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New Dinosaurs Found in Antarctica

Posted by michael on from the land-of-the-lost dept.

WorkEmail writes "Two new species of dinosaur, one a quick-moving meat-eater and the other a giant plant-eater, have been discovered in Antarctica, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. The 70 million-year-old fossils of the carnivore would have rested for millenniums at the bottom of an Antarctic sea, while remains of the 100-foot-long (30 meter) herbivore were found on the top of a mountain."

3 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. This makes me happy. by Gewis · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This makes me happy. I knew there were still paleontological digs and studies going on around the world, but I didn't know any were in Antarctica. (For those of you who don't know, it's COLD there.) It doesn't sound like these new discoveries have anything anatomical to make them significant otherwise, but the fact that paleotology found a useful place to do research in Antarctica bares out a good reminder that there's still a lot of stuff we don't know, even in fields unrelated to particle physics, nanoengineering, genetics, astrophysics, mathematics, or any other fields that see a lot of coverage in science.slashdot.org.

  2. Antarctica and Jurassic Park by feidaykin · · Score: 4, Interesting
    First, let me say that this discovery adds even more examples to the fact that Antarctica is a science sweet spot. From ancient fossils to some of the lowest natural temperatures on terra firma, Antarctica is a truly awesome place. It's really one of the last frontier's on the planet, second to perhaps the deepest oceans and the interior of the Earth.

    Next, I'd like to admit that I'm a huge fan of dinosaurs. Anyone else here credit an interest in dinosaurs to the original 1993 Jurassic Park movie? This was actually the first movie I ever saw in a theater, and it's hard to believe that come July that will be 11 years ago.

    When I saw the movie, I became obsessed with everything dinosaur. It shaped my entire future by also sparking a greater interest in science in general. So I'm basically the man I am today thanks to Jurassic Park. Which makes a good scapegoat for when people have a problem with me. ;)

    And for a good laugh be sure to check out the Jurassic Park game for the SNES. When you go inside buildings it turns into a weird FPS mode that looks like absolute ass. (That'd be a perfect spot for a goatse link, damn, I should be a troll...)

    --

    "To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking

    1. Re:Antarctica and Jurassic Park by WorkEmail · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I have read other places that there is deposits of water deep below the surface of Antarctica. Huge pockets of water surrounded by Ice that are as big as some of the great lakes they imagine. And whatever life, if any, is in them, has been there existing for possibly millions of years isolated from everything. They had huge debates about wether or not to eventually drill down and tap into these vast pockets of water for fear of what they may contain. Has anyone else read anything about that?