This is a whale with legs and hoofs. Its fossil remains were recently discovered off the coast of Peru.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... are_btn_tw
An Evolutionary Step
Forum rules
Post a new topic to begin a chat.
Any topic is acceptable, and topic drift is permissible.
Post a new topic to begin a chat.
Any topic is acceptable, and topic drift is permissible.
An Evolutionary Step
This is a whale with legs and hoofs. Its fossil remains were recently discovered off the coast of Peru.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... are_btn_tw
Re: An Evolutionary Step
Interesting!
Don't know if it is all that new of discovery though.
There have been several mammal fossils discovered where they had hoof-like toes before they evolved into toenails or claws.
Then too, it could be a species all its own.
There are numerous animals who used be considered in the chain of evolution, but modern testing methods proved otherwise. And now that they can do RNA, GNO, and DNA testing, many more links in the chain have been broken.
Don't know if it is all that new of discovery though.
There have been several mammal fossils discovered where they had hoof-like toes before they evolved into toenails or claws.
Then too, it could be a species all its own.
There are numerous animals who used be considered in the chain of evolution, but modern testing methods proved otherwise. And now that they can do RNA, GNO, and DNA testing, many more links in the chain have been broken.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
I'm not sure about the chain analogy, but it does tend to make sense. I'm thinking evolution took a path something like a Pochinko ball. LOL It just amazes me that fossils can stay in tact for so many thousands of years. Land fills biodegrade in about two or three decades. Why not ancient animals?
Re: An Evolutionary Step
Either they become mummified, or they do compose and the gap filled with something else, like a crystalline material.
A lot of the bones they do find are actually sealed in clay that hardened, cutting off all deteriorating elements from getting to the bones.
What surprises me is when they find leather or animal hide still intact, and in a few rare cases, articles of clothing.
A lot of the bones they do find are actually sealed in clay that hardened, cutting off all deteriorating elements from getting to the bones.
What surprises me is when they find leather or animal hide still intact, and in a few rare cases, articles of clothing.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
I guess keeping the O2 out is the secret to preservation. I read about Pompeii where they found entire human bodies encapsulated and preserved in lava. Then there's that woolly mammoth they found in Siberia totally in tact. That one I can understand because it was in the deep freeze for a few years.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
I had a friend who used to collect fossils, most of them bought of course, or traded with other collectors.
I don't remember the names of most of the little creatures embedded in those rocks, Trilobytes and the like, mostly shell animals.
He had a few fossil rocks he would crack open to see what was inside, and in a few cases when he did find something that was not a shell, something more like a worm or fish, once it was exposed to air, it's like it evaporated, sometimes in a matter of hours, and other times it took a few weeks.
Once he learned this, when he would crack open a rock to find something, he quickly encased it in liquid Lucite. But even then this didn't stop a lot of what he originally saw from decaying away further inside the Lucite leaving just a black film inside the plastic.
In the flower business, we had a way of preserving things like wedding bouquets for customers, which worked better than most other places, because our methods preserved the color of the flowers, if folks wanted to pay for that level of preservation. Many just wanted them dried and made to stay together without falling apart, others wanted us to use the color retention method, which is actually the sealing of the bouquet using different solutions first and then a matte plastic coating, plus it had to be placed inside a sealed glass dome. All someone had to do would be break a single petal and air would be able to get to the rest of the bouquet and turn it brown over time, despite all the color protecting preservatives we used.
I don't remember the names of most of the little creatures embedded in those rocks, Trilobytes and the like, mostly shell animals.
He had a few fossil rocks he would crack open to see what was inside, and in a few cases when he did find something that was not a shell, something more like a worm or fish, once it was exposed to air, it's like it evaporated, sometimes in a matter of hours, and other times it took a few weeks.
Once he learned this, when he would crack open a rock to find something, he quickly encased it in liquid Lucite. But even then this didn't stop a lot of what he originally saw from decaying away further inside the Lucite leaving just a black film inside the plastic.
