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How big of a discovery would it be if we found a completely preserved dinosaur in a block of ice (like we've found of mammoths)? Alternate question: Is this even possible? (self.askscience)
submitted 5 months ago by JasonMacker
Also, what would be the best way to analyze it? I know it's far fetched to expect ice from 65+ million years ago, but would something encased in ice be preserved that long?
Thanks.
[–]zk3 1 point2 points3 points 5 months ago
It would be a pretty significant event in evolutionary biology. It would mainly tell directly us how species changes over a long time scale that has never been possible before (what we look at today are the shadows of divergence of species a long time ago). Fossil preservation still allows it to interact with bacteria, giving some decay. Ice, on the other hand, prevents decay and leaves a lot of things intact that we can study on greater detail.
However, as hunch put it, because of the earth's glacial cycles, we won't ever discover dinos in block of ice. The current Cenozoic epoch began after the KT extinction event 65 million years ago after the asteroid wiped out non-bird dinosaurs as we know them. The last Ice Age occurred at the end of the Pleistocene period within the cenozoic epoch (spanning approx 100k-10k years ago). There's just too much time, too much temperature, and too much geologic activity for any frozen dinosaurs to survive until then. The oldest ice is about 8 million years old, and formed from volcanic activity causing a local greenhouse effect. Considering it's in a cold enough location to never melt, it's located at the bottom of a glacier. Any macroscopic sample that was trapped in there would have long been crushed by the immense weight of miles of ice on top of it over millions of years.
[–]crossbrowser 2 points3 points4 points 5 months ago
No scientist here, but something similar happened when scientists found a dinosaur really well preserved (flesh and organs).
There was a story on Discovery I believe that explained how they went about studying it without exposing the fossil to air by scanning it with radiation.
EDIT: It was National Geographic (youtube trailer)
[–]HelpImStuck 5 points6 points7 points 5 months ago
But it's not the actual flesh and organs of the dinosaur, just the mineralized (fossilized) remains of what used to be flesh and organs.
[–]hunch 0 points1 point2 points 5 months ago
Oldest ice in the world is only a million or so years old.
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[–]zk3 1 point2 points3 points ago
[–]crossbrowser 2 points3 points4 points ago
[–]HelpImStuck 5 points6 points7 points ago
[–]hunch 0 points1 point2 points ago