• stebo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    10 months ago

    If we follow the logic of the Loki series, they can do whatever. History might change up until the asteroid strikes but after that all dinosaurs are wiped out anyways and history will go on the same as it did before.

    • hydroptic@sopuli.xyzOP
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      10 months ago

      Dinosaurs didn’t all get wiped out though! Birbs are theropod dinosaurs, and the only known extant dinosaurs

      • CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com
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        10 months ago

        In order to be fossilized something has to be in specific conditions. It probably just gets destroyed

            • Afghaniscran@feddit.uk
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              10 months ago

              I mean, in terms of preserving the timeline and not leaving the tiny chance of fossilised saddles. They brought it with them, why not just take it back too so it’s not even there.

            • doctorcrimson@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              I feel like it’s a lot more likely to be preserved than thin spongy dinoflesh. It’s already somewhat preserved, actually, so when the layer of molten debris comes in from the direction of central America it’s just going to get covered and leave a permanent imprint.

              • CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com
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                10 months ago

                I don’t have any experience burning leather but wouldn’t “molten debris” be hot enough to completely destroy it?

                Edit: Don’t thing’s like dinosaur skin only get preserved if they fell in tar pits or were encased in amber?

                • doctorcrimson@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  The main factor for preservation is a lack of biological activity to break down the creature’s remains. If it’s incased in anything hot that cools quickly, has any antibacterial qualities, or even just the right amount of soil alkalinity then it can be preserved. For hides, though, it’s normally more of an imprint left behind than any recoverable bodymass.

                  In fact, some fossils found in swamps have been almost perfectly preserved due to the Saponification of the oils and lipids in the carcass.

                  In general, being covered by a wave of hot dirt like in my previous example would seal them up like a can of soup. All of the liquids and chunks would keep moving around until they settled, but any thick hides or bones might still leave recoverable fossils.

      • stebo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10 months ago

        That might leave some archeologists very confused, especially when they try to date it and it turns out to be from the future.

        • tubaruco@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          it would probably be paleontologists since no human existed at the time and dating just doesnt work like that, since the saddle fossil still aged millions of years (also from stuff this old its hard to age things, so its more probable something around the same layer would be aged instead of the specific fossil)

    • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      in the Pratchett novels he talks about a sort of ‘rubber-band history’ that tends to be self-healing. It’s the entire plot of one of the novels, a political leader escapes an assassination that was ‘meant’ to happen, and it ends up in reality having some sort of weird split where the world gets torn between an attraction point where she lives and another where she dies.

    • UndercoverUlrikHD
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      10 months ago

      What if you scare our common ancestor to run across the ground to safety and end up getting eaten by a predator that sees it running?