Dinosaur in Antarctica

[El_Machinae]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22202402/

I mean, we all know that there should be dinosaur fossils there, because of how the continents were connected (or close) during that age. But still, I didn't know that we had scientists digging in the rocks down there.

A hefty, long-necked dinosaur that lumbered across the Antarctic before meeting its demise 190 million years ago has been identified and named, more than a decade after intrepid paleontologists sawed and chiseled the remains of the primitive plant-eater from its icy grave.

A team led by William Hammer of Augustana College had unearthed the dino fossils in the early 1990s. They found a partial foot, leg and ankle bones on Mt. Kirkpatrick near the Beardmore Glacier in Antarctica at an elevation of more than 13,000 feet (nearly 4,000 meters). It wasn't until recently, though, that researchers examined the fossils.

I wonder if they'll find the Savage Land eventually?

 

[Merkinball]

Are the actually digging there? Or is all the ice just melting away and revealing them? Those poor penguins...

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

I heard Antarctica was great for dinosaur fossils. And there is that one reptile (forget its name, starts with an L) that predates the dinosaurs a little, that is found in ridiculous numbers all over the world - especially down there.

 

[Arwon]

Some of Antarctica is exposed rock.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Only 3%, I think (they said that on a show I watched the other day), but I guess that is enough.

 

[Mango]

They dig down there all the time, but the problem is the season is so short that excavations take years instead of months. I believe it took them two seasons to dig up this fossil.

 

[El_Machinae]

That's hardcore. Shipping oneself to the Antarctic over the course of two years. At least in Ethiopia or whatnot, it's warm!

 

[Fetus4188]

Ethiopia is hot, not warm

 

[El_Machinae]

Alberta (in Canada) has a fossil field too. I'd think it would be a lot nicer there than the bottom of the planet.

 

[Arwon]

The bottom?

Hemispherist.

 

[Mango]

There's some place in Canada where dinosaur fossils are so common that they literally don't even bother excavating anymore. You can walk around the park and you'll be stepping on fossils wherever you go. They're just so common that they've decided they don't need anymore fossils of the same species.

 

[El_Machinae]

The House of Commons?

 

[Simple Simon]

current and some back issues of APP are available for free on the net:

www.app.pan.pl

the dinosaur article is here, as a PDF:
http://www.app.pan.pl/acta52/app52-657.pdf

 

[sourboy]

I chuckle every time I see a new dinosaur unearthed. Silly christians...

nice work! I'd hate to be the one digging that one out. brrr....

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Sigh . . .

You mean silly Creationists, or is there something else here I don't know about?

 

[Rambuchan]

I chuckle every time I see a new dinosaur unearthed. Silly christians...

Hey, don't knock 'em man. One of these days they will find the bones of Adam and Eve alongside. Then what are you going to say, hu?

And there is that one reptile (forget its name, starts with an L)

Larry?

 

[Godwynn]

God must have put it there six thousand years ago.

 

[sourboy]

Sigh . . .

You mean silly Creationists, or is there something else here I don't know about?

I dont presume to be educated in all silly religions.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Um, okay, you just presume to understand them and know what they believe without being educated in them?

(It's really silly of me, I will grant you, to even be arguing over this particular matter. But all those religion threads today have really gotten my dander up.)