this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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top 47 comments
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[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 hour ago

this blows my mind

[–] 10_0@lemmy.ml 14 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

See how did sharks swim north without the north being there?

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 21 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Much of Earth's water is older than the Sun so the shark's likely swam from space is my best guess.

[–] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 5 points 38 minutes ago* (last edited 37 minutes ago) (2 children)

I mean the protons and neutrons are never new, all of this stuff is just second hand, cobbled together recycled garbage!

[–] ColonelThirtyTwo@pawb.social 3 points 4 minutes ago

What is a proton? A miserable pile of quarks!

[–] Slovene@feddit.nl 1 points 24 seconds ago

Like they say, we're all just nuclear waste.

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 20 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I just checked, Polaris is about ten times younger than sharks. The other two stars of its ternary star system are older, but not visible to the naked eye, so early sharks would not have been able to use them for purposes of navigation.

[–] essteeyou@lemmy.world 209 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

Polaris is 45-67 million years old.

The oldest total-group chondrichthyans, known as acanthodians or "spiny sharks", appeared during the Early Silurian, around 439 million years ago.

It's not even close.

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 57 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Dinosaurs died off 65 MYA. Dinosaurs were most likely gone before Polaris formed.

[–] i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca 43 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

They probably died off because they couldn’t use Polaris for navigation!

[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 18 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Polaris goes in and out of North Star status on the 26,000 year precession cycle. So for the duration of humanity (let's say 100,000 years), there have been decent chunks of time where it's not in use.

[–] sorrybookbroke@sh.itjust.works 10 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

You gotta rest up man, that's a pretty big job for one star

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 hours ago

They trade off. There are other stars that make for good pole star candidates

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 8 points 5 hours ago

Can you imagine having to give directions to a bunch of illiterate primates? Ugg. I’d have quite after the first thousand years.

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 12 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

I’m now sad that dinosaurs could never look up and see Polaris.

[–] stewie3128@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 6 hours ago

Most nights even I can barely see Polaris.

[–] ZeffSyde@lemmy.world 1 points 23 minutes ago

Eh, they got to see the thousands of other stars that are now obscured by light/atmospheric pollution.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 17 points 4 hours ago

I came here to question whether that claim is true, saw your post, and thought something like "well, that settles that." Then I scrolled down and saw neatchee's (great username) post and now my whole world is uncertain.

[–] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

Appalachian mountains are even older

[–] SadSadSatellite@lemmy.dbzer0.com 82 points 11 hours ago (4 children)

Sharks are older than trees.

They're older than a lot of things. Land plants, Yellowstone, appendages,dinosaurs, doritos.

[–] blockheadjt@sh.itjust.works 7 points 6 hours ago (2 children)
[–] Klear@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 hours ago

Like appendix I imagine.

[–] TheOctonaut@mander.xyz 4 points 6 hours ago

He's thinking of penguins

[–] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 46 points 10 hours ago (4 children)

Sharks are older than trees.

But are younger than the mountains.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

Some of it.

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Ehhhh they're younger than some mountains though. There are ranges that are over a billion years old, but the Himalayas are "only" some 40-70 million years old, depending on when you start counting (40-50 if you actually start from being mountains, 70 if you start from "ground moves up")

[–] Lemjukes@lemm.ee 6 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Why did I read this to the tune of colors of the wind…

[–] blockheadjt@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 hours ago

Sharks are older than the grinning bobcat

[–] Buttermilk@lemmy.ml 16 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 6 points 6 hours ago

The geologic processes that led to the formation of the Appalachian Mountains started 1.1 billion years ago.

There's no shark without Mountain Mama

[–] Maturin@hexbear.net 9 points 10 hours ago

What do you think the first several hundreds of millions of years were like before they had Doritos?

[–] desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I refuse to believe any animal is older than doritos

[–] BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one 1 points 13 minutes ago

No they are wrong. Doritos are eternal.

[–] akilou@sh.itjust.works 54 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

One of my favorites is "the Appalachian mountains are older than bones"

and bones are I turn older than Saturn's rings, by about 300 million years

[–] rockerface@lemm.ee 14 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] bss03@infosec.pub 20 points 6 hours ago

Bones evolved for the first time: "485 Ma First vertebrates with true bones (jawless fishes)" -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_evolutionary_history_of_life (Vertebrates existed without a bony notochord before then.)

But the Appalachians were started much earlier: "The geologic processes that led to the formation of the Appalachian Mountains started 1.1 billion years ago." They were basically finished growing by the time bones existed: "Around 480 million years ago, geologic processes began that led to three distinct orogenic eras that created much of the surface structure seen in today's Appalachians. [d] During this period, mountains once reached elevations similar to those of the Alps and the Rockies" Since then, it's just been wearing down. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Mountains

[–] rockerface@lemm.ee 14 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] pingveno@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Now wait until you hear about skinteeth.

[–] FuckyWucky@hexbear.net 2 points 10 hours ago

holu shit polaris is super young sicko-zoomer

[–] neatchee@lemmy.world 144 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

This is only sort of true, unfortunately. Polaris is a two-star system: Polaris Aa and Polaris B.

Polaris B is much older than sharks, by several billion years.

Polaris Aa appears to be younger than sharks, at a measley 50 million years old, compared to sharks' 420 million years

HOWEVER it is unclear whether Polaris Aa is actually that young. Scientists believe that, based on some contradictory findings, that measurement may be inaccurate if Polaris Aa is formed from two different stars that merged. In that scenario, the model we use to calculate star age would no longer work and could give wildly inaccurate estimates of the star's true age

TMYK

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 24 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Right but how did it know to be the pole star?? Huh?

Yeah! Makes ya think!

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 33 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

It had the fastest lap in qualifying.

[–] Pelicanen@sopuli.xyz 5 points 4 hours ago

Max Verstappen approves of this comment.

[–] falsemirror@beehaw.org 30 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) this appears to be untrue.

Polaris is a cluster of stars formed about 2 billion years ago. Sharks originated about 450 million years ago.

One star of Polaris (Aa) appears to be 50 million years old, but it seems likely due to a collision of stars which added mass to it.

[–] nichtburningturtle@feddit.org 5 points 2 hours ago

So it's technically not wrong.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 11 points 3 hours ago

Thanks for this. Now I’m on a major Wikipedia deep dive on Polaris and cepheid variables!