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(Mis)adventures in Paleontology.
- Thread starter Morm
- Start date
So today was interesting. It was windy and a bit dusty today, not really that big a deal. Suddenly as I'm in the middle of the valley like 200m up hill (with the strong headwind) away from my car. 3 bulldozers were kicking up dirt in the exposed part where I was.
Suddenly, the wind picked up. DUST STORM!!! I pulled my scarf over my face and my protective eyewear over my eyes and probably looked like some sort of brown person in the sahara:
So the call goes out and the foreman rushes around frantically to tell everyone to stop what they are doing. The dust blinding, my lungs are burning and the wind is so bad I can't even open my door on the windward side.
To show you the intensity of this storm I will post a picture that is greatly exaggerated but otherwise completely accurate:
I finally get to my truck, get prepped and start to roll out behind the last crew leaving. Suddenly my magetic buggy whip falls off, so I go out and grab it. As I do this, I see the last crew closing the gate behind them...the one that takes like three people to open/close. I try honking my horn, but they take off.
I have one other option to get out, a nice dirt road. As I roll out that way, I come to the narrowest part on the valley slope- and it has been torn apart in the last 5 minutes of work by a fucking backhoe!! So, I do what any self respecting man would do: Turn on some loud metal music and start making my own trail through the haze of dust and uneven ground. Naturally, I went as fast as I could because it was fun.
Phew, what a great day.
Suddenly, the wind picked up. DUST STORM!!! I pulled my scarf over my face and my protective eyewear over my eyes and probably looked like some sort of brown person in the sahara:
So the call goes out and the foreman rushes around frantically to tell everyone to stop what they are doing. The dust blinding, my lungs are burning and the wind is so bad I can't even open my door on the windward side.
To show you the intensity of this storm I will post a picture that is greatly exaggerated but otherwise completely accurate:
I finally get to my truck, get prepped and start to roll out behind the last crew leaving. Suddenly my magetic buggy whip falls off, so I go out and grab it. As I do this, I see the last crew closing the gate behind them...the one that takes like three people to open/close. I try honking my horn, but they take off.
I have one other option to get out, a nice dirt road. As I roll out that way, I come to the narrowest part on the valley slope- and it has been torn apart in the last 5 minutes of work by a fucking backhoe!! So, I do what any self respecting man would do: Turn on some loud metal music and start making my own trail through the haze of dust and uneven ground. Naturally, I went as fast as I could because it was fun.
Phew, what a great day.
So yeah, it's no secret that my job can be intense. I have had one weekend (this weekend) off since October 10th, working 10-12 hour days every single day of sometimes back breaking labour. My boss is really hard to get along with some days, so it's hard to keep motivated.
I'd like to thank everyone who posted and participated in this thread, it really did help me keep my motivation up; I'm often isolated with just a few coworkers who I don't always like for weeks at a time, away from family, friends and home.
So, I'd like to thank some people for their enthusiasm:
DM- You've been quite keen on this thread. It's really awesome to see that people care about what you do.
Doomsday- You're interactions and enthusiasm have been awesome. You're badass.
Lee- I know you didn't post that much in here but you kept up to date on it and we talked about it alot on msn. You're battletower drive with me kept me sane for about 2 weeks before making me more insane (heh).
Anti- You're always there to talk about adventures or problems. What an awesome guy.
Phantasia- You're just an overall awesome guy to have around this thread.
Tea and Blues- Haven't seen you around, but at one point your questions and comments were quite interesting, making it more challenging for me!
Itchni- You're pretty cool man, thanks for hangin' around!
Okay gotta just thank everyone else who posted and threw down comments. I'm sure I missed someone but don't feel bad if I did!
You guys really are awesome, thanks for keeping me sane.
I'd like to thank everyone who posted and participated in this thread, it really did help me keep my motivation up; I'm often isolated with just a few coworkers who I don't always like for weeks at a time, away from family, friends and home.
