Paleoborrows: tunnels left by giant sloths or armadillos

Originally published at: Paleoborrows: tunnels left by giant sloths or armadillos | Boing Boing

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"Far, far below the deepest delving of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he. Now I have walked there, but I will bring no report to darken the light of day. "

― Gandalf.

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These were clearly built by BadgerMoles.

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Enough headroom for the average-height human?
Those things veer into 11’8" bridge territory.

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wonder who will say burrows, not borrows, first… me?

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Coming in 2022: Elon Musk announces he will breed genetically engineered super armadillos to replace his boring machines.

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I need to look into this, because it smacks of a hoax post… I know prehistoric burrows can fossilize, but I’ve never heard a single paleontologist speak about “burrows” of this scale, or theorize that extinct giant sloths were digging things like this.

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Is there an HOA?

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This is really cool. We should probably investigate cloning giant digging sloths. They’ll be critical for our new highways and fiber infrastructure. :wink:

More info, more pics.

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That’s the only article I could find, too. I feel like this is one person’s fringe theory, not widely accepted yet.

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If you go, bring peace offerings.

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Elephant burrows are pretty cool too:

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I think the same creatures that bore these are responsible for the survival of the avocado

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The tunnels aren’t old. They’re being built by the Morlocks.


Gee. I never noticed the morboobs when I was a kid.

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That was a good read but I’m surprised it mentioned Jaguars as possible spreaders of avocado seed but not bears. The Spectacled Bear is native to South America and used to have a wider habitat until humans did their thing about 500 years ago. A quick google search indicates that these guys do love their avocados, which isn’t surprising. The bears in my town in Southern California are very frequently seen feasting on avocados from people’s backyard trees. Given that bears may have helped prevent the extinction of avocados I’d say that the snacks are very well-deserved.

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A word of warning: If you find any eggs from a silicon-based life form just leave them where they are.

image

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Up here in Appalachia, we always worry about mine subsidence swallowing our houses with nary a warning. Now there’s long extinct giant slothadilloes that may undermine houses too? Does homeowner’s insurance cover that?

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NO KILL I.

Yes, this is a complete sentence.

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Borrow wights?

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I would like to burrow a hamburger until next week.

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