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Dinosaur Auction In Las Vegas

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the seven-thousand-years-old dept.

Xerfas writes "If you ever dreamed of owning your own dinosaur, here's your chance. Possibly the most impressive natural history auction ever is set to take place Oct. 3 at the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas. Here you can find everything from the T.rex to a duck-billed dinosaur and a mammoth skeleton."

6 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Is our economy so bad... by Last_Available_Usern · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ..that a lot of these items are going to disappear into the hands of private collectors instead of the museums who should have them? It's sad to think of finds of this caliber not being publicly available. Maybe it's time we energize a little more funding into the arts and history.

    1. Re:Is our economy so bad... by gijoel · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The real tragedy is that most of these fossils probably came from private digs. Like archeology, paleontology relies on context. The location where it was found, it's position in the geological strata, other fossils found with it. All these factors can enrich our understanding of these species.

      All that information has been lost forever now. Just so some sad sack can own a little piece of eternity.

    2. Re:Is our economy so bad... by SpinyNorman · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Things like the T.Rex tend to end up in museums anyway... I expect eventually someone will donate it or leave it in their will to a museum.

      Good opportunity for someone like Bill Gates to do a bit of high profile philanthropy though.

  2. Surprisingly low prices by sunking2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Other than the TRex, the prices were not all that bad. Sure, out of my price range. But $500k for a triceratops (I know its something else) seems pretty good.

  3. Re:IT Dept by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Modding rule No. 6: If you offer for people to mod you down, you will be modded up. If you begin your comment with "Mod me flamebait / troll / redundant, but..." you'll be modded +5.

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    Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  4. Re: Days by TaoPhoenix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "And then, of course, you have those who say that the "creation in six days" is not to be taken literally. "

    If you can get your friendly neighborhood creationist to allow for this, that's the compromise I can usually live with for conversation. Replacing "day" which we are now pretty fierce calling 24 hours with "day" from "In *MY* day we didn't have lawns, we had to assemble the biocarbon molecules for each blade of grass by hand", then "life in six eras (days)" is fine.

    Life IS pretty neat, so sometimes it is pretty comfy to think of a Deist force that guided life that doesn't "talk personally" to people. Most of where ultra-orthodox religion gets stuck is in superlatives of God as Perfect. Replace that with "Pretty Blessed Good" and all the arguments melt away. ("Gee, we're not sure what $Deity was thinking when ___ allowed Down's Syndrome to happen, but ___ is still Blessed Good so I'll worship ____ anyway."

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    My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine