Assignment: Crinoid Hunt
©Joe Bridwell
Did you know that an ocean bottom could become a mountain top? Walk away from the tram north along the ridge; you're going to find crinoids some 500 million years old.
What's a crinoid... a crinoid [sometimes called a "sea lily," because it looks like a spreading flower] is "a filter feeding, marine, plant-like animal …." Crinoids first appeared in Earth's primeval seas over 500 million years ago, in the "Cambrian Era".
©Joe Bridwell
Did you know that an ocean bottom could become a mountain top? Walk away from the tram north along the ridge; you're going to find crinoids some 500 million years old.
What's a crinoid... a crinoid [sometimes called a "sea lily," because it looks like a spreading flower] is "a filter feeding, marine, plant-like animal …." Crinoids first appeared in Earth's primeval seas over 500 million years ago, in the "Cambrian Era".
Technology Is a Wonderful Thing
The kid on the left flew in from California; the one on the right flew in from Oregon. Both wanted adventure...
We decided to go on a crinoid hunt. So we took the tram up the mountain some 3700 feet. It was cloudy, dark, and wind was really blowing. When we got to the top, it began to sprinkle, then rain as darker clouds closed in.
I had a hat, Hayden and Kylie had a pullover. While I only had a thin sweater, even with a pullover, Kylie finally began to get cold.
We scrambled around for a while, slip-sliding on dirt at the base of the limestone cliff. First Kylie, then Hayden climbed the small cliff. Pretty soon, I began to hear the cry, "Grandpa, I found a crinoid...!"
When Kylie's mother was just a baby in the early 1970s, I was looking at pictures of Mars sent back by Mariner 9 as a graduate student...
but, we hadn't put a lander on Mars at that time. So we didn't know what the rocks might contain.
We had a very good day up on the Sandia's and I thought, "Why not find the definition of a crinoid and when it lived!"
Between Google (I was looking for a crinoid definition) and the Mars rover (excited old memories about Mars studies) which came along some 30 years later, I want to share a truly remarkable story I found this morning.
Martian Exploration
American space ships first circled Mars taking pictures in the mid-60s. Mariner 9 brought back some 7300 pictures in 1972. A few years later, Viking landed on Mars.
But it wasn't until 2000 that we had a Mars rover. In 2004, Opportunity, the Mars rover was driving around the edge of a basin (near my birthday). Opportunity was told to take a series of close up pictures with the black-and-white CCD camera attached to its arm, before it drilled into the rock. As I was quite interested in what was happening on Mars, I remember seeing a picture of those rocks on the basin edge.
Martian Crinoids?
That close-up picture, sent from millions of miles away, contains shapes very familiar to paleontologists on earth today - are those crinoids?
I found an article on the web from the Enterprise Mission titled
The Curious Case of the NASA Crinoid Cover-Up.
"A close-up enlargement of this fascinating object (Note “Segments…”), reveals an apparently "snapped off" body geometry, at least five visible cylindrical "segments," and a hint of other fossil-like features buried in the surrounding rock itself – all classic hallmarks of a former living organism!"
"E-mails from around the world in early 2004, from amateur and professional alike, pointed out the resemblance between "our" Martian fossil from the picture above... and a well known terrestrial counterpart – the crinoid."
Scientific Hypotheses
I've not had time to research this thesis. I haven't poured over the literature of the last five years to see what professionals have said about this idea. For a scientific hypothesis to be accepted as "law", it needs lots of verification.
In kidspeak, this gobbledygook sez, "This idea is interesting, but not proved. Nevertheless, you can surely think about it…"
Nevertheless, I was amazed at the coincidence! I suggest you read it for yourself, check out the literature through Internet links, and see what you might think of such a suggestion...?
So, while it may not pan out, it’s an interesting coincidence which might bear further scrutiny.
What’s the old saw “Time heals all wounds, and wounds all heels…!”
