socalheart
09-21-2007, 05:38 PM
The dinosaurs of South Dakota (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20894357/)
An unlikely partnership of ranchers and scientists unearths fossils
By Mark Potter, Correspondent - NBC News
WINIFRED, MONTANA - On a rugged hillside overlooking a broad valley in central Montana, paleontologists Larry Derstler and Ray Vodden gingerly lifted a plaster cast protecting remains from a 75 million-year-old dinosaur.
Watching with great interest was cattle rancher Larry Tuss, who discovered the fossil and, following the traditions of dinosaur research, was allowed to name it. He called it Joyce, in honor of his wife.
Fused together by rock and geologic time, the pile of disjointed bones is believed to be from a female lambeosaurus, also known as a duck-billed dinosaur, a 20-foot-long plant-eater.
(Click the headline above for more on this story.)
I think this stuff is really interesting. That they found a dinosaur known to eat plants and such thought to be in areas with a lot of water way up in Montana goes to show just how much the earth changes over a lot of time on its own. Montana isn't known for its monsoons. It and states above it are known for its dinosaur fossils though.
I don't see a problem with ranchers being paid by private companies to excavate the fossils and sharing in the sale of it to a museum. It's better than the fossils being demolished or lost to the ages, as the saying goes. I'd love to spend a week learning to excavate a dinosaur fossil. In the mean time, I'll enjoy them at the museums. :)
I simply wanted to share this with y'all. If you have to argue it, that's up to y'all. Please try to enjoy it as well.
An unlikely partnership of ranchers and scientists unearths fossils
By Mark Potter, Correspondent - NBC News
WINIFRED, MONTANA - On a rugged hillside overlooking a broad valley in central Montana, paleontologists Larry Derstler and Ray Vodden gingerly lifted a plaster cast protecting remains from a 75 million-year-old dinosaur.
Watching with great interest was cattle rancher Larry Tuss, who discovered the fossil and, following the traditions of dinosaur research, was allowed to name it. He called it Joyce, in honor of his wife.
Fused together by rock and geologic time, the pile of disjointed bones is believed to be from a female lambeosaurus, also known as a duck-billed dinosaur, a 20-foot-long plant-eater.
(Click the headline above for more on this story.)
I think this stuff is really interesting. That they found a dinosaur known to eat plants and such thought to be in areas with a lot of water way up in Montana goes to show just how much the earth changes over a lot of time on its own. Montana isn't known for its monsoons. It and states above it are known for its dinosaur fossils though.
I don't see a problem with ranchers being paid by private companies to excavate the fossils and sharing in the sale of it to a museum. It's better than the fossils being demolished or lost to the ages, as the saying goes. I'd love to spend a week learning to excavate a dinosaur fossil. In the mean time, I'll enjoy them at the museums. :)
I simply wanted to share this with y'all. If you have to argue it, that's up to y'all. Please try to enjoy it as well.