So, I'd like to thank some people for their enthusiasm:
DM- You've been quite keen on this thread. It's really awesome to see that people care about what you do.
Doomsday- You're interactions and enthusiasm have been awesome. You're badass.
Lee- I know you didn't post that much in here but you kept up to date on it and we talked about it alot on msn. You're battletower drive with me kept me sane for about 2 weeks before making me more insane (heh).
Anti- You're always there to talk about adventures or problems. What an awesome guy.
Phantasia- You're just an overall awesome guy to have around this thread.
Tea and Blues- Haven't seen you around, but at one point your questions and comments were quite interesting, making it more challenging for me!
Itchni- You're pretty cool man, thanks for hangin' around!
Okay gotta just thank everyone else who posted and threw down comments. I'm sure I missed someone but don't feel bad if I did!
You guys really are awesome, thanks for keeping me sane.
So I am on a different kind of adventure today. I am going up to my old university to speak for a student club that I started- at a symposium. The topic of this event is herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians). My speaking slot is smack inbetween the Head curator of the Tyrrell Museum and the 'head' of palaeontology at my hometown University. It's a 15 minute talk, which is insanely hard to get anything out of unless you're a really good speaker. No time for intro or conclusion, just jump right in!
This event has the potential to afford me many opportunities for hardship.
My topic, of course, is on the Lerista complex- look it up if you aren't sure, but they are basically group caught red handed evolving! I haven't done any formal research on them, just compiled all relevant data into a nice package with a sugar coating of my own personal observations from having my lizards move around.
Don't worry guys, it'll all be okay- I threw in a joke or two!
This event has the potential to afford me many opportunities for hardship.
My topic, of course, is on the Lerista complex- look it up if you aren't sure, but they are basically group caught red handed evolving! I haven't done any formal research on them, just compiled all relevant data into a nice package with a sugar coating of my own personal observations from having my lizards move around.
Don't worry guys, it'll all be okay- I threw in a joke or two!
I apologize for being possibly as off-topic as possible, but I couldn't help noticing that this statement is false, even though it was meant to be used as a joke. An amino acid called Helicase unzips DNA molecules. DNA Polymerase "reads" the Nitrogen bases of the already unzipped DNA strands and sends chemical signals for a nucleotide with a complimentary base to bond to it.
I'm DNA Polymerase and I'm here to read your genes.
Anyways, I missed like the last five updates to this thread, sorry about that :P.
So, the Lerista complex. I looked it up and although I didn't find anything with the key word "complex", I discovered the sand skinks and I remember reading about them before, and it's actually really interesting. Morm is telling the truth when he says they're being caught red-handed(less) in the process of evolution - here's a pic for you to goggle at:
I think that's such a cool thing to be be able to witness. I'm really interested to see what they'll look like in fifty+ years. I'm assuming they'd be given an entirely new species name once they turn into snakes (since they're currently in a subdivision that leads to lizards, right?).
edit: and your stories with random pics off of google are pretty cool ;). I've always wondered what it would be like to be a in a huge sandstorm like that. I mean it just looks freaking amazing (not to be in it of course but from the outside).
Anyways, I missed like the last five updates to this thread, sorry about that :P.
So, the Lerista complex. I looked it up and although I didn't find anything with the key word "complex", I discovered the sand skinks and I remember reading about them before, and it's actually really interesting. Morm is telling the truth when he says they're being caught red-handed(less) in the process of evolution - here's a pic for you to goggle at:
I think that's such a cool thing to be be able to witness. I'm really interested to see what they'll look like in fifty+ years. I'm assuming they'd be given an entirely new species name once they turn into snakes (since they're currently in a subdivision that leads to lizards, right?).
edit: and your stories with random pics off of google are pretty cool ;). I've always wondered what it would be like to be a in a huge sandstorm like that. I mean it just looks freaking amazing (not to be in it of course but from the outside).
Thanks for correcting my pickup line- I'll be sure to use the proper version all my future pick ups!!
