this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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stars & sharks (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] essteeyou 270 points 1 month 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 71 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 68 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] mkwt 25 points 1 month 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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] FuglyDuck 11 points 1 month ago

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

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

[–] aeronmelon 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] ZeffSyde 6 points 1 month ago

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

[–] toynbee 29 points 1 month 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 3 points 1 month ago

Appalachian mountains are even older