Competition – Day 2

The question for today (Friday) was: What is the biggest challenge you face as a teacher today?

Bone-Eating Zombie Worms

The DpSU for Friday turned out to be called ‘Zombie Worms’ Ate Mediterranean Fossil.

The situation here is that we have some worms of the genus Osedax that bore into bones to get at trapped lipids. Idea is that:

…then all those large, bony marine creatures—and birds—that were fossilized alongside dinosaurs must also have been deposited, buried, and mineralized rapidly to avoid destruction by Osedax.

(The quote makes slightly more sense in context, but then that reduces its explanatory usefulness). What he’s trying to prove is that the fossilisation process must be much faster than generally thought, so as to allow in the rather short timescales of young-Earth creationism which otherwise would be impossible.