45-67Million Years according to Wikipedia.
Sharks are hundreds of millions.
Also somewhat relevant: https://xkcd.com/1342/
this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
892 points (99.7% liked)
Science Memes
17155 readers
3099 users here now
Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Research Committee
Other Mander Communities
Science and Research
Biology and Life Sciences
- !abiogenesis@mander.xyz
- !animal-behavior@mander.xyz
- !anthropology@mander.xyz
- !arachnology@mander.xyz
- !balconygardening@slrpnk.net
- !biodiversity@mander.xyz
- !biology@mander.xyz
- !biophysics@mander.xyz
- !botany@mander.xyz
- !ecology@mander.xyz
- !entomology@mander.xyz
- !fermentation@mander.xyz
- !herpetology@mander.xyz
- !houseplants@mander.xyz
- !medicine@mander.xyz
- !microscopy@mander.xyz
- !mycology@mander.xyz
- !nudibranchs@mander.xyz
- !nutrition@mander.xyz
- !palaeoecology@mander.xyz
- !palaeontology@mander.xyz
- !photosynthesis@mander.xyz
- !plantid@mander.xyz
- !plants@mander.xyz
- !reptiles and amphibians@mander.xyz
Physical Sciences
- !astronomy@mander.xyz
- !chemistry@mander.xyz
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !geography@mander.xyz
- !geospatial@mander.xyz
- !nuclear@mander.xyz
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !quantum-computing@mander.xyz
- !spectroscopy@mander.xyz
Humanities and Social Sciences
Practical and Applied Sciences
- !exercise-and sports-science@mander.xyz
- !gardening@mander.xyz
- !self sufficiency@mander.xyz
- !soilscience@slrpnk.net
- !terrariums@mander.xyz
- !timelapse@mander.xyz
Memes
Miscellaneous
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Fuckin' Sirius. So close and yet so far.
Not directly relevant, but I think Keanu Reaves named his band "Dog Star" because he was "Sirius" about his music career.
There really is an xkcd for everything.
Sharks are also older than trees, flowers, Saturn's rings, and the Atlantic ocean.
And don't even get me started on horseshoe crabs. Older than plants, those ones.
Back in my day you used to be able to buy twelve horseshoe crabs for a nickel... Of course that was before the war... Back then id swear at least two and a half teenth of my crew where horse shew crab but who you going to tell ? Tattling wouldn't be invented for another 2 score years up in Kentucky you had to wait another 6!
But it's was easier and I miss those days. If you could dodge the knowledge toads you were already 12 up on these Irish but we can't say that anymore can we? No sir...now we got to give everything to the freckled folk and act like that's the way it's meant to be but it's not. It wasn't a thing until the battle of leaky hill... But we lost and I had to accept that to get tomatoes down at the Paul's service at a decent price. Don't even get me started about the tomatoes. You never damn believe it.
Sorry I'm going to be a grandfather soon so I'm practicing
Congratulations! Seems like you’re well on course to getting your grandfathers license, but if I may offer some minor critique, you didn’t comment on how much I’ve grown and I believe taffy should be involved somewhere along the line. Other than that, excellent grandfathering!
I'd talk about taffy if we're lucky enough to have it. We chewed rubber across the street from the taffy store hoping to catch a wiff of the taffy. If the wind was right you'd almost smell it over the horse manure we had to carry back and forth.
But you've said you've grown have you? Let me put my glasses on and take a look at ya. How old you get up to now? 17? When I was your age I was 24 and had to hide from the draft but I know you do the best you can and I don't hold it against you. Life is softer now a days, you grew up with all your toes I see. We used to have to write our names on our toes in case they got stolen police weren't now damn good barely got half of them back . .. you're a good boy tho lad. Strapping. Like your Father before he got sloppy and stumbled into all that doctor brain pull crap. Pills making people happy now. If I wanted haUppy I had to go to war and get an arm blown off and you don't see me complaining.
