Post B2MWP6EIgIa3BR0YYi by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
(DIR) More posts by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
(DIR) Post #B2MVRLdMHQB7aFEkjY by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-01-17T02:33:07Z
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If a person were a time traveler how might that show up in their skeleton, eg in the isotopic analysis of their teeth?
(DIR) Post #B2MVY1kmao6nx9tWme by gikkt@wandering.shop
2026-01-17T02:34:16Z
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@futurebird excellent question!
(DIR) Post #B2MVlJcRTr2l7uKVBQ by kellyromanych@mastodon.social
2026-01-17T02:36:41Z
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@futurebird telomeres perhaps
(DIR) Post #B2MVrQtvJrDpRsQJY8 by dank@jorts.horse
2026-01-17T02:37:47Z
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@futurebird c14? contaminant concentration like plastics, PFAS?
(DIR) Post #B2MVv8THmYZnRrjHxg by clew@ecoevo.social
2026-01-17T02:38:27Z
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Past to now, or now to past? How long since they traveled?Pre-atom-bomb metal is distinguishable now. Maybe there’s enough to test in tisdue? post-ubiquitous-metals bones might be distinguishable in the past.@futurebird
(DIR) Post #B2MVw2aJ9dT3TrRggK by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-01-17T02:38:30Z
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@cinebox Nice veneers.
(DIR) Post #B2MW1Hj4HqaHt92lxQ by Plumbert@thecanadian.social
2026-01-17T02:39:32Z
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@futurebird Unusual combinations of metals in the bones. Greater concentrations of heavy metals and petrochemicals than expected for 21st C humans in time travellers from the future, lower concentrations in those from the past.
(DIR) Post #B2MW59Y2dMMrgRjM5g by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
2026-01-17T02:40:15Z
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@futurebird Individual who lived between 1945 and about now have greater carbon-14 levels in their bodies (from the atmospheric nuclear detonations from 1945 to 1963) than anyone who lived before.But unless more nuclear bombs get detonated, new babies born will soon have no more in them than people who died before 1945.
(DIR) Post #B2MWErYCP2BwlGQyum by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
2026-01-17T02:42:02Z
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@futurebird I assume you already know about the Baby Tooth Survey: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Tooth_Survey .
(DIR) Post #B2MWHP0eyRFD6zxQZc by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-01-17T02:42:33Z
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@michael_w_busch I did not!
(DIR) Post #B2MWJ6RCzhs05kBc24 by CStamp@mastodon.social
2026-01-17T02:42:49Z
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@futurebird Chemicals based on diet? Size of person (good nutrition, bigger). We also absorb what’s in the air and water. https://australian.museum/learn/science/human-evolution/how-do-we-know-what-they-ate/Carbon dating: https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/skeletal-analysis/0/steps/59520
(DIR) Post #B2MWP6EIgIa3BR0YYi by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
2026-01-17T02:43:53Z
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@futurebird Apparently; showing JFK baby teeth laced with strontium-90 was persuasive in getting the test ban treaties through.
(DIR) Post #B2MWTXr7uS2Q1UHwky by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-01-17T02:44:43Z
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@CStamp The bones carbon date to 4k years ago, but the dental work is modern. The plaque contains DNA from variants of crops no longer commonly grown. The reconstructive surgery on the knee is made of 3D printed bone, beautiful work, someday we might do something like that.
(DIR) Post #B2MWrHFnHsoPTy8uvo by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-01-17T02:48:57Z
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@catmisgivings Why shrimp? Did people eat more once?
(DIR) Post #B2MWvJpDfXh8cEdjrE by karabaic@mastodon.social
2026-01-17T02:49:41Z
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@futurebird @CStamp There was a scene at the end of the 1968 Planet of the Apes, not involving chemical analysis, where they looked at an artificial heart valve in a human grave as evidence of an ancient human technological civilization.
(DIR) Post #B2MXDWDgKDV4GklCam by bruce@darkmoon.social
2026-01-17T02:52:58Z
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@futurebird @catmisgivings That seems unlikely given how much shrimp we eat today. It's a lot.
(DIR) Post #B2MXx2ly8li4GIVQpM by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
2026-01-17T03:01:12Z
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@futurebird @CStamp There are bands across my teeth showing when I started drinking fluoridated water.But that wouldn't tell someone in the late 1800s if someone was a time traveler or if they simply grew up Colorado.
(DIR) Post #B2MY3hMk83vdtescLY by bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot
2026-01-17T03:02:26Z
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@futurebird If someone had been born after a nuclear war, that would show up in their teeth and bones in terms of much higher levels of radioactive strontium compared to contemporary humans.
(DIR) Post #B2MY4SrBYhCrBgU5p2 by graydon@canada.masto.host
2026-01-17T03:02:27Z
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@futurebird Fluorine in the teeth; dental work generally. (Orthodontics leave traces! Implants on titanium posts rather more so.)The other thing is that this kind of thing is generally very coarse; "its diet was C4 plants" has been the result for jaguar skeletal remains. (They were ritual jaguars fed on corn-fed turkeys, far as anyone can tell.) Absolute proof of time travel would take something impossible at tech level like that titanium post.