Lerista may not be evolving that fast, sadly. However, they probably are since their skull morphology on the fossorial forms appears to be lagging behind, while their vertebral count is bang on in a predictable way that less limb essentially means more vertebra, to increase sinuous movement and allow for effective movement without legs. The reason it's called a complex is because there are species variants divided by overlapping areas; in most cases these aren't morphologically different enough to call it a new species. For example, the one that readily comes to mind is a simple matter of an extra phalanx on one of the toes- only significant if we are talking about limb reduction, which we inevitably will be talking about Lerista.
There is however a lizard that scientists released on a lizardless island about 30 years ago. In that time there was a war so they couldn't go back over and over, but they recently got back on to discover the lizard rearranged it's jaw and entire gut tract to allow for the processing of vegetation instead of insects. 30 years for a massive ecological and morphological turnover!! If that isn't yet another smoking gun of evolution, I don't know what is...
Yeah, it was a gong show of a talk. I'm pretty sure one asshole laughed at me, but he's the biggest academic snob on the planet. Found out essentially everyone in Alberta herpetology hates me as well; not because I'm an asshole, but because I told them to stop inbreeding their lizards. Oh well, just another accomplishment I can rub in their faces now. The after party was nuts as well, this really fat and stupid (also ugly) bitch was essentially begging for action the whole night from me, flat out saying things like "let me suck you". It was heinous, lucky I'm smarter than falling into that trap.
Lerista may not be evolving that fast, sadly. However, they probably are since their skull morphology on the fossorial forms appears to be lagging behind, while their vertebral count is bang on in a predictable way that less limb essentially means more vertebra, to increase sinuous movement and allow for effective movement without legs. The reason it's called a complex is because there are species variants divided by overlapping areas; in most cases these aren't morphologically different enough to call it a new species. For example, the one that readily comes to mind is a simple matter of an extra phalanx on one of the toes- only significant if we are talking about limb reduction, which we inevitably will be talking about Lerista.
There is however a lizard that scientists released on a lizardless island about 30 years ago. In that time there was a war so they couldn't go back over and over, but they recently got back on to discover the lizard rearranged it's jaw and entire gut tract to allow for the processing of vegetation instead of insects. 30 years for a massive ecological and morphological turnover!! If that isn't yet another smoking gun of evolution, I don't know what is...
Yeah, it was a gong show of a talk. I'm pretty sure one asshole laughed at me, but he's the biggest academic snob on the planet. Found out essentially everyone in Alberta herpetology hates me as well; not because I'm an asshole, but because I told them to stop inbreeding their lizards. Oh well, just another accomplishment I can rub in their faces now. The after party was nuts as well, this really fat and stupid (also ugly) bitch was essentially begging for action the whole night from me, flat out saying things like "let me suck you". It was heinous, lucky I'm smarter than falling into that trap.
Man I hadn't checked this thread in some time... =(
And hell, up to this point, sometimes, I don't even know why I read all of this...I don't think it might do me much good, 'sides being a bit more competent when it comes down to paleontology chit-chat.
Please keep this up, Mormoopid...with more pics 8^)
Edit: the second and third paragraph aren't related at all.
Edit 2: fuck yeah more evolution proof.
Edit 3: I can't stop looking at that snake/lizard hybrid.
And hell, up to this point, sometimes, I don't even know why I read all of this...I don't think it might do me much good, 'sides being a bit more competent when it comes down to paleontology chit-chat.
Please keep this up, Mormoopid...with more pics 8^)
Edit: the second and third paragraph aren't related at all.
Edit 2: fuck yeah more evolution proof.
Edit 3: I can't stop looking at that snake/lizard hybrid.
I know it isn't an "hybrid", I just wanted to be vulgar about it.
Could you actually be a bit more broad on this subject?I'm really interested, and a friend of mine too...do you have a transcript of your 15 minute explanation thing or something ?_?
