Dinosaur Auction In Las Vegas 82
Xerfas writes "If you ever dreamed of owning your own dinosaur, here's your chance. Possibly the most impressive natural history auction ever is set to take place Oct. 3 at the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas. Here you can find everything from the T.rex to a duck-billed dinosaur and a mammoth skeleton."
Beats ponies (Score:2, Funny)
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Tag this OMGVelociraptors!
Trolls... (Score:5, Funny)
From TFA:
Fifty-one million years after the dinosaurs became extinct, Carcharocles megalodon trolled the Earthâ(TM)s seas as an apex predator
Great, as if trolls on Slashdot weren't enough...
Pedantic Note: Troll Vs Trawl (Score:2)
From TFA:
Fifty-one million years after the dinosaurs became extinct, Carcharocles megalodon trolled the Earth's seas as an apex predator
Great, as if trolls on Slashdot weren't enough...
Yeah, that's just plain bad editing. I'm pretty sure the word they were looking for is trawled [wiktionary.org] which is a homophone as it is pronounced the same as "troll." Having done a lot of fishing in my youth this is a common mistake and I actually thought that internet 'trolling' was called that because it's like fishing for a response in the open waters of the internet. I know that's not the case but it seems a more appropriate origin than some fantasy description of a grotesque creature.
Oh well, I've never
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You are aware that "trolli
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Having done a lot of fishing in my youth this is a common mistake and I actually thought that internet 'trolling' was called that because it's like fishing for a response in the open waters of the internet. I know that's not the case but it seems a more appropriate origin than some fantasy description of a grotesque creature.
Hm? That's exactly what trolling on the 'net means - "trolling for newbies", as in fishing. Linky [catb.org].
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I think the etymology is a little unclear. A troll is a nasty forum denizen, but trolling is probably derived from "trawling for noobs". I guess they sort of merged.
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I think the etymology is a little unclear. A troll is a nasty forum denizen, but trolling is probably derived from "trawling for noobs".
Ha! Well played. You almost got me, but it is first thing in the morning.
Re:Pedantic Note: Troll Vs Trawl (Score:5, Informative)
From Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
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The contemporary use of the term is alleged to have first appeared on the internet in the late 1980s,[3] but the earliest known example is from 1991.[4] It is thought to be a truncation of the phrase trolling for suckers, itself derived from the fishing technique of slowly dragging a bait through water, known as trolling. The word also evokes the trolls portrayed in Scandinavian folklore and children's tales as they are often creatures bent on mischief and wickedness. The verb "troll" originates from Old French "troller", a hunting term. The noun "troll", however, is an unrelated Old Norse word for a giant.
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Great, as if trolls on Slashdot weren't enough...
No kidding! Our trolls are bottom-dwelling parasites at best -- these were apex predators! When you bit a troll, the troll bit back.
Is our economy so bad... (Score:5, Insightful)
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They're not profitable, so it's not likely it will happen, sadly.
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All that information has been lost forever now. Just so some sad sack can own a little piece of eternity.
Re:Is our economy so bad... (Score:4, Informative)
The real tragedy is that most of these fossils probably came from private digs. Like archeology, paleontology relies on context. The location where it was found, it's position in the geological strata, other fossils found with it. All these factors can enrich our understanding of these species.
Alan Detrich pulled 'em out of the ground. I can't imagine why you'd worry just because he's a lunatic. He fancies himself a sculptor, he's a staunch proponent of intelligent design who ran for the Kansas Board of Education and famously called those who oppose him "evil-lutionists", and he owns a private fossil excavation company. I can't for the life of me see any reason to be concerned.
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Alan Detrich pulled 'em out of the ground.
Correction: He dug up a couple-few of 'em, including the Tyrannosaur, but not all.
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http://www.spearofjesus.com/ [spearofjesus.com]
Thanks for the heads up, Quothz.
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Holy crap!
I was about to make a joke about a creationist "museum" buying the T.Rex so they could display it with Jesus riding it, but I see this whacko has beat me to it and is making sculptures in a similar vein. Try clicking on that first image and you'll get to Jesus + Dino bones!
Gotta wonder why a nutter like that is interested in excavating a T.Rex, or more to the point why anyone would let him!
Re:Is our economy so bad... (Score:5, Funny)
Just so some sad sack can own a little piece of eternity.
eternity, hell. I'm covering that trex in papier mache and glitter, filling it with hookers and blow, and making the world's most kickass birthday pinata.
Re:Is our economy so bad... (Score:5, Funny)
Don't forget to make some air holes (he says from bitter personal experience).
