Raptorex Kriegsteini
A dinosaur that’s tiny
when compared to T. Rex has been named
Raptorex Kriegsteini,
by palaeontologists who have acclaimed
the parents of a Holo-
caust survivor who had bought the fossil.
From small beginnings follow
dread consequences that may be colossal.
Inspired by the story of the discovery in Inner Mongolia of a fossil that is thought to have been the ancestor of T. Rex, and has been named Raptorex Kriegsteini, after the man who bought the fossil and donated it to palaeontologists. William Mullen of the Chicago Tribune writes on September 18,2009
As he studied photos of a Chinese fossil sent to him by a private collector, University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno felt his skepticism giving way to excitement at seeing what could be a miniature relative of the most famous of dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex.
The collector wanted Sereno to do the first scientific identification of the fossil, but Sereno balked unless the fossil was donated to science. The collector agreed, but with his own requirement - that it be named after his parents, both Holocaust survivors. That agreement three years ago ultimately opened the door to the discovery of Raptorex kriegsteini, a 'punk-size' precursor to T. rex introduced Thursday by Sereno and five colleagues in an article in the online edition of the research journal Science.
Raptorex was a big surprise to scientists. The 125 million-year-old dinosaur was a 9-foot-long,150-pound look-alike of its great indirect descendant, which was 43 feet long, weighed 13,000 pounds and roamed the Earth 60 million years later. Sereno calls Raptorex a 'blueprint for a predator, ' sporting a huge head, powerful jaws, outsize olfactory organs for acute sense of smell, tiny forelimbs and horselike rear legs to swiftly run down prey.'We have now leapfrogged in our understanding of how Tyrannosaurus rex and its tyrannosaurid relatives came to be on the strength of one specimen that was almost lost to science, ' he said. The specimen was illegally dug out of a fossil field in northeast China in the last decade and sold into an illegal international black market for fossils, Sereno said.
Seven years ago, Henry Kriegstein, a Massachusetts eye surgeon with an abiding love of dinosaurs, attended an Arizona fossil show where a dealer showed him photos of the fossil, still in the block of rock as it was when pulled out of the ground. It was for sale - legally, according to U.S. laws - and Kriegstein said he bought it for 'tens of thousands of dollars but well below $100,000.' Three years ago, after he began learning that it was possibly an extraordinarily important fossil, he decided to ask the widely respected Sereno to write the first scientific description of it, introducing it to the scientific record. That's when Sereno asked Kriegstein to 'give it up to science.' 'Henry said yes, but he said he wanted it named after his father and mother, ' Sereno said. 'They were Polish Jews who survived the death camps in Would War II and still live in New York today. He said he wanted to name the dinosaur after them as a way of giving them immortality after their terrible struggle to survive in World War II.' The deal was done, with the agreement that Sereno will return the fossil to China when he is done with it.
9/18/09
poem by Gershon Hepner
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Related quotes
In addition to contributing to erosion, pollution, food poisoning, and the dead zone, corn requires huge amounts of fossil fuel - it takes a half gallon of fossil fuel to produce a bushel of corn.
quote by Michael Pollan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Coal, oil and gas are called fossil fuels, because they are mostly made of the fossil remains of beings from long ago. The chemical energy within them is a kind of stored sunlight originally accumulated by ancient plants. Our civilization runs by burning the remains of humble creatures who inhabited the Earth hundreds of millions of years before the first humans came on the scene. Like some ghastly cannibal cult, we subsist on the dead bodies of our ancestors and distant relatives.
Carl Sagan in Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
Submitted by Catalin Popescu
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Propriety of Fame in a Fossil
There is no wind here
Just a turning of the air -
The fossil has been formed
By something no longer there.
Lungs inhale, and exhale
Without thought -
Two things: Living and dying
No one needs to be taught.
Billy the Kid and Jesse James
Each killed by a friend -
Fire and dust console one another
In the end.
Legends: Once set in motion
Must leave the body to remain -
Tis merely the ' imprint ' of reality in the fossil
That collects all the world's fame.
poem by Smoky Hoss
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Evolving thoughts
Maybe it's because we're so obsessed with property,
real estate, that we assume
this 375-million-year-old fossil yearned
to make it from the sea to golden sands
and further earthly joys? That's assuming
that it thought like Darwin anyway?
Maybe a refugee from
the Garden of Eden
who thought seaside holidays
were more fun?
Maybe it just tired of pursuing fast food
which it could never catch on land
with those pathetic flippers, and
reckoned there was more food out there
that might swim into Mr BIgmouth!
Remember, even you got tired
of watching Baywatch on a hot
summer's day, when the
surf's up? And did you notice
that fossil's built
like a surfboard?
No contest.
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Great Beauty Past And Present
Think of all the great beauty
still remaining in this world...
on land beaches rivers mountains
at sea beneath the ocean waves
all the species of incredible fishes
uncounted diverse marine life
in the air birds the fliers
insects in their myriads
bats gliders like squirrels
once flying also were pterosaurs
155 million years of powered flight
found on every continent except
Antarctica yet with over sixty genera
discovered and flight skills equal
or exceeding birds (pterosaurs' had
massive flocculi, it occupied 7.5%
of total brain mass, far in excess of
all other vertebrate, birds flocculi 1
and 2% of total brain mass unusually
large flocculi; compared to other
animals, a science marvel, flocculus,
a brain region integrating signals
from skin, muscles, joints and
balance organs, sending out neural
signals to produce small, automatic
movements in eye muscles, to keep
the image on the pterosaurs' retina
steady; pterosaurs may have had
such a large flocculus because of
their large wing size, which would
mean that there was a great deal
more sensory information to
process) their preserved skeletons
must be fossilized in an iced Antarctica
that continent of huge undiscovered
fossilized marvels awaiting discovery
research new fossil discoveries paint
a fuller picture of an ancient lush past
secrets remain hidden in cold storage
98 percent of iced continent is covered
ice bound year-round by an ice layered
mass science will not penetrate probed
why laser tunneled depths publicly sealed
only a few islands along the Antarctic
Peninsula yield published finds recorded
authorities will tell you the first fossils
found were plesiosaurs marine reptiles
on Seymour Island in 1982; a hadrosaur
on James Ross Island in 1986, this first
dinosaur fossil, an ankylosaur, a duck-
billed dinosaur, first large plant eaters
found outside the Americas proving
proving; the continents past tropical
or temperate climate and vegetation
but what discoveries in Byrd Expedition?
