Ancient shell shows days were half-hour shorter 70 million years ago

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Earth turned faster at the end of the time of the dinosaurs than it does today, rotating 372 times a year, compared to the current 365, according to a new study of fossil mollusk shells from the late Cretaceous. This means a day lasted only 23 and a half hours, according to the new study in AGU's journal Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology.

The ancient mollusk, from an extinct and wildly diverse group known as rudist clams, grew fast, laying down daily growth rings. The new study used lasers to sample minute slices of shell and count the growth rings more accurately than human researchers with microscopes.

The growth rings allowed the researchers to determine the number of days in a year and more accurately calculate the length of a day 70 million years ago. The new measurement informs models of how the Moon formed and how close to Earth it has been over the 4.5-billion-year history of the Earth-Moon gravitational dance.

The new study also found corroborating evidence that the mollusks harbored photosynthetic symbionts that may have fueled reef-building on the scale of modern-day corals.

The high resolution obtained in the new study combined with the fast growth rate of the ancient bivalves revealed unprecedented detail about how the animal lived and the water conditions it grew in, down to a fraction of a day.

Torreites sanchezi mollusks look like tall pint glasses with lids shaped like bear claw pastries. The ancient mollusks had two shells, or valves, that met in a hinge, like asymmetrical clams, and grew in dense reefs, like modern oysters. They thrived in water several degrees warmer worldwide than modern oceans. In the late Cretaceous, rudists like T. sanchezi dominated the reef-building niche in tropical waters around the world, filling the role held by corals today. They disappeared in the same event that killed the non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

 

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200309135410.htm

[RAMROD 117,353]

Imagine getting older half hour faster

 

fascinating how the learn these stuffs from fossils.

[Gagi 2,750]

Thank you for the threads you’re creating, always very interesting!

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12 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

Imagine getting older half hour faster

 

fascinating how the learn these stuffs from fossils.

The creatures around that time would have aged the same or in a very similar way.  Time itself wasn't passing faster, only the day-night progression. So on a biological level, they weren't affected in the sense that they were aging.

[Economy 52,928]

Yeah. There's a general consensus that Earth's rotation is gradually slowing tho millions of years have to pass to notice a meaningful difference

 

More concerning is the sun getting hotter and hotter which even if we stop man made global warming this will be a long term issue

 

Tho I suspect if we're still around in millions of years and the warming becomes an issue ud think wed be able to deal with cooling earth a couple degrees easily. 

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now why isnt THIS on the main banner? 

[PunkTheFunk 125,719]

In a million years scientists will dig up the hip bones of Little Monsters and find tiny cracks, one for each day Chromatica was delayed.