Prehistory's Brilliant Future 50
An anonymous reader writes Senior Vice President and Provost of Science at the American Museum of Natural History Michael J. Novacek has written an op-ed piece about the glut of new dinosaurs recently discovered, including a fish fossil with flexible limbs which documents the transition from life in the water to life on land. In addition to the new species, a team has recently published its work on new skeletal remains of Spinosaurus, a 100-million-year-old carnivore. From the article: "As with any frontier of new knowledge, there are challenges as well as opportunities. Certain regions of the world, like North Africa, may hold the key to understanding the evolution of major groups, but remain poorly explored. Even as some regions become accessible thanks to political change, others can turn into conflict zones. Illegal fossil poaching is rampant in many areas and needs to be controlled before it does untold damage to our future knowledge. It is all the more important to deal with these challenges when we consider the unique contribution of paleontological evidence to human knowledge. From our study of living species, we could not have been predicted the existence of dragonflies as big as sea gulls or dinosaurs with the bulk of large whales that could support themselves on land. Such discoveries provide insights about the capacity of organisms to evolve, adapt and survive."
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The corporate-friendly Slashdot sucks.
Sounds like you, for one, don't welcome our new bitcoin & Tesla pimping overlords.
meh (Score:3)
I was a great fan of paleontology as a child. I was in awe of the creatures and the dedicated scientists that discovered them. Now, not so much.
After many decades of exploration and documentation of discoveries, how much useful information has been uncovered? These new discoveries are mildly interesting to an adult.
Biology in the past, as biology today is not built upon awesome organisms that prey on giant creatures; it is far more about microscopic organisms. These often determine the fate of the glamorous plants and animals, and are far more important.
As an adult, I'd like to learn about the less visibly impressive creatures that truly formed the world we have now. Funding for the study of ancient amoeba, fungi and bacteria may be hard to find, but should honest research take second fiddle to spectacular showmanship?
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The problem is that the people who find this and of course other research like to boast about things that the layman public understands. And they want dinosaurs, the bigger the better.
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Fund, not find. Sorry.
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Yes [berkeley.edu]. Fungal spores are most common because they are made of similar durable stuff like the walls of pollen and spores from plants, but sometimes you also find filaments and other structures when preservation conditions are right. There are even some mushrooms known from amber. There's also the totally bizarre Prototaxites [wikipedia.org], which is a metres-tall structure from the Silurian and Devonian that is suspected to be a large fungus and/or a lichen (a symbiotic organism with fungi and algae).
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Yes, do a search.
Illegal? (Score:2)
Illegal fossil poaching is rampant in many areas
Who decides who is allowed to dig up fossils? Do you need a license? Things like this really bother me.
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If by that you mean universities and museums, no. You also have a very wrong view of what's done with fossils. The vast bulk of them simply sit in boxes in basements where researchers (read grad students) study them occasionally. These are the sources of the theft from the discoverers and sometimes preparers of fossils.
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Most countries have strict regulations on what can be pulled out of the ground - this is primarily to govern the mining / oil & gas industries.
Because palaeontological and archaeological finds come under a similar "shite pulled outta the ground" ruling, yes, there's concessions and regulations governing fossil finds, including a licence to do so. For someone who just wants to walk for a few days looking for fossils, I believe it's the same as an amateur gold prospecting licence.
That's how it works here
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It is not forbidden to discover fossils or gold. It is forbidden to excavate them or mine it without a license. That's quite a difference.
It's a distinction without a difference. You should be permitted to dig them up and do as you like with them provided you're not causing environmental damage.
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It is not forbidden to discover fossils or gold. It is forbidden to excavate them or mine it without a license. That's quite a difference.
It's a distinction without a difference. You should be permitted to dig them up and do as you like with them provided you're not causing environmental damage.
You can, if you are on your own property. The problem occurs when you are taking something of value from property that you do not own.
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In China a lot of dinosaur fossils are sold in medicine shops. For some reason most Chinese still believe eating them cures disease and give you manly vigor.
One of the first things paleontologists do when they go to China is check out the pharmacies. Some good discoveries have been made by buying dino bones from pharmacies.
Re:Illegal? (Score:5, Funny)
In China a lot of dinosaur fossils are sold in medicine shops. For some reason most Chinese still believe eating them cures disease and give you manly vigor.
Whereas in fact manly vigor comes from driving a dinosaur-sized truck that guzzles fossil fuel.
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Can't tell if sarcastic or just WHOOSH!
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There must be something seriously wrong with you. Leave the cars out of it.
That's insane man, guzzling fossil fuel will kill you.
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damnit, misread the posts.
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That's ridiculous. Manliness directly correlates to the speed of ones computer averaged with the number of LEDs on it.
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Whereas in fact manly vigor comes from driving a dinosaur-sized truck that guzzles fossil fuel.
So that's what they've been doing wrong. You aren't supposed to eat the dinosaur yourself, you're supposed to burn it in your truck.
Dinosaurs and fishes. (Score:1)
[N]ew dinosaurs recently discovered, including a fish...
Fishes aren't dinosaurs!
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Fishes aren't dinosaurs!
No buy dinosaurs are fish. A small, obscure branch of lobe finned fishes t o be precise.
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Post a link.
Nope.
I do believe you're incorrect.
What do you think tetrapods evolved from?
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Fishes aren't dinosaurs!
No buy dinosaurs are fish. A small, obscure branch of lobe finned fishes t o be precise.
I thought dinosaurs were birds?
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I thought dinosaurs were birds?
Wrong way round. Birds are dinosaurs so they are also fish (a small branch of lobe finned fish).
How long till... (Score:2)
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Bullshit.
You're saying that humans would be more of a threat in the water, one-on-one, scarfing up fish as opposed to using vessels, hooks, bait and nets.
Back of the class for you.
Where's my crocoduck? (Score:2)