Posted on 11/26/2011 6:26:37 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Recreating the spectacular pose many dinosaurs adopted in death might involve following the simplest of instructions: just add water.
When palaeontologists are lucky enough to find a complete dinosaur skeleton – whether it be a tiny Sinosauropteryx or an enormous Apatosaurus – there's a good chance it will be found with its head thrown backwards and its tail arched upwards – technically known as the opisthotonic death pose. No one is entirely sure why this posture is so common, but Alicia Cutler and colleagues from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, think it all comes down to a dip in the wet stuff.
Cutler placed plucked chickens – both fresh and frozen – on a bed of sand for three months to see if desiccation would lead to muscle contractions that pulled the neck upwards – a previously suggested explanation for the death pose. The chickens decayed without contorting. When seven other chickens were placed into cool, fresh water, however, their necks arched and their heads were thrown back within seconds. Sustained immersion of the birds for up to a month slightly increased the severity of the pose, but the major movement of the head occurred almost immediately.
The result contrasts with a study carried out in 2007 by Cynthia Marshall Faux at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, and Kevin Padian at the University of California in Berkeley. The pair found that salty water did not alter the pose of dead quails. They concluded that the arched back seen in so many fossils was instead the result of the expiring dinosaur's final death throes (Paleobiology, DOI: 10.1666/06015.1) – an idea that was first suggested by pathologist Roy Moodie in 1918.
Why dunking dead birds in water produced different results in the two studies is not clear.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Someone was confusing dinosaurs with dragons?
That’s fine, but this isn’t a religion thread and you, sir, are trying to antagonize others and basically highjack the subject matter.
I am not anti-religion and firmly believe that God created the universe and all the physical laws that operate within it. Scientists, in their own feeble way, are uncovering those laws though they may not acknowledge that fact. God, whether bidden or unbidden, is always present.
A fossil of Protolindenia wittei, a dragonfly with a wingspan of about 15 cm. This exquisitely preserved specimen comes from the Jurassic Solnhofen limestones of Bavaria, Germany.
Perfect specimen - completly intact. How could that be?
Can you name one?
Which one what?
I seem to recall that animals dying in the desert will often end up in a contorted position. In the case of the probable asteroid event, there would have been tsunamis in some areas and fires and drought in others.
I am sure death throes from starvation would cause one to bend in all kinds of contorted shapes.
Exactly. Christian, believing scientist have for some time deduced that the oceans before Noah’s flood were not yet salty but basically fresh water. They will be happy to hear about this study.
ONCE upon a time, 3 billion years ago, there lived a single organism called LUCA. It was enormous: a mega-organism like none seen since, it filled the planet's oceans before splitting into three and giving birth to the ancestors of all living things on Earth today.
I think I'll pass...
Yup~!
These guys would be MUCH more believable if they could determine why all the cureloms died off.
From the mid-1950s onwards, the Church-owned Brigham Young University has sponsored (under the banner of the New World Archaeological Foundation, or NWAF) a large number of archaeological excavations in Mesoamerica, with a focus on the Mesoamerican time period known as the Preclassic (earlier than c. AD 200).[108] The results of these and other investigations, while producing valuable archaeological data, have not led to any widespread acceptance by non-LDS archaeologists of the Book of Mormon account. Citing the lack of specific New World geographic locations to search, Michael D. Coe, a prominent Mesoamerican archaeologist and Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Yale University, wrote,
"As far as I know there is not one professionally trained archaeologist, who is not a Mormon, who sees any scientific justification for believing the historicity of The Book of Mormon, and I would like to state that there are quite a few Mormon archaeologists who join this group".[109]
In 1955 Thomas Ferguson, an LDS member and founder of the NWAF, with five years of funding from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, began to dig throughout Mesoamerica for evidence of the veracity of the Book of Mormon claims. In a 1961 newsletter Ferguson predicted that although nothing had been found, the Book of Mormon cities would be found within 10 years. In 1972, Christian scholar Hal Hougey wrote Ferguson questioning the progress given the stated timetable in which the cities would be found.[110] Replying to Hougey as well as secular and non-secular requests, Ferguson wrote in a letter dated 5 June 1972:
"Ten years have passed... I had sincerely hoped that Book-of-Mormon cities would be positively identified within 10 years — and time has proved me wrong in my anticipation."[110]
During the period of 1959-1961, NWAF colleague Dee Green was editor of the BYU Archaeological Society Newsletter and had an article from it published in the summer of 1969 edition of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, pp 76–78 in which he acknowledged that the NWAF findings did not back up the veracity of the Book of Mormon claims. After this article and another six years of fruitless search, Thomas Ferguson published a 29-page paper in 1975 where he concluded,
"I'm afraid that up to this point, I must agree with Dee Green, who has told us that to date there is no Book-of-Mormon geography...".[111]
In 1976, referring to his own paper, Ferguson wrote a letter in which he stated:
"...The real implication of the paper is that you can't set the Book-of-Mormon geography down anywhere — because it is fictional and will never meet the requirements of the dirt-archeology. I should say — what is in the ground will never conform to what is in the book."[112]
Ferguson’s archaeological efforts failed to garner complete support from all prominent LDS scholars. Author and LDS Professor of Biblical and Mormon scripture Hugh Nibley published the following critical remarks:
“...Book of Mormon archaeologists have often been disappointed in the past because they have consistently looked for the wrong things... Blinded by the gold of the pharaohs and the mighty ruins of Babylon, Book of Mormon students have declared themselves “not interested” in the drab and commonplace remains of our lowly Indians. But in all the Book of Mormon we look in vain for anything that promises majestic ruins.”[113]
From --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology_and_the_Book_of_Mormon
New Scientist magazine was launched in 1956 "for all those men and women who are interested in scientific discovery, and in its industrial, commercial and social consequences".
Noah didn't like big reptiles plus they kept trying to eat him.
No, actually I'm not talking about Noah's flood, but an earlier flood, the Genesis Chapter 1 account of the earth covered with water before God began his (re)creation in Genesis Chapter 1.
No biblical timeline between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 which pre-(re)creation flood this refers to I believe.
Where is the T-Rex of today?
—
In the White House?
Cool. Thx for posting this.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.