red panda.
Sinosauropteryx, Gabriel Ugueto
Thanks for Reading
Anyway that's my dinosaur post for the week. Thanks for reading. If you wanna read more of what I have to say about dinosaurs, here's links to my past discussions on the topic:
Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong; A Brief Guide
Your Pterosaurs Are Wrong
Your Dinosaurs Are Not Dinosaurs
Edit: One last fun fact, @Microrapterr highlighted to me that some Microraptor remains display signs of sequential moulting, an adaptation necessary for a species that flies a lot. Pretty interesting stuff, read more here: Microraptor Moulting
You’ve heard of healing crystals
now get ready for Danger Rocks
Please do not lick any of these
1. Chrysotile
aka Asbestos! It heals lung cancer! heals it from 0HP to full health! it causes cancer do not touch do not lick
okay but this is a cool danger rock, it’s a physical carcinogen. As in, it doesn’t poison you into having cancer, it just has little needle-y bits that LITERALLY STIR UP your DNA and break it, and when the cells try to repair their DNA they get it wrong and you get cancer
2. Torbenite
A super pretty danger rock! it’s a uranium ore and releases radon gas for Extra Poison!
3. Hutchinsonite - (Tl,Pb)2As5S9
This danger rock has it all! Lead! arsenic! Thallium! All super toxic! Will legit kill you
seriously don’t lick this one, i’m looking at you, fellow geologists
thallium doesn’t taste like anything so you’re not even getting data, just poisoned
4. Cinnabar (Mercury sulfide)
Can be a very pretty red color! so it was used to make paint. The paint was super toxic.
In addition to being dangerous to your health, it’s also morally dangerous! someone had to mine it (v dangerous) so even owning it feels unethical
5. Stibnite (Antimony sulfide)
people used to make spoons and makeup and shit out of this, the spoons poisoned people who ate with them. It’s kinda pretty but not worth dying over
6. Orpiment (an arsenic sulfide)
Look how pretty it is!!
“Incorrect handling” WILL poison you, that’s fucking arsenic
Honorable mentions:
Malachite, if eaten or… you know ;) (warning: nsfw, THat Post) Galena (lead sulfide), don’t eat it or break the rock and you’ll probably be ok, the dust is the main danger
How is the Grand Staircase Evidence for the Global Flood?
We follow geologist Steve Austin and Del Tackett to Arizona where we can see the Grand Staircase, a thick stack of rock layers which are visible as sets of parallel cliffs above the Grand Canyon. He then explains how the history of the world is best viewed through a Flood geology model as a five-step process: Sedimentation, Tectonics, Erosion, Volcanoes and Exponential decline. Steve then talks briefly about his experience as a creationist geologist.
Part of the magic of Uluru is the way it tricks your senses. Deep orange by day, at sunrise and sunset it appears to change colour, becoming a more vibrant shade of red, and then almost purple.
Its size also seems to change depending on your perspective. Approaching Uluru from afar you are struck by how small it appears. But as you get closer, you realise it is truly a huge mountain, a behemoth in the middle of the comparatively flat Australian desert.
Australian geologists are now revealing yet another dimension to Uluru’s magic: the spectacular forces that led to its formation.
Uluru is a time capsule. Within its sand grains there is an epic 550-million-year saga of continents colliding, mountains rising and falling, and the remarkable strength of our most iconic mountain.
It’s the last Fossil Friday of 2021 and we’re closing things out with a big plesiosaur! 🦴 Suspended from the ceiling in the Museum’s Hall of Vertebrate Origins is the whopping Thalassomedon haringtoni. This long-necked plesiosaur lived during the Late Cretaceous some 85 million years ago. It has a relatively small head and many sharp teeth for seizing fishes and other marine animals. The long, flexible neck probably helped in grasping rapidly moving prey. Plesiosaurs, a group related to lizards, lived in the sea. Although they weren’t dinosaurs, they became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous around 65 million years ago, at the same time as the non-avian dinosaurs. Photo: E. Louis/ © AMNH (at American Museum of Natural History) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYKcWbsPH1v/?utm_medium=tumblr
there’s a guy on youtube who’s whole channel is about comparing dinosaur toys to actual dinosaur anatomy and it’s way more interesting than it has any right to be