Re:Is our economy so bad... (Score:5, Interesting)
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"This was an amazing find and no museums were interested in giving anything like a fair value for it. It was eventually sold for $600,000 to someone in Japan."
$600000 is probably as much or more than the entire annual acquisition budget for most museums, other than the very largest ones. Even if the museum had that kind of money they would still have to make the case to spend all of it on one specimen that year (or multiple years). It's not that museums are unwilling to pay for acquisitions, but A) the pr
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Things like the T.Rex tend to end up in museums anyway... I expect eventually someone will donate it or leave it in their will to a museum.
Good opportunity for someone like Bill Gates to do a bit of high profile philanthropy though.
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You filthy communist!!! By what right, by what right, should anyone have to give up their God given birthright to own in perpetuity not only the physical manifestations of , but also the copyrights on any images of, the few known fossils of extinct species of general and scientific interest!? What right to the people have to the bones of dinosaurs lying under my land, just because I happen to live in their national state and am protected by the laws and statues which it passes?!
Is it just that I be denied
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In the interest of artifact preservation and the likes, a private collector has been shown to take better care of their items than a museum. You can
A) Have an item put on a mantle piece and only ever touched by the cleaning ladies duster every week
or
B) Have it in front of the public, where its exposed to any number of incidents, and coincidentally gets moved around alot with shifting displays and such at the museum.
In the sense that a private collector with either Donate it to the museum later in their life
Private Property (Score:2)
"Is our economy so bad..."
Uh, acquiring fossils has pretty much always been a private pursuit. Regardless of how the economy is right now, this is nothing new.
"Maybe it's time we energize a little more funding into the arts and history."
That wont solve the issue of where these are being found... mostly on private property. If they're under ground someone else owns, they get to do with it as they please, period. What could be done is to raise money, gather a crew, and then tell landowners "Hey, we think ther
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I dunno, maybe it might not be a bad thing.
On my summer trip to Washington D.C. and many of the museums like the Natural History, I noticed most of the pieces were donated by very rich people or they had huge galleries that were donated by them.
I think most of them started off in private collectors hands and when they die they will donate them to remember their names.
You can only get so old and rich that there comes a point where you want to be remembered and money can't buy it.
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Only believe what you read, not what you see.
Dangerous thought citizen... you meant to say "... Only believe what we tell you is OK to read..."
Fundamental question - who owns fossils (Score:3, Interesting)
This comes down to a fundamental question of who owns fossils, or any natural resources for that matter. I just wonder if 50 or 100 years from now, after someone has long paid for these at auction, that society/courts/prior landowners/native peoples/you-name-an-interest-group will sue for the return of these "stolen" artifacts.
We see this happen with art and antiquities all the time. Those things taken from their original home, either in time of war or time of peace are destined to be fought over years later. So how long will it be before society changes and it seems reasonable that one interest group gets enough support and whomever purchases the fossils will be forced to give them back, perhaps even without getting their money back.
The Land Owner of the Excavation Site (Score:4, Interesting)
This comes down to a fundamental question of who owns fossils, or any natural resources for that matter. I just wonder if 50 or 100 years from now, after someone has long paid for these at auction, that society/courts/prior landowners/native peoples/you-name-an-interest-group will sue for the return of these "stolen" artifacts.
We see this happen with art and antiquities all the time. Those things taken from their original home, either in time of war or time of peace are destined to be fought over years later. So how long will it be before society changes and it seems reasonable that one interest group gets enough support and whomever purchases the fossils will be forced to give them back, perhaps even without getting their money back.
In the United States, fossils are owned by the person/entity/organization/government that owns the land they are found on. If you read each of the descriptions they tell you where the fossils were dug up. That makes a lot of paleontologists mad but that's the way it is. Read this article [nationalgeographic.com]:
In the United States and many other countries, fossil specimens collected on private land become the property of the landowner. Trade in these fossils is entirely legal. While many academics and institutions oppose fossil trade in any form, others take a different stance.
Now, I think I remember reading of cases where fossils were found in places like Yosemite and illegally excavated and sold illegally but that's because the state park owned them.
Your analogy of ill-gotten wartime loot is kind of funny. When the descendants of dinosaurs come looking for their ancestors bones, we will have to cough them up.
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Your analogy of ill-gotten wartime loot is kind of funny. When the descendants of dinosaurs come looking for their ancestors bones, we will have to cough them up.
I was wondering why that blue jay was giving me such a crap talking-to this morning.
