I found this fascinating. It is belied by its unassuming title.

previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37543883

Tangential to the article: I have had decent luck finding fossils at random spots in the US. When I'm traveling by car, I tend to map out spots based on this list of about 15,000 fossil spots in the US and Canada:

http://donaldkenney.x10.mx/FOSSITE_INFO.HTM (listings by state here: http://donaldkenney.x10.mx/FOSSINDX.HTM)

Not all of the listed spots are findable, since the list is based on index cards of unknown origin transcribed from years ago. But I have had success with some of them, and it's often a fun detour.

Next time I go, I'll have to try licking some rocks!

Petoskey stones are a good fossil to search for if you are looking to lick some rocks.

Pretty location specific though.

Interesting data. I grabbed the CSV, cleaned it up and created an interactive searchable map with RAMADDA - https://ramadda.org/repository/a/fossil_locations

thank you to introducing Mr Arduino famous rock licker.

Some mammoths found in Siberia were said to be edible.

Sadly, we're all eating fossils everyday, in the form of microplastics.

You should try fruit - apples, tomatoes, etc. I recommend it and its probably closer to humanities natural diet.

What a great suggestion! And here i was going to the supermarket every week with a shopping list that just read “plastics”.

:)