Instant Internet Technology
I'll post this blog about 3 o'clock Saturday. Kylie and Hayden will get on their respective airplanes about 4. About 6, one will land in California while the other lands in Oregon.
Meanwhile the Internet will churn for a while, then spit out this blog into each of their respective e-mail boxes so they can read it in the morning...
ain't technology really something?
I know crinoid hunting with the grandkids was truly something else!
Enjoy...
The kid on the left flew in from California; the one on the right flew in from Oregon. Both wanted adventure...
We decided to go on a crinoid hunt. So we took the tram up the mountain some 3700 feet. It was cloudy, dark, and wind was really blowing. When we got to the top, it began to sprinkle, then rain as darker clouds closed in.
I had a hat, Hayden and Kylie had a pullover. While I only had a thin sweater, even with a pullover, Kylie finally began to get cold.
We scrambled around for a while, slip-sliding on dirt at the base of the limestone cliff. First Kylie, then Hayden climbed the small cliff. Pretty soon, I began to hear the cry, "Grandpa, I found a crinoid...!"
Here's a crinoid picture from the ©Illinois State Museum.
When Kylie's mother was just a baby in the early 1970s, I was looking at pictures of Mars sent back by Mariner 9 as a graduate student...
but, we hadn't put a lander on Mars at that time. So we didn't know what the rocks might contain.
We had a very good day up on the Sandia's and I thought, "Why not find the definition of a crinoid and when it lived!"
Between Google (I was looking for a crinoid definition) and the Mars rover (excited old memories about Mars studies) which came along some 30 years later, I want to share a truly remarkable story I found this morning.
Martian Exploration
American space ships first circled Mars taking pictures in the mid-60s. Mariner 9 brought back some 7300 pictures in 1972. A few years later, Viking landed on Mars.
But it wasn't until 2000 that we had a Mars rover. In 2004, Opportunity, the Mars rover was driving around the edge of a basin (near my birthday). Opportunity was told to take a series of close up pictures with the black-and-white CCD camera attached to its arm, before it drilled into the rock. As I was quite interested in what was happening on Mars, I remember seeing a picture of those rocks on the basin edge.
Here's a before and after picture telemetered back from Meridiani Planum. ©NASA
Martian Crinoids?
That close-up picture, sent from millions of miles away, contains shapes very familiar to paleontologists on earth today - are those crinoids?
I found an article on the web from the Enterprise Mission titled
The Curious Case of the NASA Crinoid Cover-Up.
"A close-up enlargement of this fascinating object (Note “Segments…”), reveals an apparently "snapped off" body geometry, at least five visible cylindrical "segments," and a hint of other fossil-like features buried in the surrounding rock itself – all classic hallmarks of a former living organism!"
"E-mails from around the world in early 2004, from amateur and professional alike, pointed out the resemblance between "our" Martian fossil from the picture above... and a well known terrestrial counterpart – the crinoid."
Scientific Hypotheses
I've not had time to research this thesis. I haven't poured over the literature of the last five years to see what professionals have said about this idea. For a scientific hypothesis to be accepted as "law", it needs lots of verification.
In kidspeak, this gobbledygook sez, "This idea is interesting, but not proved. Nevertheless, you can surely think about it…"
Nevertheless, I was amazed at the coincidence! I suggest you read it for yourself, check out the literature through Internet links, and see what you might think of such a suggestion...?
So, while it may not pan out, it’s an interesting coincidence which might bear further scrutiny.
What’s the old saw “Time heals all wounds, and wounds all heels…!”
Instant Internet Technology
I'll post this blog about 3 o'clock Saturday. Kylie and Hayden will get on their respective airplanes about 4. About 6, one will land in California while the other lands in Oregon.
Meanwhile the Internet will churn for a while, then spit out this blog into each of their respective e-mail boxes so they can read it in the morning...
ain't technology really something?
I know crinoid hunting with the grandkids was truly something else!
Enjoy...
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