Is This Really a 250-Million-Year-Old Microchip?

Was there computer technology 250 million years ago? Epoch Times investigated this much-discussed discovery.

In the past month, articles have been circulating on Internet forums and blogs stating that a 250-million-year-old microchip was found in Labinsk, Russia, and that the find was confirmed by the “University of Southern Polytechnic Nowoczerkaskiej.” 

The photo of the purported microchip above has been published with these articles. Evidence of computer technology from such a remote age would indeed be an astounding find!

Epoch Times has learned that the university responsible for the investigation of the “microchip” is the Platov South-Russian State Polytechnic University. Many curious online commentators on the articles found it difficult to track down information on the “University of Southern Polytechnic Nowoczerkaskiej” because of the phonetic spelling. 

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The university sent a statement to the Max Portal Russian news agency in November 2014 clarifying that the “microchip” is actually a 410-million–450-million-year-old sea lily fossil. 

Sea lilies are a type of aquatic creature known as a crinoid. Sea lilies are stalked crinoids that are attached to the sea bottom; they filter food particles in currents flowing past them. 

Below are a couple of the many varieties of crinoid and some examples of crinoid fossils:

A red stalked sea lily crinoid (Proisocrinus ruberrimus). NOAA

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A stalked crinoid in the Gulf of Mexico. NOAA

 

Middle Jurassic (Callovian) crinoid pluricolumnals (Apiocrinites) from the Matmor Formation in Hamakhtesh Hagadol, southern Israel. Mark A. Wilson, Department of Geology, The College of Wooster

 

Crinoid columnals of Isocrinus nicoleti from the Middle Jurassic Carmel Formation at Mount Carmel Junction, Utah. Mark A. Wilson, Department of Geology, The College of Wooster

A sea lily fossil found in North Germany. Wikimedia Commons

Epoch Times has contacted the Platov South-Russian State Polytechnic University for any further information that may be available on the discovery and is awaiting response. 

Many remnants of ancient technology—far more advanced than would be expected according to the conventional view of mankind’s history—have been purportedly discovered around the world. Whether this particular discovery, uncovered in 2013 by a fisherman named Viktor Morozov who handed it over to the university, is a microchip or a sea lily fossil, there are many mysterious artifacts that lead some archaeologists to wonder whether advanced technology did exist in the ancient world and how it got there. 

Explore more of these strange finds by browsing through the Epoch Times special topic Out-of-Place-Artifacts. 

Follow @TaraMacIsaac on Twitter, visit the Epoch Times Beyond Science page on Facebook, and subscribe to the Beyond Science newsletter to continue exploring ancient mysteries and the new frontiers of science!

With reporting by Epoch Times staff member Ivan Pentchoukov.