Fossil Foolishness

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   There is a character on the web [who shall remain nameless] whose posts reminded me of the lecture I used to give my students, "It's True, I read it on the internet".  This person is all over the net.  His main idea is, "All strange rocks and fossils are the result of Dinosaur feeding.  They are Dino table scraps."  He totally ignores the fact that in the fossil record, the Dinos come rather late.  His next wonder is the statement that "All Beach Pebbles are from the Mesozoic era."  I guess he forgot about the Paleozoic era. His next lulu is "All rock is fossil".  If you include fossil waves in sand, he might be right, but that's not where he was going. 

Fact, 90% of fossils found world wide are Marine Fossils.  The "strange rocks" he mentions and gives examples of, are some of the oldest rocks on the planet and contain remnants of very early life. Stromatalites and the like. 
There have been 5 major extinction events, the Dino extinction at the end of the Cretaceous was, one of the lesser ones.
The Permian Extinction eliminated 95% of all life in the oceans, the Ordovician killed off 85-90%.  Millions of dead animals settling to the bottom in huge anaerobic layers.  Microbial life was impacted as much as any other.
In this type of environment, soft tissue had the chance to fossilize and or mineralize, something that does not normally happen.  The strange shapes these fossils took on comes from the pressure of one layer upon the other and also hard shelled creatures being landed on or landing on soft bodied creatures.  In the mineralization process, some fossils agatized or were changed in some other manner.
Many of these have the appearance of "cooked meat".
It's these unusual fossils that the above mentioned gentleman attributes to Dino feeding, skip the fact that these fossils were formed a few hundred million years before the land animals appeared.

The last stake in the heart of his theory is that for Dinos to have been actively feeding would indicate an ecologically healthy environ.  He ignores the fact that in a healthy environment, you would have scavangers and a host of small critters to clean up.  His reply to this was that the scraps were washed into saltwater where they were preserved by the brine.
Again he ignores nature.  Nature abhors waste.  If anyone has ever gone fishing and thrown the cleanings into the water, you know what happens.  Small crabs, fish and other little creatures go into a frenzy, and in a few minutes, all is consumed.

Observational Science is absolutely valid, I've practiced it for most of my life.  However, when your observations don't quite jive with known science, it's time to step back and take another look. And also remember.........."It's True, I read it on the Internet"

Edited by red clay - 21-Oct-2013 at 12:59