Also, the thing is turning into a snake, not going back to legs, right?Someone at school said snakes were first, and then they got legs; I was confused, but I think I'm still right (lizards > snakes)
Could you actually be a bit more broad on this subject?I'm really interested, and a friend of mine too...do you have a transcript of your 15 minute explanation thing or something ?_?
Also, the thing is turning into a snake, not going back to legs, right?Someone at school said snakes were first, and then they got legs; I was confused, but I think I'm still right (lizards > snakes)
snakes are just limb reduced lizards; you are 100% right. Lerista is not turning into a snake by any means, it's just reducing its limbs. It has none of the cranial morphologies associated with being a snake and I'm pretty sure the ventral scalation indicative is also lacking.
Lizards first appeared with Petrolacosaurusin the Carboniferous 300 million years ago (or so), meanwhile the first appearance of snakes isn't really until the Cenomanian with Pachyrhachis and Coniophis around 95 million years ago. It's pretty clear that snakes, diapsids, came from earlier diapsids, lizards. Just looking generally at the morphologies, the skinks in question are very conservative and tend to be more adaptively generalized; snakes as a rule are specialized in jaw structure and belly scalation, but oddly homogenise their vertebral column.
Infact, snakes are mixed in the lot with mosasaurs, giant marine lizards I keep blabbing about and varanids.
Just an FYI for that guy at your school, there is not one single case of a reversal of the limbless condition documented on the history of the planet. So to have them go from snakes to lizards makes completely no sense at all.
Lizards first appeared with Petrolacosaurusin the Carboniferous 300 million years ago (or so), meanwhile the first appearance of snakes isn't really until the Cenomanian with Pachyrhachis and Coniophis around 95 million years ago. It's pretty clear that snakes, diapsids, came from earlier diapsids, lizards. Just looking generally at the morphologies, the skinks in question are very conservative and tend to be more adaptively generalized; snakes as a rule are specialized in jaw structure and belly scalation, but oddly homogenise their vertebral column.
Infact, snakes are mixed in the lot with mosasaurs, giant marine lizards I keep blabbing about and varanids.
Just an FYI for that guy at your school, there is not one single case of a reversal of the limbless condition documented on the history of the planet. So to have them go from snakes to lizards makes completely no sense at all.
Ah...so you could say it's a snake wannabe,...to put it in that way, at least.
Ok cool thanks Mormoopid, this still is an awesome thread =)
Edit: about my friend, we were both just confused
Edit 2: I also forgot; there's this fucking stupid religious guy who says that's just ONE mutation (one lizard, to be more specific[not the whole species]) doing that.The question is, are there a whole bunch of them losing their limbs?
Ok cool thanks Mormoopid, this still is an awesome thread =)
Edit: about my friend, we were both just confused
Edit 2: I also forgot; there's this fucking stupid religious guy who says that's just ONE mutation (one lizard, to be more specific[not the whole species]) doing that.The question is, are there a whole bunch of them losing their limbs?
There is 80+ species alone in the Lerista genus, ranging from one species that has some hyperphalangy (extra finger bone) all the way to no pelvis at all (the final step in losing the limb apparati). So, yes, when you compare across a the genus, species are showing a stepwise decline in limb presence as you move from species to species.
Not to mention that lizards in general do this 62 times in 52 lineages, probably more since that data is at least a decade and a half old. Only four groups of lizards don't reduce their limbs, that's pretty insane.
That religious chap is is pretty misinformed.
Not to mention that lizards in general do this 62 times in 52 lineages, probably more since that data is at least a decade and a half old. Only four groups of lizards don't reduce their limbs, that's pretty insane.
That religious chap is is pretty misinformed.
Question: if we were to find a lizard that were so limb reduced that it looked like a snake with really tiny legs, or even just remnants of legs (like some of the boa-constrictors you'll find across the world), how would we know that the lizard is in fact not a lizard, but a snake reversing the evolution process. I'm sure there are some situations where having legs come in handy over having none. Would we have to just wait and watch, or would there be some way to tell (such as looking at its environment, etc.). I'm sure that would be an interesting find to discover such a specimen, doing the exact opposite of what all other limb-reduced lizards are doing.
