The Archeologist's Search Image

A fossil hunter needs sharp eyes and a keen search image, a mental template that subconsciously evaluates everything he sees in his search for telltale clues. A kind of mental radar works even if he isn't concentrating hard. A fossil mollusk expert has a mollusk search image. A fossil antelope expert has an antelope search image. ... Yet even when one has a good internal radar, the search is incredibly more difficult than it sounds. Not only are fossils often the same color as the rocks among which they are found, so they blend in with the background; they are also usually broken into odd-shaped fragments. ... In our business, we don't expect to find a whole skull lying on the surface staring up at us. The typical find is a small piece of petrified bone. The fossil hunter's search therefore has to have an infinite number of dimensions, matching every conceivable angle of every shape of fragment of every bone on the human body.

Notes:

Varies from hunter to hunter, but must be able to find camouflaged bones that might be fragmented into many pieces.

Folksonomies: fossils archeology

Taxonomies:
/pets/large animals (0.381032)
/technology and computing/hardware/computer components/disks (0.367106)
/science/medicine/surgery/transplants (0.315388)

Keywords:
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Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes Us Human

Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Leakey , Richard E. and Lewin , Roger (1993-10-01), Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes Us Human, Anchor, Retrieved on 2012-06-11

Source Material [books.google.com]

Folksonomies: science