'Intact' mummified dinosaur discovered

[Dr.Dude]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91248-1295942,00.html


The dramatic discovery of a mummified dinosaur complete with skin, ligaments and possibly some internal organs is to be featured on television.

The find of the fossilised duckbilled hadrosaur, nicknamed Dakota, was reported by the Sky News website last week.

Now Dino Autopsy, on the National Geographic Channel, will investigate one of the most important dinosaur discoveries of all time.
The find means that palaeontologists, who until now have been able to extract amazingly detailed information from not much more than teeth and bones, can add to their knowledge by studying a virtually intact dino mummy.

Experts believe it could prove to be one of the most important dinosaur finds of all time, offering never-before-seen details of what the dinosaurs really looked like and how they lived.

Virtually intact from head to toe, a one-in-a-million combination of conditions allowed this amazing specimen to become completely mummified.

National Geographic uses a combination of CGI reconstructions and expert analysis in its documentary to provide a unique insight into how the dino mummy was discovered.

The programme also looks at the expertise and intricate technology used to obtain information about the dinosaur, and the sheer magnitude of the team's findings.

This is the closest that palaeontologists have come yet to understanding dinosaurs.

Dino Autopsy, Sunday 9 December at 9pm
Find out more: natgeochannel.co.uk/dino (http://natgeochannel.co.uk/explore/Dino_SuperSite/)

[Hudson]

Woah! Awesome!!

[ryche]

Where'd they find it? That's just crazy cool though! :)

[HazMat]

This is really cool, was he frozen instantly or something like that?

[Hudson]

The preview said he was in a constant stream of settlement, like a one and a million chance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSYFmyn3n3c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr_WCPHDX-8

Damn, I missed it.. anyone know if there's a N.G. streaming episode channel or something?

[Usurper]

There's a National Geographic channel on Joost. Dunno what the lineup is right now, as its on my other now-rarely-used computer.

[jimbob]

i hope they can see what skin color those damn things have. thats about the only thing i really want to know. damn purple lizards.

[ShadeEX]

Awsome this totally made my day.. :woot:

[Steve]

This is bloody cool.

[Micki!]

:eek:
Whoah i missed these news, that's really really AWESOME..!
I can't wait to read articles and watch documentaries about this...

[Dr.Dude]

i hope they can see what skin color those damn things have. thats about the only thing i really want to know. damn purple lizards.

They weren't actually able to piece together the skin color, however from the varying scale density they decided that it had a striped tail, instead of being one shade all around.

[jimbob]

They weren't actually able to piece together the skin color, however from the varying scale density they decided that it had a striped tail, instead of being one shade all around.
f-ckstickles.

:(

they can put a damn man on the moon and make us believe britney can actually sing, but after millions of years they stil dont know what skin color dinosaurs had. :insomnia:

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

It's only been 6,000 years ;) :p

[jimbob]

thats nearly as old as my grandmother!

[Mr.Fibbles]

they can put a damn man on the moon and make us believe britney can actually sing, but after millions of years they stil dont know what skin color dinosaurs had. :insomnia:

Does skin color matter? Seriously, you would think that after all this time skin color would not matter to anyone anymore.

I thought you were better than this jimbob, now all you are to me is a racist.;)

[Kalki]

In movies, the black dinosaur is always the first to go extinct.

[JeremyGritton]

Can they extract its DNA and clone it?

:D

[ryche]

Jurrasic Park eh Dark? :)

and Kalki - that's just wrong man lol

[Waiter]

DNADNADNADNADNA...? :eek:

This is cool! But I want pictures! Images! Movies!

[Dr.Dude]

Haha, yeah, Jurassic Park was one of the first things that came to mind for me too. :D However, on the TV special, they stated that apparently the DNA had already decomposed a long time ago, if I recall correctly.

In movies, the black dinosaur is always the first to go extinct.

Usually followed by the stoner, plant-"eating" dinosaur, of course. ;)

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

Then the big breasted dinosaur.

[ryche]

Great I can just see what will be in stores

"Dino chicks gone Wild" - You think Triceratopia was hot, wait til you see her get it on with Julia and their big implants mash together!

[wayskobfssae]

It's only been 6,000 years ;) :p

Heh.. I was thinking that despite the fact that he's probably in a jail cell somewhere... Dr. Hovind got a chuckle or two out of this.

Can they extract its DNA and clone it? :D

Mummified was probably a bad term for what this is. It was preserved much faster than other dinosaurs yes, but its inserted into everyone's mind something similar to what we find when we take the bandages off of a pharaoh. This dino is just as much made of stone as all the other ones, we just got it frozen in time much sooner in its period of decay, so... unless there's sediment microscopic enough to accurately fossilize a DNA strand... uhh.. ya. I suspect that'd be like one of us trying to make a footprint by stepping in a container of marbles.

And even if there IS viable DNA... how long have we had that frozen Mammoth now... something like 10 years... and we still haven't started doing anything with it?

[ryche]

that's cause we got elephants we can mate with sheep or something


this is a DINOSAURRR

RAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRR!!

:)

[wayskobfssae]

No no, just saying that we haven't even tried to clone the mammoth yet (if it's possible) and it was in WAY better condition for possibly doing that than the dinosaur. So if it IS possible to clone the dinosaur, we're even further away from that than we are with cloning the mammoth.

