It is: 14 days till Thanksgiving
It is: 42 days till Christmas
It is: 49 days till January 1, 2014
Without further ado, here's my article that I promised:
The year was 2006 when an
amazing fossil discovery, possibly one of the most amazing fossil
discoveries ever made, was uncovered in the badlands of Montana. On
Mary Ann and Lige Murray's Montana ranch were the ancient fossil
remains of dinosaurs, but upon their discovery, it was obvious that
this was no obvious dinosaur find! First of all, you might like to
know that when scientists find dinosaur skeletons, they don't
normally find them articulated (that is, aligned in the order they
were in life); they're normally found in a dismantled array of broken
fossils and the skeleton is normally not complete. Often times,
paleontologists only have a few fossil teeth or a few bones or a
fossilized skull to go by. When Therizinosaurus,
a large herbivorous theropod (that's the group with mostly
carnivorous dinosaurs) was discovered, scientists only found the
claws of this beast and accidentally classified the creature as a
giant turtle!
This
was not the case with these new dinosaurs that we're going to talk
about! In the ground were not one, but two
dinosaurs in the exact same location . . . no really, their bodies
were partially intertwined! One was a theropod from the tyrannosaur
family, possibly Nanotyrannus,
and the other was an unidentified species of ceratopsian or horned
dinosaur. Perhaps this was a new species! But that's not what drew
the most excitement – most of the excitement was from the mere fact
that both animals were not only articulated, but intertwined as if
they had interacted in life! These two dinosaurs had probably died in
the middle of a fight. This isn't the first case when two species of
dinosaurs were found together; in the 1970's, the fossilized
skeletons of a Velociraptor
and a ceratopsian called Protoceratops
were found locked in a deadly fight and died caught in the act. The
new specimen however, referred to as “The Dueling Dinosaurs”, is
of much larger dinosaurs. Yet, despite the amazing state of this
find, it was rather ignored until earlier this year where it's
attracted lots of attention from the press lately. Before we get into
that though, let's take a closer look at what many scientists hope to
discover with these finds.
Here's a photo of the dueling dinosaurs; two creatures probably caught in a deadly fight. |
First,
this amazing find could finally settle a really old debate concerning
Nanotyrannus and its
larger and far more popular cousin, Tyrannosaurus rex.
Many scientists believe that Tyrannosaurus
changed as it matured; when it was younger, a baby T. rex would have
been much more lanky in proportion to body size, would have had a
longer snout and had a faster speed than the adult. The discovery of
Nanotyrannus meant to
some scientists that they'd actually discovered a juvenile T. rex
instead of a new species. Before the “Dueling Dinosaurs”
discovery, only two specimens of Nanotyrannus
had ever been discovered, and they are both juveniles at only around
15 feet long. The new specimen is estimated to be 30 feet in length.
So after the scientists actually can thoroughly study the fossils and
can classify it as a Nanotyrannus,
then it might be proven that Nanotyrannus
was its own species after all and only a cousin to T. rex. Even if
they can't find this out, many scientists feel that the other two
specimens of Nanotyrannus
are too different from an adult T. rex to be a juvenile of T. rex.
"The Dueling Dinosaurs" specimens might solve the mystery as to whether Nanotyrannus is its own species or a juvenile T. rex. |
Another
question that must be dealt with concerning this find is how on earth
these two dinosaurs died together in the first place. One thing we
know for sure is that they wouldn't just drop dead in the open and
expect to become fossilized! The reason why fossilization doesn't
work that way is because of numerous reasons. First of all, when
exposed to the elements, dead animals will quickly rot and decay and
leave nothing but dust. Not to mention the fact that there are plenty
of animals that will happily scavenge from animal carcasses, also not
giving them the chance to fossilize. For an animal to become
fossilized, it has to be buried very quickly. Evolutionists, who date
these fossils at 66 million years old, still often scratch their
heads as to why so many animals fossilized so long ago. Is there
another alternative with an answer as to why “The Dueling
Dinosaurs” fossilized?
When animals die, they normally decompose or get eaten; in order to fossilize, they needed to be buried quickly. |
As a
believer in God's Word, there's one thing that came to my mind the
first time I read about this extraordinary discovery. These dinosaurs
were killed and buried in Noah's Flood. Noah's Flood was the most
catastrophic time in earth's history and could have easily killed
both creatures in the middle of their possible struggle. But how much
will scientists be able to learn about these dinosaurs?
When
the dinosaurs were unearthed, they remained encased in the block of
rock they were found in and they didn't get any attention until
earlier this year. However, that's not where this story ends! The
fossils were uncovered by non-professional fossil hunters and so they
don't own the fossils – no one technically does! What was decided
to become of these amazing fossils? Well, it turns out that these
particular fossils are going to be in an upcoming auction! That's
right! People with big money to spend will be able to hope to buy
“The Dueling Dinosaurs”. This also means that there's a good
chance that the fossils will go to a private fossil collector and the
worry among many paleontologists is that if they go to a private
collector and the private collector doesn't donate the fossils to a
museum, scientists won't be able to study them thoroughly and won't
be able to learn as much as they can from these beautifully preserved
dinosaurs. And to make matters worse, these dinosaurs are predicted
to break the record for the most expensive dinosaurs ever sold,
breaking the record of the auction-sold skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus
rex sold to a museum named Sue
for around $7,000,000! “The Dueling Dinosaurs” are expected to be
sold for around $9,000,000 dollars! WAY more than I can afford;
otherwise I'd be happy to buy the specimens myself and donate them to a
museum.
I for
one hope that a museum can rally up enough money to buy the fossils
or that a generous buyer donates the specimens to the museum, or else
these dinosaurs might in fact go extinct twice; the first time being
when they died and the second time when they get sold and fade into
obscurity because we might not get to learn anything from these
fossils. Let's hope and pray that these dinosaurs make it to a good
museum where they can be studied, because these fossils can help us
unlock the mysteries surrounding some of the most magnificent animals
ever to walk the earth.
The "Dueling Dinosaurs" forever entombed in stone. |
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PS 2: Have a puzzling question about
animals (including dinosaurs), myself, my latest book, my stop-motion
movies, Creation or etc? Please post your question as a comment or
send me an email at animaladventures@aol.com.
PS 3: What’s the new in the news?
Check it out at SMILEY’S
NEWS.
PS 4: I don't own many (if not all) of
the photos in this article. If one or more of them is yours and you
want it taken off, please contact me.
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