Squid Ink's Shelf Life At Least 150 million years, apparently

[bup]

A fossilized ink sac from a 150-million-year-old squid still had ink in it. And they decided to try it out:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1207367/The-150million-year-old-squid-fossil-perfectly-preserved-scientists-make-ink-ink-sac.html

[bup]

A fossilized ink sac fromn a Jurassic squid still had ink in it. They decided to test out the ink. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1207367/The-150million-year-old-squid-fossil-perfectly-preserved-scientists-make-ink-ink-sac.html)

[Jeep's Phoenix]

I really like the drawing -- its tentacles look fuzzy! :D

The computer-drawn rendering looks as freaky as a modern squid though.

[CalMeacham]

In the first picture, the palaeontologist is looking right down the barrel of that squid.

Even after 155 million years, I wouldn't feel safe doing that. Especially after I learned there was still ink in it.

I mean, how could even a dead and fossilized squid resist it?

[Covered_In_Bees!]

I really like the drawing -- its tentacles look fuzzy! :D

The computer-drawn rendering looks as freaky as a modern squid though.

They're not freaky, they're beautiful!

When I become an eccentric billionaire I'm going to have two large aquariums. One with some small squid in it and the other with a few jellyfish. I love squid and jellyfish.

Would I need to be a billionaire to do this or can squid and jellyfish be picked up commercially for cheap?

[Ogre]

It's funny to me that, whenever I read about a Jurassic find, and especially when I see an "artist's rendering" of what the animal looked like in life, and ESPECIALLY if that rendering lacks size referents, I automatically think the animal in question must be, y'know, "the size of a modern city bus!" or some such.

This little dude was probably less than a foot long, max. Awwwww, how cute! :D

[CCYMan]

If the ink is so incredibly rare, am I the only one who thinks using some to draw a picture was reckless?

[Covered_In_Bees!]

Yes you are. They used it to see if it actually would write, which it did. The rest will probably be stored away until the end of time.

[TruCelt]

If the ink is so incredibly rare, am I the only one who thinks using some to draw a picture was reckless?

That was my first thought too. If such a thing were to be done, I would think they'd get one of the world-class Japanese or Chinese pen and ink artists to do it.



Re: jellyfish aquarium - there are actually some smallish freshwater jellyfish - they'd probably be easier to keep, and you could do it with a 75 gallon tank.

Or go for hydra, which are easy and somewhere between the two - and maybe a third cross with an anenome . .. Hydra_Factsheet (http://www.northern.edu/natsource/INVERT1/Hydra1.htm)


Hydra_Image (http://www.isi.edu/robots/self_heal_html/hydra.JPG)

[tdn]

Would I need to be a billionaire to do this or can squid and jellyfish be picked up commercially for cheap?

I know where to get jellyfish for free. In fact, there's a surplus of them. As in too damn many.

It's kind of weird to sail or kayak there. Look into the water and you can see thousands of them.

[Ogre]

If the ink is so incredibly rare, am I the only one who thinks using some to draw a picture was reckless?Probably not. It occurred to me as well, but as far as I'm concerned, they can do the molecular analysis of it, which will require very little of the ink, and then, barring some truly unique or odd properties which dictate further study, they can do anything they like with it.

Hell, I hope they auction the artwork off and use it to fund scientific work at their institution.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Tomorrow is H.P. Lovecraft's birthday.

The author of the Cthulhu Mythos.

I shudder at the Cosmic Horrors that will be unleashed if that ink falls into the hands of a cartoonist.

[Malleus, Incus, Stapes!]

Cool!

[Never Say Dice]

Squid ink fades badly. On old documents there is a real boon in modern color-shifting computer technology, making old documents readable again after centuries of indecipherablity.

The best ink is carbon, lampblack. This makes it the choice for forgers of antiquities, but simple scams can be revealed with carbon dating. Although in at least one case the forger got around this by burning some scrap from medieval documents to get his soot. Unfortunately he was trying to fake some more Dead Sea scrolls, and was off by a thousand years.

[Scuba_Ben]

Inevitable geek cred post:

How potent would Jurassic Period squid ink be for writing magic scrolls and recording spells in books? I'm thinking it ought to have a bonus to certain alteration and necromancy spells, at a minimum.

[LeeshaJoy]

And of course the comments include the inevitable parade of creationist morons insisting it can't really be that old. :rolleyes:

[Jeep's Phoenix]

They're not freaky, they're beautiful!?
They have beaks!

But yeah, they do look kinda cool when they're just swimming around, mindng their own business.

[Covered_In_Bees!]

They have beaks!

But yeah, they do look kinda cool when they're just swimming around, mindng their own business.

Yeah. When they're attacking you, I imagine they are far less fun to gaze at.

[Malleus, Incus, Stapes!]

Inevitable geek cred post:

How potent would Jurassic Period squid ink be for writing magic scrolls and recording spells in books? I'm thinking it ought to have a bonus to certain alteration and necromancy spells, at a minimum.

According to Jim Butcher, reanimated T-Rex's pack quite the punch. So prehistoric squid ink would also probably leave you in good stead.

[twickster]

Mod note: The OP had started two threads, both of which had posts, so I merged them -- if there's any funkiness in the continuity, that's why.

twickster, MPSIMS moderator