Baffling. Especially as it was saline.

Lake Nicaragua (in Nicaragua, of all places) has its own population of freshwater shark, although these appear to belong to a widespread marine species that made its way into the lake - https://www.nicaragua.com/blog/the-bull-sharks-of-lake-nicaragua/

Slide 11:

All modern human populations outside of those in Subsaharan Africa carry Neanderthal genetic material. Not just those of European descent.

+1 for remembering Fred Pohl.

They’re dinosaurs, so it would be Awesome Sauce.

I think that he was referring to the people who’ll be going out and collecting these sea cucumbers.

Sharks are saturated with urea. Even the liver. Doesn’t sound like a very palatable meal to me.

Anglicized Linnean species names are regularly used for some species. Boa constrictor (for Boa constrictor) is the most obvious example, but there’s cardinals (Cardinalis), skinks of various sorts (Scincus, a North African genus, but the colloquial name is applied to the whole family), arbutus (Arbutus), heliconians (H…

Nothing has been proven in court yet.

Still nice to know that it’s coming out.

His big toe may have them. Has anyone checked?

Does he have a secret lair in an extinct volcano on a tropical island somewhere?

I will always admire Harlan Ellison for pissing off Frank Sinatra and standing up to him in public - https://www.jasonsanford.com/jason/2012/09/09/harlan-ellison-stands-up-to-frank-sinatra

Please. Don’t give them any ideas.

So when will we get our first interstellar message from a Denebian prince who needs our help getting twenty billion solars out of his bank account?

Well, alright, lutefisk. For you.

Well-spotted - that one was actually completely unintentional.

The sedimentary geologists of my acquaintance would probably be willing to settle for these things.