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I believe the parent of your post is pointing out that the rules can change in the future. Sure, the current owners of the fossils may own them, but what's to stop the state from creating a new law: "All your fossils are belong to us"*? They already do this with sunken (pirate) treasure, and it would not surprise me if some interest group (paleontological lobby) was able to persuade congress that it is in the best interest of (us|them|the state|science) that they have access to all fossils, and not just t
Surprisingly low prices (Score:5, Insightful)
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Other than the TRex, the prices were not all that bad. Sure, out of my price range. But $500k for a triceratops (I know its something else) seems pretty good.
Funny, that; I felt the same way except it was the shark jaws that I felt seemed over the top. Tyrannosaur bones're the highest-valued dino bones in general - even a single tooth can be pricey. Giant, prehistoric shark jaws are neat, but not all that different from today's sharks, plus they aren't actually, y'know... dinosaurs. Carcharocles teeth aren't terribly rare, either - you can buy one for fifty bucks or so. If the jaws had some of the original teeth, the price'd be a little more reasonable, but thos
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I agree, those prices look low to my layperson eyes. Let's see what they actually go for.
By the way, it's actually a pair of triceratops(-like) for half a million. Team up with a friend!
Yawn (Score:5, Funny)
Awww, man! (Score:1)
Not alive? And I was going to try to win "Best Dad Ever!" over the guy who built the canon.
IT Dept (Score:1, Funny)
I understand one of the least interesting lots is a Corporate IT dept complete with a well preserved version of I.E.6
(Please feel free to mod down as 'Troll')
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Re:IT Dept (Score:4, Informative)
Thats nothing, sometimes you can just ask for a +5 mod.
How about it mods? +5 informative?
--Maquis196
Re:IT Dept (Score:4, Interesting)
You can also ask for this: MOD PARENT DOWN!
But who is selling? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:But who is selling? (Score:4, Informative)
An auction house is running it, and as far as I can tell, each item comes from somewhere different - the T. Rex is from Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, the Shark Jaws from Vito Bertucci, etc.
Re:But who is selling? (Score:5, Informative)
They come from different places. The description of the duck bill dinosaur (hadrosaur) says it had been owned by a Japanese museum which closed, and was then bought by a private American collector who is now selling it.
There's another article here about the auction which mentions the T.Rex also currently being privately owned:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32705922/ns/technology_and_science-science/ [msn.com]
Sign of the recession I guess that some fat cat has to sell his T.Rex.
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I cannot figure out who is selling these things.
The Detrich Fossil Company. It's a Kansas-based company that excavates and resells dino fossils owned by Alan Detrich. He owns Samson and the Kansas Kingfish, at least - I'm only assuming the others belong to him.
It's a huge fraud! (Score:4, Funny)
Assertions that these "dinosaur" "fossils" are really the bones of early species are just a con. The Universe was created approximately 6000 years ago and these so-called fossils were placed in the earth by God to test our faith. He's trying to find out if we can be tricked into using those tools of Satan, logic and evidence.
Good Creationists could call the Las Vegas police and have this auction of fraudulent material shut down for making false claims about the age of the items for sale.
Re: Days (Score:5, Insightful)
"And then, of course, you have those who say that the "creation in six days" is not to be taken literally. "
If you can get your friendly neighborhood creationist to allow for this, that's the compromise I can usually live with for conversation. Replacing "day" which we are now pretty fierce calling 24 hours with "day" from "In *MY* day we didn't have lawns, we had to assemble the biocarbon molecules for each blade of grass by hand", then "life in six eras (days)" is fine.
Life IS pretty neat, so sometimes it is pretty comfy to think of a Deist force that guided life that doesn't "talk personally" to people. Most of where ultra-orthodox religion gets stuck is in superlatives of God as Perfect. Replace that with "Pretty Blessed Good" and all the arguments melt away. ("Gee, we're not sure what $Deity was thinking when ___ allowed Down's Syndrome to happen, but ___ is still Blessed Good so I'll worship ____ anyway."
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Nobody still living and breathing on this rock knows for sure...
Sure, plenty of people know. Earth is about 4.54 Billion years old. Don't be silly.
Debating the literal truth of old Jewish legends. (Score:2)
Makes about as much sense as debating the literal truth of Grimm's fairy tales or Australian aboriginal tales or the Hopi creation myths.
I suspect there are more Christians alive today claiming to believe the literal truth of Genesis than there were Jews who believed it when Genesis was written down in the first place. Legends are just that: legends.
Personally, I prefer to believe that human beings are the offspring of the Son of God and a female bear (the Korean creation myth). It makes at least as much se
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dinosaur sale? (Score:1)
Really like to go see this (Score:2)
Kansas Critters (Score:1)