“Dualing dinosaur” fossils – Million 67 million year old fossils, which may be the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex And Triceratops On record, the beasts that were probably locked in combat combat when they died – are finally spreading their secrets. Iconic fossils are heading to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCMNS), where a cutting edge interactive exhibition will be built around them, the museum announced today (Nov. 17).
The remains are scattered in controversy. They are significant specimens, believed to contain 100% of the bones of both organisms, as well as body contours, skin impressions, and possibly remnants of soft soft tissue and abdominal contents. But after their search by commercial collectors in eastern Montana in 2006, the dinosaurs failed to sell at auction and later became involved in lawsuits to try to sue again. Remains As minerals. And the scientific community about the remains was torn; Many were excited to learn about dinosaurs, but some said they were scientifically useless and others disliked that they were being sold by profiteers.
Now, after a fundraising project, ,000 30,000. (1,600 kilograms) Fossilized parts containing dueling dinosaurs have arrived in North Carolina, where scientists plan to study them in public. Lindsay Zenno, head of paleontology at NCMNS and associate research professor at North Carolina State University, said Lindsay Zenno, who led the project to bring the remains to the museum, said Dioler was definitely “not scientifically useless.”
Related: In the photo: Montana’s dueling dinosaur fossils
“What’s remarkable about these samples is that they still retain all their references.” Late Cretaceous period Surrounding, Zanno told Live Science. “So we can really dive in and know that there is integrity in the scientific data that will come out of these samples.”
Dinosaur Search Duel
The dualing dinosaur was discovered by Clayton Phipps, his cousin Chad O’Connor and his friend Mark Itman. Clayton is a cowboy as seen on the Discovery Channel show “Dino Hunters”, but “I’m more likely to find dinosaurs on my horse now than to find a cow,” he joked.
In June 2006, the trio went to the dinosaur prospect and found the pelvis of a herbivore running down a hill. Phipps and Itman weren’t too excited, but O’Connor was fascinated, so they agreed to move on. Peeps was allowed to dig the ground there and returned with the crew about a month later. It was at this point that he realized that much more than the pelvis was occupied by this site; It is a whole tri-horned Ceretopsian dinosaur and Tyrannosaurus, as well.
“Here we have this world-class Ceretopsian skeleton. It looks 100% complete from what we’ve outgrown at the time. And now we have meat-eating dinosaurs – apparently they weren’t friends,” Phipps told LiveScience. . “Heck what’s going on? I had to sit down and take it all in for a second.”
Were these Paleo-beasts fighting when destruction struck, when they were kept together? Were they unfamiliar with random neighborhood burials? Only a thorough excavation of the skeleton can solve this mystery, for example, by finding it. T. RexNo teeth are embedded Triceratops‘Body.
The horned dinosaur is probably a Triceratops horridus, However, needs to be confirmed, Zanno said. Ride, however, is likely to be one Nanotypes, Controversial species that may or may not exist. Many Study Suggests that Nanotypes Is a teenager T. Rex, Not a separate species. But “assuming science is correct at the moment and this example is in fact a teenager T. Rex, Then we are going to be the only museum in the world that has a 100% complete specimen of the tyrant king, ”Zanno said.
Related: Photos: Newfound Tyrannosaurus had teeth about 3 inches long
Jack Horner, A paleontologist who served as technical advisor to the “Jurassic Park” movies and who originally called the dueling dinosaur “scientifically useless.” Interview with Smithsonian Magazine, Since then Zenno changed his mind after learning that he had had access to the Montana excavation site, which provides a critical reference. “Now it’s something scientifically valuable,” Horner told LiveScience.
Auction failed, lawsuit filed
Once the fossils were out of the ground, Phipps found no institution interested in paying them. So when the Bonhams auction house approached him, Phipps reluctantly agreed. He wanted the remains to go into science, but also needed money to pay the landowners and the team’s labor, he said. 2013 The auction was a huge undertaking: Fossils were sent to New York and valued at 7 7 million to 9 9 million. But the bidding only reached ડો 5.5 million, so the samples failed to sell.
Meanwhile, the landowners, Marie Nie and the two brothers who sold the land to Liege Murray, sued. The brothers, Jerry and Robert Severson, retained mineral rights to the land, arguing that the remains are minerals and therefore are theirs According to Science Magazine. After many trials and appeals, the brothers lost the case.
Welcome to the museum
Most museums don’t have millions of dollars to spend on relics. In this case, the North Profit organization Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences raised private funds to purchase 6 6 million worth of dueling dinosaurs from three discoverers, landowners, and excavators, and then the nonprofit donated samples to the museum.
The performance will be one of a kind; Museum visitors will be able to wander into a new laboratory called Dinolab, where they can talk to researchers and see fossils and tools up close. Xinno said live streams will show research. In a public lab next door, visitors can try the same with paleontology tools, techniques and techniques being removed just a few feet away.
The Bank of America Foundation’s $ 1 million donation is activating “Cretaceous Creatures,” which allows high school students in the country and ultimately the world to dig through silt collected from a dull dinosaur site in the formation of Hell Creek. You can learn more about the microphosils there.
Related: Photos: The oldest known horned dinosaurs in North America
Zanno plans to have team samples CT scan, So they can create digital 3D images of dinosaur fossils. They will be able to detect the preservation of any soft tissue or protein and analyze the remains for evidence of diseases and wounds. The specimens contain the frill of Triceratops and the only known skin imprint from the possible T. RexNo feet.
About Frill, “Andrew Fark, Curator and Director of Research and Collection at the Raymond M. Alf Museum Paleph Paleontology at California’s Web Schools,” would be cool to answer some questions about what the veil was on the face. “There’s been speculation that it may have been completely covered with keratin, so think,” he told Live Science, who is not associated with the dueling dinosaur. Triceratops Like a giant finger. Or maybe it was something more like a vibration. I believe [the dueling dinosaur is] It would be big to answer the question. “
“Construction of the dinobab is set to open in 2021,” Xinno said. Once it opens, visitors will be able to enter the lab as scientists preserve dinosaurs, which will take about five years, Zeno said.
Published on Original Living Science.
