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Giant Dinosaur Bird Discovered

Cyclist110 writes "The BBC has the story of the discovery, in Inner Mongolia, of a Dinosaur bird twice the size of a man and weighing in at over 3000 lbs. From the article: 'Chinese researchers uncovered the fossilised remains of the flightless giant in the Erlian basin in Inner Mongolia. The researchers had originally thought they had found the bones of a tyrannosaur — the group of dinosaurs to which T. rex belongs — due to their large size.'"

13 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Discredited by phantomcircuit · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So this will be discredited when?

    1. Re:Discredited by mark0 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why is the parent modded down? There is a long history of fake fossils coming out of China. The posting is, perhaps, a bit terse, but hardly a troll.

    2. Re:Discredited by HeroreV · · Score: 3, Informative

      The article says it was flightless. You know what else says it was flightless? The summary. Can't you at least read the summary?

    3. Re:Discredited by paleo2002 · · Score: 3, Informative

      China has been a major source of new theropod fossils over the past 15 or so years. I have friends at the AMNH who are working on dinosaur and bird fossils from the Gobi. The AMNH cosponsors digs with Chinese researchers all the time. Sometimes their government is not very enthusiastic about sharing material, but we often work something out.

      Check out http://palaeoblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/gigantorapt or-erlianensis-from-china.html for more information. It turns out a Japanese film crew was there when the fossil was being uncovered. You may also want to look at the link on the same page to the original journal article for this find. Hopefully Nature can live up to the high academic standards of slashdot readers.

  2. Wark! by Arakageeta · · Score: 3, Funny

    Waaaaaark!

  3. Joust Anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have already spent years mastering the control of these beasts!

  4. Imagine the potential! by edwardpickman · · Score: 3, Funny

    If birdlike dinosaurs got that big then giant chickens must be possible. Just imagine the MacNuggets!

  5. Re:Creationists by jeiler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "With that reasoning, wouldn't all plant life have died as a result of this "great flood"?

    Yes, it would kill the plant life ... but that doesn't matter, because they'll think of some "reason" why it wouldn't, even if they have to fall back on "Goddidit." Creationism (like any other a priori position) does not rely on logic, reason, or evidence.

    That's not to say that I feel that religion or faith or a priori knowledge is worthless--heck, I'm a theist myself. But (IMHO) when a person's gotten to the point that they'll explain away fundamental facts--as Creationists attempt to do--then argument is a waste of time.

    For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who do not believe, no proof is possible.

    --

    If you haven't been down-modded lately, you aren't trying.

    Sacred cows make the best hamburger.

  6. Terror Birds!!! by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Funny

    Phorusrhacids (marketed as Terror Birds!!! by the ever highbrow Scientific American) are cooler giant extinct birds. I like the way in the SciAm pictures they have a thoughtful, confident expression too, like they're thinking "I could bite that dude's head clean off. I don't think he knows that"

    E.g. see the picture here -

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/08 01_050801_terrorbirds.html

    --
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  7. Re:Twice as tall as a man? by jfengel · · Score: 3, Informative

    The height of a horse is measured to the withers, basically its shoulders. I suspect that applies to quadrupeds in general. It's because it's a fairly stable place to measure to, but it's hard to keep a horse steady.

    This bird isn't a quadruped, but if it has a long and neck it's more meaningful to measure to the shoulder than the top of its head.

    The 8 meters is length, rather than height: tip of its head to the top of its tail, and the height is measured foot to shoulder. (I'm inferring that the thing has a tail. I'd much rather get my science news from Science News than from the BBC.)

  8. Xing Xu by BamZyth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am too lazy to find hard references, but Xing Xu, the researcher who found
    this fossil was once involed in the discovery of another "dinosaur bird" which
    was shown as a fraud. To his credit, he was also involved in the team that discovered
    the fraud (isn't it strange?)

    http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/19 50967.htm

    FTFA : In 2001 he was embroiled in controversy over the discovery of a fossil believed to be the 'missing link between dinosaurs and birds, which tests revealed to be a clever fraud.

  9. It's pretty simple (I'm a Creationist myself) by EaglemanBSA · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, it's pretty simple, actually. I believe in some way, shape or form, God created the thing. Maybe He made it evolve, maybe He made it appear out of thin air...essentially I don't know, and don't need to. Creationism and science aren't necessarily exclusive. I simply believe that the scientific reasons behind what happens exist at the behest of a supreme being.

    --
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    1. Re:It's pretty simple (I'm a Creationist myself) by onedotzero · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I think active athiests see how much damage is done by religion. I would like to suggest you watch The Root of All Evil by Richard Dawkins.

      Although somewhat terse and often rude[1] the documentary highlights some serious problems with accepting religion and giving it the respect that it sees as being an inherent right.

      [1] Not necessarily a bad thing - this is Richard Dawkins through and through :)