In the flower business, we had a way of preserving things like wedding bouquets for customers, which worked better than most other places, because our methods preserved the color of the flowers, if folks wanted to pay for that level of preservation. Many just wanted them dried and made to stay together without falling apart, others wanted us to use the color retention method, which is actually the sealing of the bouquet using different solutions first and then a matte plastic coating, plus it had to be placed inside a sealed glass dome. All someone had to do would be break a single petal and air would be able to get to the rest of the bouquet and turn it brown over time, despite all the color protecting preservatives we used.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
On a slightly related topic, my wife and I have been married 51 years. For our 50th celebration we went to a world class hotel in South Carolina, but the most amazing part of this event was the rose I got for my wife. The people I bought it from claimed it was a real living rose at one point, but then they plated it with gold. They didn't go into detail about how they did it, but it sure looked like a real rose. I don't suppose they had to worry about preserving color but the flower did have to stay in tact long enough for the plating process to be completed. It was the perfect gift and I'm still a bit baffled over how they made it.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
It's not all that hard to gold-plate a rose, or much of anything else organic.
Best for step two to be done with a controlled voltage small plating tank, rather than some home-brew set-up.
Step three the final gold-plated coat is done using an plating pen.
Step One: Spray the rose with a Conductive Varnish Spray, silver works best.
Step Two: Copper-plate the treated rose in a copper plating tank, using the lowest voltage you can or it will get too rough.
Step Three: Using the electric plating pen with transfer pad, the gold is applied by hand, similar to painting, but the gold adheres to the copper plating because of the electric manual plating process.
Believe it or not, it is possible to do this with wall wart as the power supply, and perhaps vinegar and salt to make the solution using anodes. Copper if you want copper, zinc if you want zinc, etc.
All that being said, they now have one or two-step spray-on processes to do chrome, silver, or gold, but they are not really plated with metal as the electro-plating process.
We used to repair car bumpers when they got rust pits by cleaning the rust off, then replating the chrome using a metal brush connected to the car battery. Was a little tricky to keep from getting streaks or the repaired area to not come up to level or overfilled like a bump. More often than not to repair and old bumper we just used silver ceramic material and a torch, hi hi.
Best for step two to be done with a controlled voltage small plating tank, rather than some home-brew set-up.
Step three the final gold-plated coat is done using an plating pen.
Step One: Spray the rose with a Conductive Varnish Spray, silver works best.
Step Two: Copper-plate the treated rose in a copper plating tank, using the lowest voltage you can or it will get too rough.
Step Three: Using the electric plating pen with transfer pad, the gold is applied by hand, similar to painting, but the gold adheres to the copper plating because of the electric manual plating process.
Believe it or not, it is possible to do this with wall wart as the power supply, and perhaps vinegar and salt to make the solution using anodes. Copper if you want copper, zinc if you want zinc, etc.
All that being said, they now have one or two-step spray-on processes to do chrome, silver, or gold, but they are not really plated with metal as the electro-plating process.
We used to repair car bumpers when they got rust pits by cleaning the rust off, then replating the chrome using a metal brush connected to the car battery. Was a little tricky to keep from getting streaks or the repaired area to not come up to level or overfilled like a bump. More often than not to repair and old bumper we just used silver ceramic material and a torch, hi hi.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
I thought if anyone knew how to gold plate a rose you would be the person to know. It seems like a very unlikely possibility to do it and retain the shape of the flower. Then again you have done some very unlikely things.
I used to like the chrome on cars, but now and days it is grossly out of place. It never occurred to me that people would repair a bumper. I figured replacing was the only way to go.
I used to like the chrome on cars, but now and days it is grossly out of place. It never occurred to me that people would repair a bumper. I figured replacing was the only way to go.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
It only cost about ten bucks to fill rust holes in chrome bumpers, versus about 50 to 100 bucks for a new bumper back then.
I'm sure you are old enough to know when parents had their baby's first shoes bronzed. It was a big thing after the war for baby boomer parents. Heck, I even have a bronze pair on a plate with picture frame mom had made of my baby shoes.
My dear uncle Andy, a jack of all trades, got into the business of bronzing baby shoes and other articles, after Thiese Plating stopped handling these types of specialty items. They only plated on metal anyhow, but after the war did things like shoes, coats, and a few other items which they considered a nuisance to do.