(DIR) Post #B2MYYEAoiQB0KqrK4W by Moss@beige.party
2026-01-17T03:07:56Z
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@futurebird I’m just imagining a time traveler skeleton showing up, like maybe the secret to time travel is to abandon soft tissue
(DIR) Post #B2MZNfshST7v2QutiS by davidtheeviloverlord@mastodon.social
2026-01-17T03:17:14Z
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@futurebird Microplastics?I do remember one science fiction story where a human fossil was obviously a time traveller, because:A) a human skeleton was found in Cretaceous rock, 60 odd million years before anything human evolvedB) the scientist studying the fossil compared an x-ray of the unique pattern of bumps inside the skull, and found a modern human who matched 100%...himself.
(DIR) Post #B2MZfLJqe8TMTj2XYW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-01-17T03:20:28Z
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@davidtheeviloverlord Well, at least one would know you'd have exciting times in your future. 60 million years ago is an interesting period in ant evolution. The ancestor of Titanomyrma was probably around and there are so many gaps in the preservation of insect you could see some really amazing things. Before ending up like a fossil...
(DIR) Post #B2MZuUXSeOIbPrdAdk by davidtheeviloverlord@mastodon.social
2026-01-17T03:23:10Z
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@futurebird Was that the (as far as we know) biggest ant ever?
(DIR) Post #B2Ma3ugsmsq18CWwPA by cynthiarose@sfba.social
2026-01-17T03:24:53Z
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@futurebird radioactivity and microplastics? those’ll last forever
(DIR) Post #B2Ma8Q1QEy2pShHmee by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-01-17T03:25:41Z
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@davidtheeviloverlord Yes! They found a fossil ant queen the size of a humming bird. Just a massive ant. Magnificent.
(DIR) Post #B2Ma9O5OvIsVkPboBc by yatagarasu@dice.camp
2026-01-17T03:25:52Z
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@davidtheeviloverlord @futurebird It is still something to aspire to.
(DIR) Post #B2MbeaoXkaAs9dARjk by CliftonR@wandering.shop
2026-01-17T03:42:42Z
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@futurebird For time travelers who were alive in the 1950s-1960s:Traces of zirconium-90 in the teeth and bones - looks like that would be the end of the strontium-90 decay products.There are plenty of other radioactive isotopes, of course, but strontium is special because biological processes react with it like calcium, meaning it rapidly gets incorporated into bones and teeth.
(DIR) Post #B2MduMCw1bHDOWDmG8 by isaackuo@spacey.space
2026-01-17T04:07:54Z
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@futurebird Mercury fillings. Braces, perhaps. Hip replacement composition/technology. Spine shaping due to osteoporosis. Spaceflight osteopenia bone texture patterns.
(DIR) Post #B2MiCIfkJ7ChSWVbH6 by log@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-17T04:55:57Z
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@futurebird Way too much fluoride in the apatite. UV-cured ceramic fillings in the teeth, perhaps. Post-WW2 nuclear testing changed the isotope ratios of some elements: the traveler might appear to be a different age from other remains in the vicinity, and results inconsistent with ratio tests on other elements. Not enough evidence of parasites during childhood.
(DIR) Post #B2N2wvpV3GXRJ7aGy8 by david_chisnall@infosec.exchange
2026-01-17T08:48:30Z
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@futurebird Fillings in the teeth or false teeth are a common trope in science fiction for spotting time travellers. So are other surgical things like replacement hip joints.
(DIR) Post #B2NAfueIzG1OM9k9zs by llewelly@sauropods.win
2026-01-17T10:15:08Z
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@futurebird carbon, oxygen, calcium, magnesium, and strontium all have stable isotope ratios which vary over time due to global geochemical cycles, and all are potentially useful in chemostratigraphy, but all are also affected by diet, and by metabolic body temperature. If all you had were isotope ratios, and no other information was available, it would be very difficult to distinguish a time traveler from someone who merely had a very unusual diet.
(DIR) Post #B2NQH5cCg1UgOUwhRw by lffontenelle@mastodon.social
2026-01-17T13:09:55Z
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@futurebird Great question, with no non-fictional answer because time travel is not possible
(DIR) Post #B2NQQwPvjHiolMu1eC by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-01-17T13:11:45Z
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@lffontenelle OK Spok.
(DIR) Post #B2NV5dZj5VpY1095Q8 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-01-17T14:03:50Z
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@notoriousiptg * If the ant were one of the extinct species such as the Hell ants, the hadiomyrmex* if she always spoke of humans in the past tense.
(DIR) Post #B2OD8jnaniemAYv6eW by Wharrrrrrgarbl@an.errant.cloud
2026-01-17T22:17:09Z
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@futurebird the only method I can think of would be prosthetics - I have a titanium plate in my arm which would be anachronistic in most of human history, but I can't think of something in tissue where the context would say "this is a time traveler" is a better explanation than "we are confused about something".