HA! Made you look! But the title was not entirely click-bait. While everybody else was looking at that first-ever photo of a black hole, other dark things were found lurking in English rocks.
An exceptionally well-preserved 430 million-year-old fossil found in Herefordshire in the UK has shed light on the early evolution of sea cucumbers. And apparently, they bore a remarkable resemblance to H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu.
Palaeontologists from the UK and USA created an accurate 3D computer reconstruction of the 430 million-year-old fossil which allowed them to identify it as a species new to science. They named the animal Sollasina cthulhu due to its resemblance to monsters from the fictional Cthulhu universe created by author H.P. Lovecraft.
Although the fossil is just 3 cm wide, its many long tentacles would have made it appear quite monstrous to other small sea creatures alive at the time. It is thought that these tentacles, or 'tube feet', were used to capture food and crawl over the seafloor.
Like other fossils from Herefordshire, Sollasina cthulhu was studied using a method that involved grinding it away, layer-by-layer, with a photograph taken at each stage. This produced hundreds of slice images, which were digitally reconstructed as a 'virtual fossil'.
So now the question is: Did Lovecraft call up these fossils from the collective unconscious to create his monsters, or was it a coincidental and separate sub-creation?
Given the recent rapid deterioration of our democracy, Cthulhu’s appearance could only improve the situation.
And on that note, let’s turn to the centerpiece of the diary: the Comments, posted below the fold. But first, a word from our sponsor:
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Top Comments (April 12, 2019):
From justaHippie:
GrafZeppelin127 succunctly describes the effect of Republican governance in this comment in Kerry Eleveld’s recommended post on corporations successful tax avoidance:
“More debt. More pollution. More war. More injustice. More cruelty. More human suffering. More comfort for the comfortable; more affliction for the afflicted.
“This is what Republican governance gets us, has always gotten us, and has only ever gotten us. If you vote Republican, that’s what you’re voting for.”
From Zen Trainer:
In Brainwrap’s recommended post regarding the legality of marital rape in Ohio, FishOutofWater demonstrates that science isn’t the only thing he can discuss brilliantly.
In that same diary officebss asked a funny question, and got a great answer from irishwitch.
Top Mojo (April 11, 2019):
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Top Photos (April 11, 2019):
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