Wow, this news truly left me marveling at the small insignificance of my life and all those I know against the beautiful reality that fish barf will outlive all the greatest achievements of our civilization.
I'm sure we will leave some impressive fossils.
But will we leave “the world's most famous piece of puke ever”?
I’m quite confident that I could step in fresh fish vomit and not recognize it. The fact that a palaeontologist could see a pile of fossilized “chalk bits” and draw the conclusion that it’s 66M year old fish vomit is mind boggling.
Jokes aside, can DNA be retrieved from there? The article is quite limited.
I don't think DNA is retrievable from rock. If it has been fossilised then all organic matter has been replaced by rock.
Does every type of basepair transform into rock the same way?
I believe DNA doesn't last more than a couple million years. And that's under ideal conditions and it's already a stretch.
The theoretical limit of DNA survival, I believe, is about 1 to 2 million years. So no.
And they say science is not a glamorous career.
Finally, a headline worthy of HN!
I’m waiting for them to find an ancient fart bubble trapped in amber
One day, some paleontologist is going to crack open a piece of amber and get hit with the world's oldest jump scare
Sooo, puke can survive for 66 million years...
It didn't survive. It turned into rock.
I understand that... It was just a stupid joke, sorry...