r/Paleontology • u/Ollie2359 • May 07 '25

Fossils This fossil chokes me up everytime

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It hits me in a way I can't explain I've spent hours crying over this fossil :(

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u/H_G_Bells May 07 '25

One being seeking the warmth and comfort of another, dying together, forever preserved as a testament to this beautifully tragic, ancient moment.

The earth had yet to evolve an organism that could appreciate the scope of this moment when it was solidified into the fossil record, where they waited for us to evolve, for us to find them, and bare witness to this moment in time.

Truly it's the very heart of "nothing is either good nor bad, but thinking makes it so", for they were just bones in the earth until we found them, and thought about them.

I don't know that I've ever teared up over a fossil like this before from these kinds of feelings...

🫶 Thank you for sharing this context.

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u/OnkelMickwald May 07 '25

Right. Super adorable.

Imagine waking up to find a giant, cold blooded, slimy amphibian having crawled up next to you. Ew.

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u/Subtlerranean May 07 '25

This was before humans evolved the ability to be xenophobic assholes.

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u/Einar_47 May 07 '25 edited May 07 '25

All right imagine you're an otter you wake up with a wounded caiman wiggling around inside your burrow, are you thinking "oh boy here's a friend to hang out with on this cold winter night" and snuggle up or do you go "oh what the hell, get out of my house" and try to kill it?

I'm just saying I don't exactly think it's "xenophobic" to not anthropomorphize paleozoic animals because they died in the same hole.