February 19, 2026
Paleo? More like PaleOMG
Dinosaur Food: 100M year old foods we still eat today
Commenters gag at ginkgo, yell 'salt!', and ask who actually eats this stuff
TLDR: A list of “living fossil” foods sparked big debate: cool history, questionable menu. Commenters joked about salt being the oldest food, called the title misleading, and warned ginkgo can be gross and risky—raising the real question: do people actually eat these or just talk about them?
A wholesome list of “dinosaur foods” — from ginkgo nuts and monkey puzzle seeds to horsetail and water caltrop — just crash‑landed into peak comment chaos. The author celebrates “living fossils” we still eat, but the crowd immediately split: is anyone actually eating these, or is this museum food with a garnish? One camp went full caveman comedy: munificent speedran the thread with, “salt and water are the oldest foods,” and everyone yelled “technically correct!” Another camp threw the flag on the title, with irishcoffee blasting the claim as “disingenuous” — arguing that “we still eat today” implies regular, widespread eating, not “somebody somewhere tried it once.” The gross‑out stories poured in too. droopyEyelids detailed how ginkgo “fruit” smells like a trash bin and can cause skin reactions, wondering what “delicacy” even means. Meanwhile, ge96 balked at the idea of eating horseshoe crabs at all. The vibe: paleo dreams vs. pantry reality. Jokes flew about the PaleOMG diet, chawanmushi vs. hazmat gloves, and whether we’re counting Jurassic snacks or just things that haven’t changed since the Stone Age. The takeaway? Cool list, ancient vibes — but the comments turned it into a showdown over semantics, safety, and who’s actually chewing this stuff
Key Points
- •The article identifies foods from ancient species that remain morphologically similar to their fossil forms and are still edible today.
- •Ginkgo biloba is highlighted as a living fossil whose nuts are used in East Asian cuisine, including chawanmushi.
- •Selection criteria: human-edible and morphologically unchanged since fossil age.
- •The list includes species with estimated ages, e.g., horseshoe crab (480M), Ginkgo (290M), sago palm (200M), monkey puzzle tree nuts (160M), horsetail (140M), cinnamon fern (70M), water caltrop (66M), and two lichens with uncertain ages (~250M).
- •The author notes they are a hobbyist and invites additions or corrections to the classification and ages.