There is literally no way of knowing if it is a reversal or not. However, looking at the fossil record, we can plainly see that once a lineage goes limbless, it doesn't go back. This system doesn't count for things like adding on an extra phalanx, as hyperphalangy is a rather common mutation (as far as mutations go). However, extra digits are also common- whether this is a true reversal or not is problematic, as it could just be a run of the mill supernumery digit (and it's the same thing anyways).
I'll post a question for you in return: Can you think of any selective pressure where, once you've completely lost the pelvic or pectoral girdle, the limbs would actually regrow? To make this more plausible, but apparently impossible, what about just considering reforming the lost hand/digital arch?
Just a note, even advanced birds with a pygidium have been genetically reverse engineered to have short tails- so the genes are often still present. The problem with the limb question is that limbless and limbed locomotion is about the same for efficacy. This means that even moving from a restricted habitat, favoring reduced or lost limbs, to a wide open habitat where limbs are useful wouldn't really have any selection factors for redevelopment of the limb apparatus. Also keep in mind that ancestors limit the evolution of their descendants.
Also, there are lots of ways to tell if it's a snake with legs VS a lizard- skull morphologies are quite obvious in snakes, especially the kinetics of the jaws in particular, but the dentition and rest of the skull as well. Snake vertebrae are very distinctive and homogenous, as well as more numerous- unlike a lizard, that has distinct zones of verebrae, your typical cervial/thoracic/presacral(lumbar)/sacral/postsacral. Lots and lots of ways to tell limbless lizards from snakes!
Phew. Okay, it's late and I have to be up on my first truely solo adventure. Last friday I talked in a pre school class, that was actually more challenging than talking to university students- I felt guilty for using words like 'environment' and got alot of blank stares. I'll update tomorrow with some sweetness, hopefully.
I'll post a question for you in return: Can you think of any selective pressure where, once you've completely lost the pelvic or pectoral girdle, the limbs would actually regrow? To make this more plausible, but apparently impossible, what about just considering reforming the lost hand/digital arch?
Just a note, even advanced birds with a pygidium have been genetically reverse engineered to have short tails- so the genes are often still present. The problem with the limb question is that limbless and limbed locomotion is about the same for efficacy. This means that even moving from a restricted habitat, favoring reduced or lost limbs, to a wide open habitat where limbs are useful wouldn't really have any selection factors for redevelopment of the limb apparatus. Also keep in mind that ancestors limit the evolution of their descendants.
Also, there are lots of ways to tell if it's a snake with legs VS a lizard- skull morphologies are quite obvious in snakes, especially the kinetics of the jaws in particular, but the dentition and rest of the skull as well. Snake vertebrae are very distinctive and homogenous, as well as more numerous- unlike a lizard, that has distinct zones of verebrae, your typical cervial/thoracic/presacral(lumbar)/sacral/postsacral. Lots and lots of ways to tell limbless lizards from snakes!
Phew. Okay, it's late and I have to be up on my first truely solo adventure. Last friday I talked in a pre school class, that was actually more challenging than talking to university students- I felt guilty for using words like 'environment' and got alot of blank stares. I'll update tomorrow with some sweetness, hopefully.
Okay, so I'm gonna start with the preschool adventure.
When I got there, I was swarmed by children ages 3-4. Most of them couldn't finish their sentences because they were going mental with excitement. I found out as it happened that there was a prayer before class- early indoctrination! Sweet. I suppose it was in a church though, so I didn't get upset or anything. It should have been expected.
I dumbed down things as much as I could, handed out toys etc to show them what I was talking about. Of those that kept their attention, one little boy put up his hand three times in a row. After being told not to ignore such hands, I called on him three times in a row. Each time, he looked around in a confused nervous blunder and said "Ceratops". By the third time, I had no idea what his game was; I'm sure it was the 3 year old equivalent of heckling. They gave me more blank looks and half thought sentences than university students...they are savages!