He was a bricklayer by trade, and when he got called out of state for a lucrative high paying job, he taught me how to plate baby shoes, hats, booties, and a few other things. The hardest thing about doing baby shoes was holding the loops of the shoelaces open while the lacquer dried, The laces often took three or four coats before they could withstand the nickel plating operation, then the bronze was done using arc brushes by hand, similar to how we did car bumpers, same set-up.
We also did not have aerosols back then either, so doing something as delicate a rose or other type of flower was probably never considered. Well, we did have aerosols for other things, but not for conductive silver lacquer.
The largest thing I ever bronzed while helping out with my uncles orders was a pair of ringmaster boots. They were so worn and soft, they wouldn't even stand up by themselves. I ended up using wire coat hangers to reinforce them and placed them right where the vertical welts were inside the boots. I also used a few temporary braces until the several coats of lacquer I used on the inside of the boots held the permanent bracing in place. Once that was done and I removed the temporary braces, I had to use a long brush with a bent end to fill in where the temporary braces left holes when I removed them. The final job turned out great, the customer was well pleased.
FWIW: Gold is opaque no matter how thin it is applied. Although you wouldn't want to make it so thin it would buff off, hi hi. I only bring it up because one ounce of 24k gold is enough to plate an entire football field, although no one would ever plate anything that thin, unless it was for something that could not be touched, like behind glass or something.
I'm sure you are old enough to know when parents had their baby's first shoes bronzed. It was a big thing after the war for baby boomer parents. Heck, I even have a bronze pair on a plate with picture frame mom had made of my baby shoes.
My dear uncle Andy, a jack of all trades, got into the business of bronzing baby shoes and other articles, after Thiese Plating stopped handling these types of specialty items. They only plated on metal anyhow, but after the war did things like shoes, coats, and a few other items which they considered a nuisance to do.
He was a bricklayer by trade, and when he got called out of state for a lucrative high paying job, he taught me how to plate baby shoes, hats, booties, and a few other things. The hardest thing about doing baby shoes was holding the loops of the shoelaces open while the lacquer dried, The laces often took three or four coats before they could withstand the nickel plating operation, then the bronze was done using arc brushes by hand, similar to how we did car bumpers, same set-up.
We also did not have aerosols back then either, so doing something as delicate a rose or other type of flower was probably never considered. Well, we did have aerosols for other things, but not for conductive silver lacquer.
The largest thing I ever bronzed while helping out with my uncles orders was a pair of ringmaster boots. They were so worn and soft, they wouldn't even stand up by themselves. I ended up using wire coat hangers to reinforce them and placed them right where the vertical welts were inside the boots. I also used a few temporary braces until the several coats of lacquer I used on the inside of the boots held the permanent bracing in place. Once that was done and I removed the temporary braces, I had to use a long brush with a bent end to fill in where the temporary braces left holes when I removed them. The final job turned out great, the customer was well pleased.
FWIW: Gold is opaque no matter how thin it is applied. Although you wouldn't want to make it so thin it would buff off, hi hi. I only bring it up because one ounce of 24k gold is enough to plate an entire football field, although no one would ever plate anything that thin, unless it was for something that could not be touched, like behind glass or something.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
Some of the fixtures I made to test circuit boards at Motorola used spring loaded pins mounted on a plate of non conductive material (I forgot the name of the stuff, but it's pretty common). The base of the pins had wires connected to test equipment and the spring loaded tips came into contact with the circuit board under test. The pins were coated with gold when I first started that job. Then the prince of gold went from $35/oz to around $1000/oz and the gold plating on the pins was reduced down to billionths of an inch. I don't recall the exact thickness now, but I am thinking 3 billionths of an inch was the spec. Amazingly the gold stayed on the pins for the life of the test fixture. Eventually even that got too expensive and they switched to beryllium copper coated pins. The thing I wondered about was how do they know the gold was 3 billionths of an inch thick. I had no way to measure it to see if we were getting our money's worth. LOL
I do indeed recall bronzed booties. We had a pair but they somehow got lost after I married. I still do have my first cowboy boots that I wore when I was about age 2. I have this image in my mind of me wearing those boots and decked out in a badge, hat, and six shooters of Hopalong Cassidy. Ahhh yes, the good ol' days.
