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190 Million Year Old Dinosaur Embyro
leprasmurf writes "Sci Tech Today is reporting that scientists have cracked open a 190-million-year-old egg to reveal the oldest known dinosaur embryo. Examination of the fetal skeleton suggests the hatchling would have required parental care to survive. This would be the earliest evidence of nurturant behavior, more than 100 million years earlier than previous examples." The University of Toronto has a release about this as well. From the article: "According to Reisz, what makes this discovery particularly significant is the ability to put the embryos into a growth series and work out for the first time how these animals grew from a tiny, 15 centimetre embryo into a five metre adult. 'This has never been done for a dinosaur. Only Massospondylus is represented by embryos as well as by numerous articulated skeletons of juveniles and adults. The results have major implications for our understanding of how these animals grew and evolved,' he says."
Pah. This is old news.
no really...it is.
...they have cracked the mystery of Dinosaur development.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Well, we know the earth is no more than 6,000 years old, so any measure that veers too far off that is bound to be inaccurate. The most accurate known dating method is counting backwards through the geneologies in the book of Genesis. Unfortunately, this egg is not mentioned there, so we'll probably never know its true age.
You had me at "dicks fuck assholes".
To be fair, not all biblical literalists think this 6000 year number is anywhere near accurate. Many accept values between 10 and 30 thousand years. In any case, while I don't buy into evolution personally*, I can't help but wonder why I don't ever see ID or creationist fossil research publications. Don't church-supported universities also engage in this kind of research? Even the 6000 year crowd must surely be interested in knowing how these dinosaurs lived.
Any thoughts?
* I am origin agnostic, I haven't seen a good scientific theory yet for how things got here.
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
"This is a UNIX system! I know this!"
I can't help but wonder why I don't ever see ID or creationist fossil research publications.
Waiting for this kind of reasearch is like waiting for Duke Nukem Forever to be released. Need I say more?
Dinosaurs prefer to enjoy an evening of fine dining and wine, followed by a moonlit walk on the beach, followed by some dirty talk about the Cretaceous era. After this, the female dinosaur may invite the male dinosaur over for a cup of coffee and the creative use of a clit-tickler.
... and then they built the supercollider.
I don't think so. Everyone knows that life begins in the third trimester.
Oh come on! Before I was born there was nothing.
-- Cheers!
Then they could, say, dump it in the waters just off Tokyo to be nurtured by the local nuclear waste, causing great hilarity and movie remakes in years to come.
unless of course that's banned by dino-law...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