# 70 million year old clam tracked the moon



## Timeshifter (Apr 26, 2021)

I knew photography was older than we are told...

Yep you read the headline right...

A bivalve fossil has surprised researchers by providing a look at daily life 70 million years ago.
_Torreites sanchezi_, the prehistoric bivalve, formed sedimentary bands along its shell—similar to the rings we use to age trees. *Using advanced analysis methods and technology*, researchers were able to measure factor such as weather and water temperature.
The fossil also reveals changes in the relationship between the Earth and the moon
'Fossils are incredible gateways to the past, showing us what life was like *many millions* of years ago. One such find is _Torreites sanchezi_, a bivalve shell belonging to a group called ‘rudists,’ that’s *70 million years *old and has been acting as a clock of sorts during the years it spent buried within the earth.

These ancient bivalves were similar to modern clams in that their shells had an impressive growth rate—an entire layer per day. The laminae—growth bands which are similar to tree rings—grew in accordance with the weather giving researchers an unprecedented look at what a day looked like several thousand millennia ago.

But it wasn’t just weather; _T. sanchezi_ also captured *snapshots* of water temperature and chemical makeup, in essence, freezing several moments in time throughout the day. Niels de Winter, a geochemist and professor at Belgium’s Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), told _Science Alert_ that the bivalve offers a unique look at the past.

“We have about four to five datapoints per day, and this is something that you almost never get in geological history. *We can basically look at a day 70 million years ago,”* de Winter said in a press release. “It’s pretty amazing,” he adds.

Exactly _how _does de Winter and his team able to effectively study this prehistoric fossil? *The short answer* (they dont know) is that they used several analysis techniques, including microscopy and x-rays. They also analyzed isotopes and ion charges in relation to ionic mass. (That explains it then)

According to a study published in _Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology_, “a combination of layer counting, spectral analysis of chemical cyclicity and chemical layer counting shows that the rudist precipitated 372 daily laminae per year, demonstrating that *length of day has increased *since the late Cretaceous, as predicted by astronomical models.”


Photographic proof 

So, there you have it, no need for cameras, wonderous techological advances, all you need is a 70 million year old clam and some ambiguous methods.

Source



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## Archive (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: jd755Date: 2020-03-15 09:11:26Reaction Score: 2




Timeshifter said:


> So, there you have it, no beed for cameras, wonderous techological advances, all you need is a 70 million year old clam and some ambiguous methods.


And liars! 
The more academic the better.


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## Archive (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: BrokenAgateDate: 2020-03-29 22:56:42Reaction Score: 3


How do they KNOW all this?? A clam that grew a layer per day...how do they know it wasn't per week or month, or every other Tuesday? 

A guy named WINTER studying how WEATHER affected the growth of prehistoric bivalves... give me a break!


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