I do indeed recall bronzed booties. We had a pair but they somehow got lost after I married. I still do have my first cowboy boots that I wore when I was about age 2. I have this image in my mind of me wearing those boots and decked out in a badge, hat, and six shooters of Hopalong Cassidy. Ahhh yes, the good ol' days.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
Like two peas in a pod I suppose. Here is a picture of me in that same outfit!
You'll have to scroll down a bit, it's the picture on the right side.
http://stonebrokemanor.classichauslimit ... iblio.html
I wouldn't know how to measure anything than thin either, hi hi.
You'll have to scroll down a bit, it's the picture on the right side.
http://stonebrokemanor.classichauslimit ... iblio.html
I wouldn't know how to measure anything than thin either, hi hi.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
I think your outfit was a little more elaborate than mine, but it is amazing how both our parents were thinking along the same lines. LOL
Re: An Evolutionary Step
Other than when I had to wear Saddle Shoes for skewl, and sneakers for gym class, I don't remember wearing anything but boots my whole life. They made sense considering the jobs I did where stuff would end up inside your shoes.
The times sure have changed since we were kids. I would hate to be a kid in this era.
The times sure have changed since we were kids. I would hate to be a kid in this era.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
I hear and read that comment all the time regarding kids these days. My childhood didn't seem exceptionally difficult at the time I was living it, but in retrospect my family was living in poverty. It's the same childhood but seen as being two different things. The difference, obviously, is that as an adult I now have a broader perspective and all my struggles (other than staying healthy) have more or less been conquered. Given the fundamental idea that I believe progress is a good thing, the quality of one's childhood experiences is simply a matter of being there or looking at it in retrospect. The ideal situation would be to live today as a child but have the knowledge and perspective I spent 70+ years earning.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
It would be nice to be able to start over at around age 18 to 25 but knowing everything we learned over our lifetimes.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
My best buddy back in Chicago was shocked when I announced we are moving to Missouri. Why Missouri was his first question to which I had some stock replies. Then he asked, "what about the social life?" That made me think for a few seconds but the answer I gave was the same as I suggested above. We know nobody here and nothing about the environment, but we have seven decades of previous experience to create a whole new world. It must have inspired him because about a year later he moved to Franklin, TN. LOL
Re: An Evolutionary Step
Just since I moved here to TN, we've had thousands of folks from Illinois move here.
Like many, they are duped by the claim we have lower taxes than everywhere else, but they soon find out it's a lie.
Plus we do not have near the amount of services or activities we had in St. Louis.
Those who do their homework before moving here, will not move into one of our cities, but stay in the counties if they can.
Unfortunately, about the time you get settled in, some city will annex you, double your taxes, and cut your services in half.
I used to live in Creve Coeur, and my taxes although high, covered one heck of a lot of things we don't have down here.
So when I first moved down here, it only appeared our taxes were less, but this was short lived.
We were immediately annexed by the city of Knoxville, our taxes were doubled, making them much higher than I paid in Creve Coeur, and we have none of the benefits.
Like many, they are duped by the claim we have lower taxes than everywhere else, but they soon find out it's a lie.
Plus we do not have near the amount of services or activities we had in St. Louis.
Those who do their homework before moving here, will not move into one of our cities, but stay in the counties if they can.
Unfortunately, about the time you get settled in, some city will annex you, double your taxes, and cut your services in half.
I used to live in Creve Coeur, and my taxes although high, covered one heck of a lot of things we don't have down here.
So when I first moved down here, it only appeared our taxes were less, but this was short lived.
We were immediately annexed by the city of Knoxville, our taxes were doubled, making them much higher than I paid in Creve Coeur, and we have none of the benefits.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
My old pal is a retired accountant from Amaco, now BP. If you think you are good at finding the best deals around, you should get to know my friend. He has been brainwashed like every corporate accountant I ever dealt with, and he did extensive research regarding his move to Franklin. Not only did my buddy live in an expensive county near Chicago, he lived in one of the most expensive suburbs in the state. One of the funny stories I can tell about him is the time we all went out to eat at a fairly posh restaurant. He and his wife shared a single plate of food because it was too expensive to order separately, and they don't eat much anyway. LOL To each their own, I suppose, but he thought that Franklin was the ideal place and he did mention the low taxes. I'd agree with that assessment because places in the US where taxes are higher than where he came from are rare. I've not seen the latest census figures for Illinois, but I've heard from several sources that they are losing population.
