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Also: Polaris (the north star) is younger than sharks.

(This one is less interesting as an overall observation about timescales though. Polaris is just quite a young star and sharks are quite and old life form).



Polaris as the north star is younger than the Roman Empire!

Because of the precession of the Earth's axis, Polaris didn't become the north star until about 500 AD. To the ancient Egyptians, Thuban was the north star. When humans were first discovering agriculture 12,000 years ago, Vega was the north star.

Wikipedia has a great table showing the cycle of north stars: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_star#Precession_of_the_...


So, that "I am as constant as the northern star" simile is a little mixed?


Constant for a few hundred years until they inevitably get knocked off track.


As the article implies, all the brightest stars in Orion are younger than hominids. Indeed they formed around the time when the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees lived.


Trees are also younger than sharks.


Sharks were ahead of their time.


There are no trees ;)


Another fun fact: very early humans (Australopithecus) coexisted with megalodons, giant dinosaur sharks that could swallow a hairless ape whole.


I wonder what the probability was back then to die by shark and per prehistoric cow.


Sharks go back more than 3% of the way to the beginning of the universe.


That's about 300 in Young-Earth Creationist years.


The rings of Saturn are also (probably) younger than sharks!




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