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The largest stegosaurus fossil ever found heads to auction
- leto_ii 2y agohttps://archive.ph/4fB3T https://archive.ph/4fB3T
- chewmieser 2y agoGift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/science/stegosaurus-fossil-auction-sothebys.html?u2g=i&unlocked_article_code=1.wk0.UaAQ.ISY8fNYdbLAn&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/science/stegosaurus-fossi...
- ultimoo 2y ago> Jason Cooper, a commercial paleontologist, went for a walk around his property near the aptly named Colorado town of Dinosaur with a friend and found a bit of femur protruding from some rock. what an opener
- mouse_ 2y agoain't no way my money's on it was relocated
- boomboomsubban 2y agoThe town was renamed "Dinosaur" because it's very close to Dinosaur National Monument, where they found a bunch of dinosaur skeletons sticking out of rocks.
- hunter-gatherer 2y agoYep. I have relatives in Vernal Utah and grew up my self in SE Utah. This story is totally plausible.
- chess_buster 2y agoIt's so sad to see fossils being sold.
- ramesh31 2y agoThere are untold millions of fossils waiting to be found. We will never have a shortage of them. This would have never been excavated if it were not for the financial incentive to do so.
- cultofmetatron 2y ago> untold millions of fossils waiting to be found. We will never have a shortage of them. I would argue that there are very much a finite amount of fossils. esspecialy of larger animals. fossilization is a rare event.
- ramesh31 2y ago>fossilization is a rare event. Indeed, but it has been happening for hundreds of millions of years for billions of individual organisms, and we haven't excavated even a fraction of a percent of their possible locations.
- cultofmetatron 2y agoless than 1% of all species to exist have been found as fossils. 1% of a billion is a large number but its still finite and not all fossils are the same. we dont' know their value till they are dug up and studied with teh context of where they were found in tact.
- teruakohatu 2y agoIt leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I see large fossils being hauled out by individuals who have no interest in them, when I approach to chat, other than to sell or illegally export. They remind me of gollum, seeing everyone around them as a threat to their riches. But a lot of fossils wouldn’t see the light of day unless there was a commercial market. I have heard stories on fossil forums about countries where there are restrictions and quarries will just crush them along with all the other rock. In my country the vast majority of palaeontology is done by amateurs. There is only so much public funding but loads of amateurs. If private ownership was banned then academic research would go to near zero.
- Tao3300 2y agoAs far as we can tell, Stegosaurus died out about 145 million years ago, while Tyrannosaurus showed up about 72 million years ago. There's more time between the last Stegosaurus and the first T-Rex then there is between the last T-Rex and us right now. A little off topic, but it's kind of mind-blowing to think of just how long the dinosaurs were around.
- gweinberg 2y agoIt looks to me like it is exactly the same amount of time. 72 + 72 = 145, within scientific error.
- avz 2y agoThe OP said "There's more time between the last Stegosaurus and the first T-Rex" which computes to 145-72 = 73 and "then (sic) there is between the last T-Rex and us right now." which computes to 66-0=66. Note that 7 million years is about 10% of the timescales involved, so perhaps not something to be dismissed as "scientific error".
- jmclnx 2y agoAs a kid, Stegosauruses where my favorite. And I still always hate it when dinosaur articles need to mention the T-Rex, like this one :) Anyway as others said, sad to see this being sold, but with how pure research budgets have been and probably will be cut, I guess they have no choice.
- tosser0001 2y agoThere are a small handful of relatively well-know dinosaurs: stegosaurus being one of them. There’s also Tyrannosaurus rex, Brontosaurus (maybe you’re not supposed to call them that anymore), Triceratops and maybe a couple of others. Why were these ones so “famous”? Were they the earliest ones discovered? most common? Just fine examples of their type?
- ramesh31 2y ago>Why were these ones so “famous”? Jurassic Park.
- rcpt 2y agoThey were famous before Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park introduced everyone to velociraptors. But stegosaurs and T-Rex were always battling it out in kids art classes
- throwup238 2y ago> Why were these ones so “famous”? Were they the earliest ones discovered? most common? Just fine examples of their type? I think it can be mostly explained by the first Jurassic Park movie.
- hnthrowaway0328 2y agoThey should live in museums. I hope some museums have the money to buy it.