Having said all that about my clever cheap buddy, I don't think any of his financial analysis made one bit of difference in his decision to move to Tennessee. You see, his wife was born there, and that says it all.
Having said all that about my clever cheap buddy, I don't think any of his financial analysis made one bit of difference in his decision to move to Tennessee. You see, his wife was born there, and that says it all.
Re: An Evolutionary Step
Ha ha, that's why I'm here too. My frau was born and raised right here in Knoxville. In fact, a few years after we moved down here, I bought the house she was born in for her, so now it's our house.
My home in Creve Coeur was originally 1,200 sq. ft. ranch, with a full-basement, on 1/2 acre.
We enclosed the carport turning it into a den bringing the house up 1,500 sq.ft.
In 2003 my real estate taxes were inching close to but not quite 1,200 per year.
We had police, fire, ambulance, and trash service, plus weathershed, storm, and sanitary sewers.
My home here in Knoxville is half that size, only 750 sq. ft. with NO basement, also on 1/2 acre, although we do have a full-acre of land, it is on two separate deeds.
The taxes on this house in 2003 was a tad over 300 bucks that year, but in 2004 they jumped up to 650 dollars due to the city annexing us. We still pay the county the same amount as we did before annexation, but the city tax is often higher than the county tax.
We do have police, but you pay for fire, ambulance, trash service, and we only have sanitary sewers.
If I had the same house I had in Creve Coeur sitting on this piece of property, the real estate taxes would be right at 2,000 bucks per year in 2004 tax rates. And with none of the amenities we have back in St. Louis.
Heck, we do not even have natural gas lines here in the Plaza Park area of Knoxville.
Only ditches to handle storm water runoff to the watershed creeks.
The ditches used to be maintained by the county, but after the city annexed us, the ditches have not been touched since.
The county sheriff used to patrol our street once a day at a minimum, the city only comes up here if they have a call, no regular patrol route covers our area.
Also, our homeowners insurance went up after we were annexed, because instead of using the county fire department about a mile from us, we now have to use the city fire department, which is over 3 miles from us and on the other side of the river across a congested bridge.
Nothing good at all has come from being annexed by the city.
My home in Creve Coeur was originally 1,200 sq. ft. ranch, with a full-basement, on 1/2 acre.
We enclosed the carport turning it into a den bringing the house up 1,500 sq.ft.
In 2003 my real estate taxes were inching close to but not quite 1,200 per year.
We had police, fire, ambulance, and trash service, plus weathershed, storm, and sanitary sewers.
My home here in Knoxville is half that size, only 750 sq. ft. with NO basement, also on 1/2 acre, although we do have a full-acre of land, it is on two separate deeds.
The taxes on this house in 2003 was a tad over 300 bucks that year, but in 2004 they jumped up to 650 dollars due to the city annexing us. We still pay the county the same amount as we did before annexation, but the city tax is often higher than the county tax.
We do have police, but you pay for fire, ambulance, trash service, and we only have sanitary sewers.
If I had the same house I had in Creve Coeur sitting on this piece of property, the real estate taxes would be right at 2,000 bucks per year in 2004 tax rates. And with none of the amenities we have back in St. Louis.
Heck, we do not even have natural gas lines here in the Plaza Park area of Knoxville.
Only ditches to handle storm water runoff to the watershed creeks.
The ditches used to be maintained by the county, but after the city annexed us, the ditches have not been touched since.
The county sheriff used to patrol our street once a day at a minimum, the city only comes up here if they have a call, no regular patrol route covers our area.
Also, our homeowners insurance went up after we were annexed, because instead of using the county fire department about a mile from us, we now have to use the city fire department, which is over 3 miles from us and on the other side of the river across a congested bridge.
Nothing good at all has come from being annexed by the city.