But oh man were they adorable. Hard to hate something that cute.
So I'm back out, this time everything is on my shoulders. Good thing we checked out the site before, found nothing and expected nothing. So when I continued with the trend of nothingness, it was to be, well, expected!!
On this journey, I met someone special. No, not a hot chick; I have one already. I met a cryptozoology fan, who didn't know the word cryptid. He preferred to call people like that "Sasqualogists". Other than him explaining that aliens told him to prepare for a 'shitstorm' on their 'seeded' planet, he explained to me that I wasn't finding any fossils because predators ate them. He also observed that there are lots of fossils elsewhere in the valley. When I asked him why the predators, for thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, focused so much there. I also asked why, in such an enormous concentration, we find no predators- the answer was obvious! The predators were eating each other too! Man, screw 5 years in paleontology, all you need is to talk to this guy. He wouldn't listen to my reasoning on this, or on the following points:
-He hasn't seen the ancestor of sabre toothed wolves, since canids never got true sabre teeth (or even canines that are THAT big...)
-CN Rail didn't document a Sasquatch baby being hit by a train because it didn't happen. Nor did the midnight tracking/breakout staged by the father, who in his rage managed to hurt nobody and conveniently steal the only evidence of this event save for the bent bars, which are also now missing.
-Extraterrestrials most certainly exist, maybe not like popular conception and more like bacteria or some other form of life that isn't sentient, and they most certainly didn't fly all the way to Earth to stage a 600 million year + experiment on Evolution. Hey, maybe that makes sense after all though, it might be the only way to get dogmatic christians to see some evidence other than falsities that 'prove' them right.
-He hasn't seen the 8 foot back (no head or tail, it was under water) of a giant 'fish'. He was being modest, holding back saying it was a monster.
-He didn't see a 'buffalo' (if only because we have BISON here, not buffalo...hehe) that was the size of half of a bulldozer in profile while LAYING DOWN.
-He didn't see a black cougar; Well, he might have seen some sort of hypermelanized one, but he most certainly didn't see it where he claims to see it. By the way he claims he saw it around Cold Lake, Alberta. Yeah....Cougars almost never *cough*really super never*cough* push east of Calgary, Alberta. Google Cold Lake, Alberta. You can observe for yourself that it is near the Saskatchewan border- and Calgary is in the foothills, about 100KM away from the mountains (so, the opposite side of the province).
He was technically a client, so I was respectful and kind, conceding that believing in that stuff is fun. He conceded that skeptics like me are needed, but didn't give a reason. Being that he was a client, I had to leave the laughing to the guy sitting beside him that just sat there, saying nothing, but busting a gut with each passing exchange.
Edit: If you haven't seen this, you shoul: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27770938/?gt1=43001
Yeah turns out that archaeologists want evidence for things that are taken for granted!! My world is turning upside down
When I got there, I was swarmed by children ages 3-4. Most of them couldn't finish their sentences because they were going mental with excitement. I found out as it happened that there was a prayer before class- early indoctrination! Sweet. I suppose it was in a church though, so I didn't get upset or anything. It should have been expected.
I dumbed down things as much as I could, handed out toys etc to show them what I was talking about. Of those that kept their attention, one little boy put up his hand three times in a row. After being told not to ignore such hands, I called on him three times in a row. Each time, he looked around in a confused nervous blunder and said "Ceratops". By the third time, I had no idea what his game was; I'm sure it was the 3 year old equivalent of heckling. They gave me more blank looks and half thought sentences than university students...they are savages!
But oh man were they adorable. Hard to hate something that cute.
So I'm back out, this time everything is on my shoulders. Good thing we checked out the site before, found nothing and expected nothing. So when I continued with the trend of nothingness, it was to be, well, expected!!
