Reddit user Kidipadeli75
Oh Reddit! There are always great stories coming out that seem too good to be true…and yet! The most recent example comes from a user named Kidipadeli75. A dentist visited my parents after they renovated their kitchen and noticed that his new travertine tiles had what looked like human-like jaw bones embedded in them. Naturally, he posted the photo to his Reddit for advice and opinions. Reddit was happy to oblige.
For example, user MAJOR_Blarg is a dentist “trained in forensic dentistry” who suggested the following:
All Old World monkeys, apes, and hominids share the same tooth structure, 2-1-2-3, with individual molars and premolars appearing similar, but lower The specific spacing of the jawbone itself is very specifically and characteristically human. A very recent hominid relative/ancestor, at least a close relative. Given the success of Hs proliferation and (relatively) rapid travertine formation, it is most likely human.
Although it may not be completely related to modern Homo sapiens, the morphology of the lower jaw is probably more similar to Africa, the Middle East, and mainland Asia than to Scandinavia.
Another user, Dematrona, who claims to have a degree in anthropology, said the dentition looked Asian and thought “this could be an important discovery.” The thread also caught the attention of John Hawkes, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a longtime science blogger, who provided valuable context on his website. (Hawks is involved with the team he discovered) homo naledi in the Rising Star Cave System in 2013. )
For example, much of the appeal of natural stone like travertine for interior decoration lies in its imperfections. But who knew that finding embedded fossils was actually quite common? Although the discovery of hominin fossils is rare, it's not unheard of. Hawkes specifically mentioned a quarry near Bildingsleben, Germany. There, an archaeologist named Dietrich Mania discovered the skulls and part of the mandibles of two humans dating back 470,000 years. Then, in 2002, a hominid skull was discovered in a travertine quarry in southwestern Turkey. It was later determined to be between 1.2 and 1.6 million years old.
An obvious question asked by many Redditors is how can you install tiles in your kitchen without noticing how dirty they are? fossil human jawbone Inside the travertine. Hawks gave a reasonable answer:
We quarry travertine and other decorative stones into rough panels and perform basic quality checks on the rough stones for gaps and major imperfections before polishing. Small imperfections and inclusions are not worth paying special attention to, as they are the reason people seek out travertine in the first place. Consumers purchasing travertine typically browse samples in a showroom, select the type of stone, and do not see the actual panels or tiles until installation. Tiles and panels that are machine polished and stacked in a workshop or factory for shipping are processed very quickly.
What this means is that there could be even more hominid bones on people's floors and shower stalls.
Most will be difficult to recognize. Distinguishing random cross-sections of hominid bones from other types of fossils is difficult without sufficient training. It's not that hard to notice fossils, but I have to say that I'm often surprised by what the rest of the fossil looks like after a skilled preparer has painstakingly extracted it from the surrounding rock. yeah. The method of slicing fossils with natural or stone saws does not conform to anatomy books, and the cross-sections of parts of bones usually do not resemble his X-ray images of whole bones.
Cue hordes of amateur fossil enthusiasts excitedly scouring the travertine for signs of important archaeological finds.
But, as Hawkes points out, given that tiles and panels are typically cut very thin, it's likely that even if fossils were embedded in the tiles, they wouldn't be clearly identifiable. And you are much more likely to find fossils of algae, plants, molluscs, crustaceans, or similar small creatures than human remains. “Trust me, anthropologists don't want to hear about every bone chunk in your tile,” Hawks wrote. “But I'm sure someone has more mandible fragments posted on Reddit.”
Kidipadeli75 posted an update to the Reddit thread and provided some details, including that he and his parents live in Europe. He is also certain that the mandible does not belong to Jimmy Hoffa. Kidipadeli75 initially believed that the quarry of origin was in Spain, but it was actually in Turkey, as was the case with a human skull discovered near Kocabaş in 2002. This story is still developing, as several researchers have already contacted Kidipadeli75 for further information and offers. their expertise. It turns out that the bones are actually very old, and could be an important scientific discovery.
Could a new HGTV series be far behind? renovated relicsperhaps, or fossil fixer upper. Feel free to post your own show ideas in the comments section.
