Re:Denisovan DNA found in cave on Tibetan Plateau
by AlotOfReading on Friday October 30, 2020 @03:14PM
(#24945782)
As you'd expect, this is a well-known problem. We call them 'formation processes'. There's a rich literature out there, but always more to explore because there's no general solution.
Re:Denisovan DNA found in cave on Tibetan Plateau
by brailsafe on Friday October 30, 2020 @03:30PM
(#24945967)
I just visited the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, and thankfully there is quite a bit of display real estate devoted to mentioning things like this. For example, one talks about how the initial hypothesis about a particular dinosaur had them die during river crossing, but later research suggests they were probably washed into the river during floods, based on the likelihood of them residing a great distance away.
Re:Denisovan DNA found in cave on Tibetan Plateau
by lubujackson on Friday October 30, 2020 @11:27PM
(#24948933)
I always try to remember how bloody long the dinosaurs were around. It is hard to imagine the scale of 100 million years - As a comparison, imagine every person who has ever lived lived in the same town. How many bodies would be buried in the silt at the bottom of the lake?
Re:Denisovan DNA found in cave on Tibetan Plateau
by ummonk on Friday October 30, 2020 @02:07PM
(#24945135)
There is also just the question of what kinds of conditions are conducive to preserving fossil remains.
Re:Denisovan DNA found in cave on Tibetan Plateau
by vmception on Friday October 30, 2020 @02:11PM
(#24945188)
Thats basically the only consideration.
Some future civilization is going to find an American frozen on Mt Everest and think that was our favorite habitat.
Re:Denisovan DNA found in cave on Tibetan Plateau
by backtoyoujim on Friday October 30, 2020 @02:32PM
(#24945413)
The discovery of Ötzi didn't lead contemporary humans to believe something like that.
Re:Denisovan DNA found in cave on Tibetan Plateau
by Red_Leaves_Flyy on Friday October 30, 2020 @02:21PM
(#24945324)
They'll probably find the trash first.
Re:Denisovan DNA found in cave on Tibetan Plateau
by dahfizz on Friday October 30, 2020 @03:09PM
(#24945728)
And in keeping with anthropologist tradition, they will assume all the trash was part of some significant religious ceremony.
Re:Denisovan DNA found in cave on Tibetan Plateau
by hutzlibu on Friday October 30, 2020 @07:00PM
(#24947650)
If you have a wide defintion of religion, one could argue that is the case.
Because most who go (and die) there, have no fun doing it.
There are plenty of beautiful mountains, but most just want to stand on this particular mountain (sometimes after being dragged up there), because of some numbers. Not because of the mountain.
Re:Denisovan DNA found in cave on Tibetan Plateau
by JohnJamesRambo on Friday October 30, 2020 @03:18PM
(#24945840)
The climbers would don their Green Boots in hopes of meeting the God at the top.
Re:Denisovan DNA found in cave on Tibetan Plateau
by PrinceKropotkin on Friday October 30, 2020 @10:27PM
(#24948675)
Mountaineering is literally a mountain cult (non-pejoratively) so this wouldn't even be inaccurate once you translate "religion" into anthropological terms.
Did those dinosaurs really live near mud flats, or were they driven there by severe drought followed by torrential rains? Or was it part of a migration route driven by repeating cycles of drought and rain? (the fact that they are under many, many layers of sedimentary rock suggests the latter)
Similarly, were hominids living in that cave a plan A, plan B, or plan C? Plan B could be a "Helm's Deep" situation, where you go there when something goes wrong. While Plan C could be an 'any port in a storm' situation where unexpected weather caught you in an area you did not mean to stay.
Plan A might have been a biologically active region where life devours anything that stops moving for too long, the same way we have trouble finding evidence of these huge cultures in Central and South America.