On this journey, I met someone special. No, not a hot chick; I have one already. I met a cryptozoology fan, who didn't know the word cryptid. He preferred to call people like that "Sasqualogists". Other than him explaining that aliens told him to prepare for a 'shitstorm' on their 'seeded' planet, he explained to me that I wasn't finding any fossils because predators ate them. He also observed that there are lots of fossils elsewhere in the valley. When I asked him why the predators, for thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, focused so much there. I also asked why, in such an enormous concentration, we find no predators- the answer was obvious! The predators were eating each other too! Man, screw 5 years in paleontology, all you need is to talk to this guy. He wouldn't listen to my reasoning on this, or on the following points:
-He hasn't seen the ancestor of sabre toothed wolves, since canids never got true sabre teeth (or even canines that are THAT big...)
-CN Rail didn't document a Sasquatch baby being hit by a train because it didn't happen. Nor did the midnight tracking/breakout staged by the father, who in his rage managed to hurt nobody and conveniently steal the only evidence of this event save for the bent bars, which are also now missing.
-Extraterrestrials most certainly exist, maybe not like popular conception and more like bacteria or some other form of life that isn't sentient, and they most certainly didn't fly all the way to Earth to stage a 600 million year + experiment on Evolution. Hey, maybe that makes sense after all though, it might be the only way to get dogmatic christians to see some evidence other than falsities that 'prove' them right.
-He hasn't seen the 8 foot back (no head or tail, it was under water) of a giant 'fish'. He was being modest, holding back saying it was a monster.
-He didn't see a 'buffalo' (if only because we have BISON here, not buffalo...hehe) that was the size of half of a bulldozer in profile while LAYING DOWN.
-He didn't see a black cougar; Well, he might have seen some sort of hypermelanized one, but he most certainly didn't see it where he claims to see it. By the way he claims he saw it around Cold Lake, Alberta. Yeah....Cougars almost never *cough*really super never*cough* push east of Calgary, Alberta. Google Cold Lake, Alberta. You can observe for yourself that it is near the Saskatchewan border- and Calgary is in the foothills, about 100KM away from the mountains (so, the opposite side of the province).
He was technically a client, so I was respectful and kind, conceding that believing in that stuff is fun. He conceded that skeptics like me are needed, but didn't give a reason. Being that he was a client, I had to leave the laughing to the guy sitting beside him that just sat there, saying nothing, but busting a gut with each passing exchange.
Edit: If you haven't seen this, you shoul: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27770938/?gt1=43001
Yeah turns out that archaeologists want evidence for things that are taken for granted!! My world is turning upside down
lol predators ate everything not leaving fossils, but predators ate their own kind; man does that make SENSE
Awesome, you "taught" a bit to kids =) perhaps they'll be just like you when they grow up (yeah right)
Hey no pics yet of...well, anything.Go dig something up...just kidding.Sort of.
Awesome, you "taught" a bit to kids =) perhaps they'll be just like you when they grow up (yeah right)
Hey no pics yet of...well, anything.Go dig something up...just kidding.Sort of.
Those ancient animals only seem so awesome because you don't see them every day. Imagine how bizarre an elephant would look if you've never seen anything like it before...
Yeah DM, he was a totally awesome guy. Gave me candy and was very lax on the site- not in a bad way, just in the way that he lets everyone do their job without telling them how to do it. Shit I forgot to ask him today to tell me about his alien abduction. Oh well, I can always make up the story on his behalf!
Yeah DM, he was a totally awesome guy. Gave me candy and was very lax on the site- not in a bad way, just in the way that he lets everyone do their job without telling them how to do it. Shit I forgot to ask him today to tell me about his alien abduction. Oh well, I can always make up the story on his behalf!
Bam and Phantasia, I really appreciate your inputs and questions. It keeps my fresh with some stuff I might otherwise not think about readily.
Does anyone have any questions for me? I don't really mean for it to be a ITT ask morms thread but if you have questions I can answer them and we can discuss the answer!
Does anyone have any questions for me? I don't really mean for it to be a ITT ask morms thread but if you have questions I can answer them and we can discuss the answer!