Run along now son and tell your mother I need another rooted beer and make it a good one this time. Damn lazy kids. My father never ask twice a day in his life. He asked once then he kill ya and replace ya with a kid that minded better and they call that abuse now. That's why nothing ever gets done anymore with the construction down the road. Six weeks for pavement and they call it progress. Their lucky. They don't even.... They don't ... damn kids.and their play tubes... Snoring .... We stood in line for our kidneys... Snoring. We drank the lead because it was cleaner than the water snoring ya think you have blue... We had real blue back then not this pansy ass.... Snoring and they think they'll send it mars. Good luck with that I'd say if they were worth a damn to listen..... HEY DONT CHANGE THE CHANNEL IM STILL WATCHING THAT! damn remotes and they wonder why we have diabetes.... Snoring
In defence of plants, it takes a highly evolved form of life to be able to do nothing all day and get away with it.
Knew I specced into the wrong class. Take me back to the character creation screen!!!
Plant bard would be the best, assuming you can avoid predation.
Those fuckers have like nine different types of eyes. Even that tail is one big photoreceptor! Primitive, my ass - you try surviving crawling around in the mud for 400 million fucking years.
We call their evolution lazy just cause we're jealous they finished their homework when it was assigned, and we waited until the day it was due. I was evolved to be a primate but now I have back issues because we're bipedal. Smfh
We're taking the scenic route, but eventually we will all be crab. So it is written.
From Wikipedia:
Horseshoe crabs have been described as "living fossils", having changed little since they first appeared in the Triassic.
But not horse shoes
No, crabhorse shoes didn't come until at least 5 years later.
No idea when shoecrab horses came about, though.
Well obviously. Horses clearly evolved the shape of their feet by repeatedly attempting to use horseshoe crabs as shoes.
But what about hand shoes and horse grenades?
Sharks are older than trees?!?
I would cut the shapes of prehistoric sharks in cardboard in my childhood. Have a pouch of those somewhere.
They were really beautiful.
Also from Wikipedia:
Although appearing to the naked eye as a single point of light, Polaris is a triple star system, composed of the primary, a yellow supergiant designated Polaris Aa, in orbit with a smaller companion, Polaris Ab; the pair is in a wider orbit with Polaris B. The outer pair AB were discovered in August 1779 by William Herschel, where the 'A' refers to what is now known to be the Aa/Ab pair.
I learned something new today. And if I'm reading the details section correctly, while the outer pair of stars are actually older than sharks, it's the bright star that you can actually see that's younger than sharks.
And if I’m reading the details section correctly, while the outer pair of stars are actually older than sharks, it’s the bright star that you can actually see that’s younger than sharks.
This makes even less sense, how is the heavier thing in the middle younger than the things that orbit it?
I may be wrong but a mass of inhert hydrogen has the same mass of a radiating one, so they could have been orbiting a mass of gas a long time before the "newer" one ignited.
The bigger the star, the brighter it burns
Also it dies sooner. So any given big star is more likely to be young
I can explain that but I have to use the only thing available to illustrate.
So imagine my left testicle here formed before this penis in the middle... And yes it is technically a penis despite the small size, and this testicle-
Youngest known proto-star is 1300 years old....
So most species are older than HOPS-315.
A medieval star!
Rumors to this day state it pulses to a Gregorian chant
load more comments
(1 replies)
If I understand correctly, it is 2billion years old, but 50million years ago it merged with another star, making it more massive and thereby more bright an visible from earth. Fun fact: Due to it beeing a yellow supergiant it will turn red in a couple of thousand years and then die quiet soon.
"soon" and "young" are always interesting terms in Geology and Astronomy.
Tens of millions of years old? Practically brand new!
Common, no shark is that old, not to mention all of them.
I love it. it feels like Polaris will be there long after this rock is barren and cold, and we can continue to navigate by it in the gay space communism
Apparently the star is going to fizzle out soon, but beside that, if you are not on earth it becomes irrelevant for navigation.
fwiw it'll at least stop being the north star in some thousand years (might be longer), which is arguably even more fucked to think about
like, people in the past had a different north star, what the fuck
load more comments
(3 replies)
Stars have only existed for about fifty years. Duh.
How can the stars have existed for fifty years when the universe itself is only slightly under a week old?
load more comments
(2 replies)
I mean there has to be a few somewhere made this year. Reminds me tangentially of something I was reading during a statistics class, that due to many possibilities and infinite numbers I should be able to open my dryer and find all clothing folded.
load more comments
(1 replies)
all these new stars nowadays, it's hard for old me to keep track lol
North star? More like noob star.
I got to ask all the Internet tho.... Which is better?!
The concept of north?
Or sharks?
Sharks are cooler.
North is very cold tho.
view more: next ›