[Mr.Fibbles]

You guys, you clone dinosaurs with Mosquitoes! :doh: :cool:

[Dr.Dude]

No no, just saying that we haven't even tried to clone the mammoth yet (if it's possible) and it was in WAY better condition for possibly doing that than the dinosaur. So if it IS possible to clone the dinosaur, we're even further away from that than we are with cloning the mammoth.

Actually, if I recall correctly, there was this team of Japanese genetic scientists back in '05 or '06 that wanted to experiment with the mammoth DNA and reintroduce the species into a private refuge.

I'm not sure what happened, though. I might start doing some net research in a second to see what I can find...though obviously even if they did go to work on the project, nothing must've came of it, seeing as otherwise we'd be seeing baby mammoths all across the news by now. :o ;)

[Hudson]

There's a National Geographic channel on Joost. Dunno what the lineup is right now, as its on my other now-rarely-used computer.

You know if it's anywhere else?

Man i'm so bummed I missed this :(

[Nessus]

I found an interesting story on what may have killed of a slew of wooly mammoths. An air burst meteor that rained down tiny iron pellets over a huge area, the pellets are still stuck in the tusks.. http://adamant.typepad.com/seitz/2007/12/palaeometeorics.html

[Mr.Fibbles]

I found an interesting story on what may have killed of a slew of wooly mammoths. An air burst meteor that rained down tiny iron pellets over a huge area, the pellets are still stuck in the tusks.. http://adamant.typepad.com/seitz/2007/12/palaeometeorics.html

Are you sure those aren't iron bullets? But we would never know. . .

[wayskobfssae]

Are you sure those aren't iron bullets? But we would never know. . .

Those burns look to be about 3mm across. So now we have evidence that pixies existed during the ice age, and carried muskets.

[Micki!]

God, killed mammoths with a shotgun..? :o

Erh, back on topic...

Dionsaur..!

[HazMat]

why come no peeps got pics?

[NutWrench]

I don't know, the writer contradicts himself in just the first couple of paragraphs:
The dramatic discovery of a mummified dinosaur complete with skin, ligaments and possibly some internal organs is to be featured on television.

The find of the fossilised duckbilled hadrosaur, nicknamed Dakota, was reported by the Sky News website last week.


Now "fossilised" means something very different from "mummified." Is this really a DINOSAUR dinosaur or just a wooley mammoth or a giant sloth?

[Nacho]

Its a dinosaur dinosaur. Mummified.

[Dave-ros]

I think the reason they can't easily clone an animal just from DNA is that you don't just feed some DNA into a pot and watch a dinosaur grow from it -- sexual reproduction requires a growing foetus to be shaped as it grows, either in its mother's womb (e.g. mammals) or inside the egg (e.g. reptiles). Without knowing the required processes, it'd probably just grow into a load of primordial soup, but using the reproductive system of an equivalent animal from today might be a starting point...

[John]

\o/ I'd buy a load of dinosaur primordial soup for a dollar.

[Waiter]

It's stone. Check with your dentist before trying that soup.

[NutWrench]

\o/ I'd buy a load of dinosaur primordial soup for a dollar.

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/4925/buyfordollarmb0.jpg

:D

[jimbob]

I thought you were better than this jimbob, now all you are to me is a racist.;)
:dopefish:

just curious, besides, dinisaurd were probably brown of some mixture of black and white :p

[wayskobfssae]

:dopefish:

just curious, besides, dinisaurd were probably brown of some mixture of black and white :p

They were purple, with flourescent green polka dots :cool:

[HazMat]

I thought they were red or blue wearing bandannas sporting Ak 47s.

[shiranui]

Quick! Young-Earth Creationists, stick a saddle on its back before anyone notices.

[wayskobfssae]

Heh, they don't need to. I think this one already did enough by proving fossilization can happen that quickly.

[jimbob]

infact, its not even dead. its just sleeping. :p

[Tetsuro]

Yeah, biding it's time to take over the earth on the right moment!

[HazMat]

I just read that it was fossilized while he had a hard on. Thats how they found him. "Our team came to have a rest under what we thought was a tree"

[jimbob]

Yeah, biding it's time to take over the earth on the right moment!

it wil be the new Godzilla! we should name him like that too :D

[December Man]

Jurassic Park, here we come! :p

[Aegeri]

Heh, they don't need to. I think this one already did enough by proving fossilization can happen that quickly.

It doesn't change the dates or the fact this is an extremely rare event to have this kind of fossilisation (I'm also curious if they have published papers in an actual recognised journal such as Nature or Science about the find, because I don't trust how either the popular press or the discovery channel sometimes tries to present things). Of course, people won't pay attention to the actual facts of what this find actually shows. I still get sick of hearing nonsense such as people claiming 'fresh' dinosaur blood and tissue was found in a fossil (oh dear).

Hopefully they'll publish several papers in Nature or similar (If they haven't already actually, I haven't looked into fossils in some time actually) that will be more informative.

[HazMat]

Still no pics yet? this must be the secret discovery. Any media at all on this?

[wayskobfssae]

http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1618283.jpg

So far all I've seen is this photo of the skin. It's been around since the break of the story though.

[Delicieuxz]

The dinosaur was found in 1999. The new media on it was due to there being a show about it released, I wouldn't necessarily expect there to be more media coming.

Also interesting:
Woolly Mammoth Resurrection, "Jurassic Park" Planned (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/04/0408_050408_woollymammoth.html)