Living Fossils

I stumbled upon this while doing a google search.
Living fossils have been found by many archeologists through the ages. Basically, living fossils are a living creature that is found encased in rock, when broken open, the creature is in a state of shock, sometimes the creature wakes up, other times it dies quickly after being released.

Most commonly it is frogs that are found in the rock. The theory here is that as a tadpole, the frog got in through a crack, it then reached a small hollow spot and matured with the minerals, water, and air that came in through that same crack. The mystery in some of these cases is how the frogs live so long beyond their normal life span.

Here's some pictures and links

www.anomalies-unlimited.com...

www.geocities.com...

www.unmuseum.org...

aboutfacts.net...

( I searched for this topic on ATS and came up dry, so I appoloize if it has already been discussed)

Originally posted by Lenina
I stumbled upon this while doing a google search.
Living fossils have been found by many archeologists through the ages. Basically, living fossils are a living creature that is found encased in rock, when broken open, the creature is in a state of shock, sometimes the creature wakes up, other times it dies quickly after being released.

What? A living fossil is normally a term reserved for a thing like the ceolocanth. Meaning its an animal that was only really known from the fossil record.

What you're talking about are called 'frauds', and occasionally are 'errors'

The mystery in some of these cases is how the frogs live so long beyond their normal life span.

Or eat, grow, poop, anything. A frog or something isn't going to be able to surive and grow like that. It probably happens with things like frogs/toads because they burrow into the ground often and go into a hybernation state.

Intersting tho, I didn't know that this 'concept' was out there!

Great find!!

I've never heard of this before, and my first reaction is, "what a bunch of Bull!" Interesting that there are "imprints" of the critters enclosed in some formations. If you find any more links, could you post them? I'm having a little trouble believing this, but I would love to investigate it (tear it a new one, or not). I'll try 'digging' up some explanations for this.

This has been noted beforean example is a news article found below.
Scientists Try To Crack Icy Mystery of Frozen Frogs
Here is an article I found on the subject. It was a fasination that I had when I was a kid

Amazing cases of living frogs, toads and lizards found encased within solid rock


I did a post a few months back on the "Frozen Frogs" here on ATTSN but it seems to have been moved to the trash.

I found this link to add:
www.xprojectmagazine.com...

The only thing is that it's VERY redundant of the other links. I think the thing that makes this topic so difficult to research is that the term "Living fossil" has another, more common use. I hven't found anything more than what I've already posted, but if I do get more info, I'll be sure to post it here.

Wow, this stuff is amazing. If this is true, and we can figure out WHY it happens, this could have some astounding impacts on medicine and science...

I certainly didn't expect to find information on any "respectable" websites about it, but it appears this is real (from first glance). It seems easy enough to find reported cases, but has anybody found any research information? Like, why aren't scientists all over trying to get ahold of one of these animals? I'm still looking...

More research is definitely needed. Maybe I'll go buy a hammer and start busting rocks!

Frogs burrow under the mud during winter and such to stay warm. They go into a state of hibernation, and exist thusly.

This was my first thought when I saw the picture, but I don't see any way for the stuff to get hard while it's in there, or why there'd be a big hole for a tadpole. I don't buy the bug thing, either.

Good find, though.

[edit on 4/12/2005 by Amorymeltzer]