(secret diary flights to land beyond poles)
on the sides of Mt. Weaver fossil plants
coal beds at South Pole within 200 miles
formed, by plants growing in profusion,
Ernest Shackleton reported coal proves;
past swampy areas, the growth of enough
plants, to produce an observed bed of coal
unknown wonders remain to be unearthed
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Dinosaur
Long ago and far away in a different age
When I was a dumb young guy
Fossilized photos of my life then
Illustrate what an easy prey I must have been
Standing in the sun, idiot savant
Something like a monument
Im a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones
Ignorance has alway been something I excel in
Followed by naivete and pride
Doesnt take a scientist to see how
Any clever predator could have a piece of me
Standing in the sun, idiot savant
Something like a monument
Im a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones
When I look back on the past
Its a wonder Im not yet extinct
All the mistakes and bad judgements I made
Nearly pushed me to the brink
It doesnt pay to be too nice
Its the one thing I have learned
Still, I made my fossil bed
Now I toss and turn
Im a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones
song performed by by King Crimson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Most importantly, I agree that the truth of these matters should be determined by interpretation of scientific evidence - experiments, fossil studies and the like.
quote by Phillip E. Johnson
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But it really wasn't until three to four years later, when we had an opportunity in the lab to make very detailed observations, and comparisons with other fossil discoveries, that we realized she was a new species of human ancestor.
quote by Donald Johanson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When We Abuse Nature
For the burning of fossil fuels there will be some price to pay
A looming Natural disaster some climate experts say
A looming disaster of destruction and death
Climate change than terrorism to human kind is a far greater threat.
Our abuse of Nature is out of control
Our burning of fossil fuels especially coal
From our Earth Mother who feeds us far too much we have stole
When we dig up her ground we root at Nature's soul.
The things we will destroy ourselves with in Nature we've found
Uranium for nuclear reactors and bomb making should be left in the ground
Other safer forms of energy that humans can use
When we abuse Nature ourselves we abuse.
On polluted or clean air and water we do have a choice
And for our abuse of Nature we will pay the price
It is due to our Earth Mother our gift of life we enjoy
And in trying to destroy her 'tis ourselves we'll destroy.
poem by Francis Duggan
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We should be increasing research and development into our fossil fuel program.
quote by Tim Holden
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Crepúsculo1
En la tarde, en las horas del divino
crepúsculo sereno,
se pueblan de tinieblas los espacios
y las almas de sueños.
Sobre un fondo de tonos nacarados
la silueta del templo
las altas tapias del jardín antiguo
y los árboles negros,
cuyas ramas semejan un encaje
movidas por el viento
se destacan oscuras, melancólicas
como un extraño espectro!
En estas horas de solemne calma
vagan los pensamientos
y buscan a la sombra de lo ignoto
la quietud y el silencio.
Se recuerdan las caras adoradas
de los queridos muertos
que duermen para siempre en el sepulcro
y hace tanto no vemos.
Bajan sobre las cosas de la vida
las sombras de lo eterno
y las almas emprenden su viaje
al país del recuerdo.
También vamos cruzando lentamente
de la vida el desierto
también en el sepulcro helada sima
más tarde dormiremos.
Que en la tarde, en las horas del divino
crepúsculo sereno
se pueblan de tinieblas los espacios
y las almas de sueños!
poem by Jose Asuncion Silva
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There is a reason it is called fossil fuel-it is an outdated method of getting power.
quote by Alexandra Paul
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The scientists who do climate research understand that much of the ever increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere since 1850 must be attributed to burning those fossil fuels to produce the energy that drives industrialization.
quote by John Olver
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ghost Casting Background Settings
With a cast of trillions
zillions comprising an entire
animal kingdom; including
a vast exciting finite host
of species undiscovered.
Most excluding extinctions
trace few fossil fragments
never to be scientifically known?
So real.
So lifelike.
So believable.
So touchingly rock solid.
God really bought reality home.
Created an incredible vision earth zone.
Lifetimes of experiences choices to stage roam.
Stretch human mind discover scientific diversities unknown?
poem by Terence George Craddock
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There is more He-3 energy on the Moon than we have ever had in the form of fossil fuels on Earth. All we have to do is to go there and get it.
quote by Wilson Greatbatch
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Movie making is the slowest business on earth next to fossil manufacture.
quote by Aaron Latham
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The fossil record implies trial and error, an inability to anticipate the future, features inconsistent with an efficient Great Designer.
quote by Carl Sagan
Submitted by Catalin Popescu
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Very interesting for an old duffer like me to try his hand at something new. If I don't do that once in a while, I might just turn into a fossil, you know!
quote by Norman Rockwell
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Can You Hook Me Up?
Addiction to fossil fuels
Global warming
Just don't get me started
poem by Tom J. Mariani
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My object will be, first, to show by what connections the history of the fossil bones of land animals is linked to the theory of the earth and why they have a particular importance in this respect.
quote by George Cuvier
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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