PBS Terra and Howtown lick fossils, demonstrating Ig Nobel Prize winning science

I'm not feeling up to resuming my Emmy Awards coverage today — the first day of classes for the Fall Semester left me tired and with the first papers to grade — so I'm revisiting one of the winners of the 2023 IgNobel Prizes for April Fools Day, a holiday special instead.

Two of the prizes connect to stories I tell my students, geologists, particularly paleontologists, licking rocks and spiders moving their limbs by hydraulic action. Science Friday went into more detail on both in Saluting Science’s Silly Side, Virtually (click to listen).

This year’s awards included prizes for explaining why many scientists like to lick rocks, for re-animating dead spiders to use as mechanical gripping tools, and for using cadavers to explore whether there is an equal number of hairs in each of a person’s two nostrils.

I'm a paleontologist, so I know what geologists do in the field, including tasting rocks for composition and chewing on them for texture. I tell my students about the chew test for siltstone versus shale, but I also tell them not to do it to their specimens; the rocks are already identified. Besides, they can tell by rubbing them.

Last month, PBS Terra and Howtown uploaded two videos demonstrating this field technique, so I'm sharing both, beginning with This Bizarre Fossil Reveals SO Much About Dinosaurs.

Would you lick a 65-million-year old dinosaur poop? Granted, it’s not a question many people ask themselves - but for George Frandsen it’s a firm, “Yes!”. Not merely a dinosaur fossil hunter, George is specifically on the hunt for coprolites, the more scientific term for ancient dino dung. Already the proud owner of the world’s largest collection of dinosaur poo fossils, we join him on his quest to discover more of these rare fossils. Far from being just an amusing curiosity, coprolites can unveil a surprising amount of clues into the lives and diets of dinosaurs. As for the licking part, well that’s maybe best left for George to explain.

Seeing this reminds me that I haven't used the eating bugs label since 2023 and not written a post focusing on the topic since 2019. I may or may not return to the topic, but if I don't, I have a new subject that can gross out my students and readers.

PBS Eons has a related video, but first here's Joss Fong of Howtown licking a fossil bone for science in Tastes like deep time...

[F]or anyone wondering, it was an Oreodont fossil from South Dakota, part of a jaw.

This is the one I might show my students; it's short and not as gross, although it has less information than the PBS Terra video.

I close with the related video from PBS Eons, When Dinosaurs Threw Up A Mystery.

While dino bones from the Late Triassic Period are few and far between, the other clues they left behind can reveal how this epic saga played out to those with the stomach to decipher them.

Because, it turns out, the story of the rise of the dinosaurs is a tale written in puke and poop.

No licking, but lots of gross and punny science. I approve.

I have another science video picked out for tomorrow, followed by the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Friday. Stay tuned.