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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."

12 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Trolls... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    From TFA:

    Fifty-one million years after the dinosaurs became extinct, Carcharocles megalodon trolled the Earthâ(TM)s seas as an apex predator

    Great, as if trolls on Slashdot weren't enough...

  2. 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 Whorhay · · Score: 5, Interesting

      When I was a kid a golf course near where I lived was doing some digging as part of renovating their course. They discovered what has since been known as the Burning Tree Mastadon. The lead archaeologist Paul E. Hooge ended up being expelled from many of the professional organizations he was a member of, because he helped the owner find a buyer. This was an amazing find and no museums were interested in giving anything like a fair value for it. It was eventually sold for $600,000 to someone in Japan.

    2. Re:Is our economy so bad... by bitt3n · · Score: 4, Funny

      Just so some sad sack can own a little piece of eternity.

      eternity, hell. I'm covering that trex in papier mache and glitter, filling it with hookers and blow, and making the world's most kickass birthday pinata.

      --
      how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
    3. Re:Is our economy so bad... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 4, Funny

      Don't forget to make some air holes (he says from bitter personal experience).

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  3. 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.

  4. Yawn by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wake me up when I can buy a prehistoric shark with a frikkin' slingshot.

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  5. It's a huge fraud! by EWAdams · · Score: 4, Funny

    Assertions that these "dinosaur" "fossils" are really the bones of early species are just a con. The Universe was created approximately 6000 years ago and these so-called fossils were placed in the earth by God to test our faith. He's trying to find out if we can be tricked into using those tools of Satan, logic and evidence.

    Good Creationists could call the Las Vegas police and have this auction of fraudulent material shut down for making false claims about the age of the items for sale.

    --
    I piss off bigots.
  6. Re:IT Dept by Maquis196 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Thats nothing, sometimes you can just ask for a +5 mod.

    How about it mods? +5 informative?

    --Maquis196

  7. Re:But who is selling? by SpinyNorman · · Score: 4, Informative

    They come from different places. The description of the duck bill dinosaur (hadrosaur) says it had been owned by a Japanese museum which closed, and was then bought by a private American collector who is now selling it.

    There's another article here about the auction which mentions the T.Rex also currently being privately owned:

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32705922/ns/technology_and_science-science/

    Sign of the recession I guess that some fat cat has to sell his T.Rex.

  8. 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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  9. Re:Pedantic Note: Troll Vs Trawl by Hatta · · Score: 4, Informative

    Trolling is a method of fishing where one or more fishing lines, baited with lures or bait fish, are drawn through the water. This may be behind a moving boat, or by slowly winding the line in when fishing from a static position, or even sweeping the line from side-to-side, eg when fishing from a jetty. Trolling is used to catch pelagic fish such as salmon, mackerel and kingfish.

    Trolling can be phonetically confused with trawling, a completely different method of fishing, where a net (trawl) is drawn through the water instead of lines. Trolling is used both for recreational and commercial fishing whereas trawling is used mainly for commercial fishing.

    From Wikipedia

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