Editing 2990: Late Cenozoic

{{comic
| number    = 2990
| date      = September 25, 2024
| title     = Late Cenozoic
| image     = late_cenozoic_2x.png
| imagesize = 303x396px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Our nucleic acid recovery techinques found a great deal of homo sapiens DNA incorporated into the fossils, particularly the ones containing high levels of resin, leading to the theory that these dinosaurs preyed on the once-dominant primates.
}}

==Explanation==
A major part of understanding how life-forms existed and operated in the past involves finding fossilized remains, and working out a timeline of when they lived, based on the sediment layers in which they were found (among other factors). Modern paleontology has resulted in many of these fossilized remains being dug up and assembled into complete skeletons, which are frequently put on display in museums and other facilities.

This comic posits a future in which the remains of current civilization become buried in sediment, likely as a result of humanity going extinct so as to allow the premise of this comic to occur. Modern science estimates nearly all human-made activity - glass, concrete, steel - would erase to nothing within at most 1000 years (see ''Life After People'' and ''The World Without Us''),  meaning that any future life-forms, extraterrestrial or evolved modern-day species, would be hard pressed to find anything that suggested this planet used to be inhabited by humans, save for some microplastics, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fADp43wJwU nuclear waste] and, in this scenario, preserved dinosaur bones, apparently.

While a question may arise as to why exactly no dinosaur fossils can be found in the intervening ~66 million years (which we know is because they went extinct and later ones were actually dug up by a different species), the real-life fossil record is quite sporadic, meaning such gaps should not be seen as unusual (these gaps are termed {{w|Lazarus taxon}}s).

The title of the strip refers to the {{w|Cenozoic}} era, which is the current geological era. The term "late Cenozoic" implies some geological change would occur significant enough to warrant designating a new era; either these changes led to the end of human civilization or are in fact spurred by them.

The title text says that a high amount of resin and human DNA found in these fossils led to them theorizing dinosaurs ate humans. When reconstructing fossils, resin is often used to recreate missing or incomplete bones amongst other purposes in assembling and displaying a "complete" skeleton. Since this resin is made and mixed by humans,{{Citation neededT}} incidental human DNA sources (such as cast off skin cells and hair) almost certainly get mixed in, leading to this misconception.

A similar museum, misunderstood by humans instead of this other species, is depicted in [[2760: Paleontology Museum]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Three squid-like aliens in a classroom; one alien stands in front of a board covered with minute text and a drawing of a T-Rex skeleton. Two aliens sit on stools watching the teacher alien. The teacher alien on the left is on a raised platform and points at the board with one tentacle.]
:Left alien: Species such as triceratops and tyrannosaurus became more rare after the Cretaceous, but they survived to flourish in the late Cenozoic, 66 million years later.
:Left alien: Many complete skeletons have been discovered from this era.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:It's going to be really funny when our museums get buried in sediment.

==Trivia==
The title text has a typo: "techinques" should be "techniques".

The future beings are presumably ones that took over the far future of the Earth long after the extinction of humans. They are possibly descendents of one or other of the {{w|cephalopod}}s, species widely noted for their intelligence even today, but also bear a passing resemblence to the 'contemporary' [[2572: Alien Observers|alien life-forms]] that [[Randall]] uses for comics set in the current era.

Their relationship with his other [[1747: Spider Paleontology|beings from the future]], seen occasionally, is uncertain. That other form may merely be an 'avatar' presence, made necessary by the time-travel (or visitation) method in use, or else a representative from a [[1450: AI-Box Experiment|predominantly non-biological]] era of the future. <!-- NB. I'm sure there's a "hovering blob/spark giving a future presentation", out there in xkcd-land, but I can't currently find it in order to reference it here. -->

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Aliens]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Geology]]