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More Antarctic Dinosaurs

RockDoctor writes "The highly respected palaeontology journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica has published its December number for free access on the Web, with the headline paper concerning new discoveries of dinosaurs from Antarctica. (Paper here, PDF.) The first major part of these discoveries was made in 1991, when isolated bones of a sauropod (a relative of the Apatosaurus, formerly known as Brontosaurus) were found associated with a theropod (ancestor or cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex). The sauropod has been named Glacialisaurus hammeri (the reason for the genus name is obvious, and Professor Hammer led the field expeditions under 'extremely difficult conditions'). The herbivore was some 25 ft. long and weighed 4 to 6 tons; at the time of life, the area was between 55 and 65 degrees south, suggesting a climate similar to the Falkland Islands or Tierra del Fuego."

2 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Image by sc0ob5 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is an image of the thing on this blog if you are interested. http://thedragonstales.blogspot.com/2007/12/hail-glacialisaurus-hammeri.html

  2. Re:brontosaurus by moderatorrater · · Score: 4, Interesting

    According to wikipedia, the apatosaurus had been known well before the brontosaurus ever came around. When the paleontologist who discovered the brontosaurus assembled it, he concluded that it was different from the apatosaurus and named it accordingly. Upon further study, they discovered that they were the same type of dinosaur, and since the apatosaurus was already established when the brontosaurus came around, they decided to use that name and just make "brontosaurus" a synonym.