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Science News General; Stuff that doesn't need its own topic
Topic Started: Apr 9 2014, 07:11 AM (11,245 Views)
Adman
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Totally not lamna
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Yeah, we're all on one giant floating partially molten rock. Tell em, myo.
Projects and concepts that I have stewing around
Extended Pleistocene- An alternate future where man died out, and the megafauna would continue to thrive (may or may not include a bit about certain future sapients)
Inverted World- An alternate timeline where an asteroid hit during the Barremian, causing an extinction event before the Maastrichtian. Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and notosuchians make it to the present, along with a host of other animals.
Badania- Alien planet that has life at a devonian stage of development, except it exists in the present day.
Ido- Alien world where hoppers (derived flightless ballonts) and mouthpart-legged beasts are prevalent.
Leto- Life on a moon orbiting a gas giant with an erratic orbit; experiences extremes of hot and cold.
The Park- ???
Deeper Impact- a world where the K-Pg extinction wipes out crocodilians, mammals, and birds; squamates, choristoderes, and turtles inherit the earth.
World of Equal Opportunity- alternate history where denisovans come across Beringia and interact with native fauna. Much of the Pleistocene fauna survives, and the modern humans that end up crossing into North America do not overhunt the existing animals. 10,000 years later, civilizations exist that are on par with European and Asian societies.
The Ditch- Nothing is what if seems..
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Caimännir
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Lobe-finned fish
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There should just be a category for non-fusion gas giants, fusion gas giants (alias stars), rocks larger than ____ (what we call rocky planets now), and rocks smaller than ____ (every other predominantly solid thing).
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Hybrid
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May Specula Grant you Bountiful Spec!

I hope you guys know that NASA didn't say anything about Pluto being a planet, it was just that the public 'voted' it to be. Science isn't democratic, thus what the public thinks doesn't matter.

Even if NASA wanted to change Pluto to a planet, it's not them who gets to make decisions. It's the IAU, and they didn't say about Pluto being a planet either.

Pluto is not a planet, end of story.
If I sound rude while critiquing, I apologize in hindsight!
"To those like the misguided; look at the story of Man, and come to your senses! It is not the destination, but the trip that matters. What you do today influences tomorrow, not the other way around. Love Today, and seize All Tomorrows!" - Nemo Ramjet
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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

Technically speaking, Pluto has never been a planet. We only recently had the technology to realize it is the thing. Now if Pluto were to pump some iron and clean up it's orbit we can talk.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

Tree That Owns Itself
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T.Neo
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Translunar injection: TLI
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Not quite; it's not about technology, just definitions. It's just as possible to create a definition of planet that includes Pluto-like objects, but that's not the definition the IAU settled upon; before the IAU definition, "planet" wasn't really defined at all- it was just used as sort of working term.
A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork.
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colddigger
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/15-ton-prehistoric-shark-captured-off-coast-of-pakistan/
Oh Fine.

Oh hi you! Why don't you go check out the finery that is SGP??

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Velociraptor
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Reptile
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colddigger
Oct 14 2014, 09:19 PM

http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/giantshark.asp

So yeah, this is fake.
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Unnamed No K-Pg project: coming whenever, maybe never. I got ideas tho.
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colddigger
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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No Troodon why do you destroy my hopes and dreams of becoming a shark via reality.
Oh Fine.

Oh hi you! Why don't you go check out the finery that is SGP??

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LittleLazyLass
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Proud quilt in a bag

I assumed that much from the original article.

I'm sure such a shark - size, not classification - exists down there somewhere, thought.
totally not British, b-baka!
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I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
Me
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Words Maybe
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Velociraptor
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Reptile
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Myotragus
Oct 15 2014, 02:12 PM
I assumed that much from the original article.

I'm sure such a shark - size, not classification - exists down there somewhere, thought.

Yeah, they're called whale sharks and basking sharks :P
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Unnamed No K-Pg project: coming whenever, maybe never. I got ideas tho.
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LittleLazyLass
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Proud quilt in a bag

Well, a predatory one.... you know what I mean.
totally not British, b-baka!
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I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
Me
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LittleLazyLass
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Proud quilt in a bag

Enter Archelosauria, the redundancy, the stupid name

I can understand why someone would think we should name this clade. But it's completely redundant. Instead of explaining, I'll just quote Mickey Mortimer:

"Is it really an important nomenclatural gap if we have no idea where in Archosauromorpha turtles go, assuming they are archosauromorphs? If you're just referring to living taxa, the stem-based Archosauromorpha works fine. If you're referring to fossils, we don't even have a well supported published topology for classic groups like trilophosaurs, rhynchosaurs, tanystropheids and protorosaurs, let alone the myriad of taxa which may be archosauromorphs (simiosaurs, choristoderes, enaliosaurs). So saying somewhere in that mess is a clade called Archelosauria seems pointless."

Basically, we know they're almost certainly in archosauromorpha, but given a lack of DNA from the Triassic or Permian we don't where between the ancestral archosauromorph and Archosauria they fall, just that they're there. So it's a bit silly.
totally not British, b-baka!
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I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
Me
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Cephylus
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Torando of Terror
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Quote:
 
So yeah, this is fake


The shark in the picture included in the article didn't look that big from the start.

Quote:
 
just that they're there. So it's a bit silly.


A lot of clades in archosauromorpha are. The whole classification system is a mess. It's really hard to classify something that exists only in partial fossil record, I guess.
Edited by Cephylus, Dec 7 2014, 07:47 AM.
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Ebervalius
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Transhuman
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Cephylus
Dec 7 2014, 07:46 AM
Quote:
 
So yeah, this is fake


The shark in the picture included in the article didn't look that big from the start.

Quote:
 
just that they're there. So it's a bit silly.


A lot of clades in archosauromorpha are. The whole classification system is a mess. It's really hard to classify something that exists only in partial fossil record, I guess.
Indeed. That's why we have all those Incertae Sedis and Nomina Dubia out there.
The Sirens of the Land of Fire
Codex Ebervaliorum

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LittleLazyLass
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Proud quilt in a bag

A few things from the DML:

New Ceratopsid; as of yet unnamed.

Paper on the cause of the P-Tr. Only four pages, so won't take long to read.

Somewhat longer one on the evolution of mammals, in particular the inplications of Chinease foms/fossils. Significantly longer, but worth the read. I was distracted while reading it, but from what I understood, it seems a must read if you're into mammal evolution in the Mesozoic.
totally not British, b-baka!
Posted Image You like me (Unlike)
I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
Me
What, you want me to tell you what these mean?
Read First
Words Maybe
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