| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"johac" |
| Date: |
08 Jun 2006 01:39:03 AM |
| Object: |
Mini-dinosaurs emerge from quarry |
First the 'Hobbits' now mini-dinos. Evolution keeps surprising us.
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Mini-dinosaurs emerge from quarry
A new species of mini-dinosaur has been unearthed in northern Germany.
The creature was of the sauropod type - that group of long-necked,
four-footed herbivores that were the largest of all the dinosaurs.
But at just a few metres in length, this animal was considerably smaller
than its huge cousins, scientists report in the journal Nature.
The team thinks the Jurassic species evolved its small form in response
to limited food resources on an island.
Martin Sander, from the University of Bonn, and colleagues studied the
remains of over 11 sauropods found in a quarry at Oker, near Goslar,
Lower Saxony.
With total body lengths ranging from 1.7 to 6.2m (5.5-20ft), the team
originally thought the dinosaurs were juveniles. But when the scientists
examined the fossils closely, they realised they were dealing with dwarf
creatures.
The species has been given the formal classification Europasaurus
holgeri , or "Holger's reptile from Europe". The name honours Holger
Luedtke, a self-taught palaeontologist who found the first bones in 1998.
In height terms, an adult E. holgeri would have been about the size of a
horse at the shoulder. Compare this with other sauropods, which were
bigger than buses, tens of metres in length and could weigh 100 tonnes
or more.
The fossils were found in Late Jurassic carbonate rock (about 150
million years old). At this period in Earth's history, much of what is
now central Europe was under water. Dr Sander and colleagues suggest the
dinosaurs could have lived on one of the large islands around the Lower
Saxony basin.
"Such islands would not have been able to support large-bodied
sauropods," they write in Nature.
"The ancestor of the Europasaurus would have dwarfed rapidly on
immigrating to the island, or as a response to shrinking land masses
caused by rising sea levels."
(pictures at site)
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5055128.stm
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
Contact - Throw a .net over the .com
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| User: "Pastor Kutchie" |
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| Title: Re: Mini-dinosaurs emerge from quarry |
08 Jun 2006 07:06:30 AM |
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johac wrote:
First the 'Hobbits' now mini-dinos. Evolution keeps surprising us.
---
Mini-dinosaurs emerge from quarry
A new species of mini-dinosaur has been unearthed in northern Germany.
<nitpick>
Can't be a dinosaur, then. How about microsaur, mesosaur or maybe
megasaur?
</nitpick>
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| User: "johac" |
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| Title: Re: Mini-dinosaurs emerge from quarry |
08 Jun 2006 11:37:25 PM |
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In article <1149768390.145327.178480@j55g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
"Pastor Kutchie" <user13@heathens.org.uk> wrote:
johac wrote:
First the 'Hobbits' now mini-dinos. Evolution keeps surprising us.
---
Mini-dinosaurs emerge from quarry
A new species of mini-dinosaur has been unearthed in northern Germany.
<nitpick>
Can't be a dinosaur, then. How about microsaur, mesosaur or maybe
megasaur?
</nitpick>
Would the young be called nanosaurs?
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
Contact - Throw a .net over the .com
.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: Mini-dinosaurs emerge from quarry |
12 Jun 2006 04:43:46 PM |
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On 8 Jun 2006 05:06:30 -0700, "Pastor Kutchie" <user13@heathens.org.uk>
wrote in alt.atheism
johac wrote:
First the 'Hobbits' now mini-dinos. Evolution keeps surprising us.
---
Mini-dinosaurs emerge from quarry
A new species of mini-dinosaur has been unearthed in northern Germany.
<nitpick>
Can't be a dinosaur, then. How about microsaur, mesosaur or maybe
megasaur?
</nitpick>
Now you went and made him saur.......
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a plethora of splinters.
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