Posted on 01/18/2008 3:01:23 PM PST by xcamel
DALLAS (AP) — A Texas museum that teaches creationism is counting on the auction of a prehistoric mastodon skull to stave off extinction. The founder and curator of the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum, which rejects evolution and claims that man and dinosaurs coexisted, said it will close unless the Volkswagen-sized skull finds a generous bidder.
"If it sells, well, then we can come another day," Joe Taylor said. "This is very important to our continuing."
Heritage Auction Galleries says the skull is estimated to be 40,000 years old, and projects it will fetch upward of $160,000. The artifact discovered in La Grange in 2004 is believed to be the largest of its kind, Heritage spokesman David Herskowitz said.
The auction will be held Sunday in Dallas, with bids accepted on the Internet until Saturday night.
"We're trying to reach out to someone who would buy it, then reach out to a museum in Texas," Herskowitz said.
Taylor said he would love to keep the skull of the elephant-like mammal as the centerpiece of his tiny museum just outside Lubbock, which includes creationist exhibits.
Claims on the museum's Web site include that Noah took dinosaurs aboard his ark. The prevailing scientific wisdom is that humans and dinosaurs missed each other by tens of millions of years.
Taylor said he's been financially crippled by about $136,000 he's been ordered to pay in a legal dispute over finder's rights to an Allosaurus skeleton unearthed in Colorado. About $141,000 has also been put into the mastodon skull's restoration, he said.
If the mastodon auction doesn't cover the judgment, Taylor said local authorities will seize his 10-year-old museum and sell off its contents in February.
"We've struggled so long here just to keep this thing going," Taylor said. "We're kind of losing interest. You can just tread water for so long."
The Heritage auction will also include other natural history items, including a 26-pound gold nugget found in Mexico that is expected to fetch at least $1 million.
I wonder if the AIG museum in Kentucky will pay for this.
Nothing like Friday fireworks. Camel, pass the popcorn, would ya?
That's what Noah said.
That must be a typo. The Museum says that nothing is over 10,000 years old. Could money trump religion?
Maybe the auction house and the museum just disagree.
My father always told me to follow the money. He was a smart old man : )
Well, that's just what the auction house says. But they're a bunch of hell bound heathens so their opinion doesn't count. < /prehistoric elephant sized sarcasm>
Oh, that's nice. Leave the most expensive item in the auction as an afterthought in the last line of the article. 26 pounds of gold = $334,000 just for the gold itself.
This fails to take into consideration that the earth is only 6000 years old and 10 million years could equal a single day to the intelligent designer. Since the 2nd law of thermodynamics makes scientific radio-carbon dating inaccurate by a few years, that proves that dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time.
But what if it came back over 6,000 years old? (Considering that most of the mastodons in the continental US were extinct by 10,000 years ago, a date older than 6,000 years would be pretty much guaranteed.)
Whoops! Popcorn is right!
Actually, it should be referred to as a ‘Jesus Elephant’...
What’s the problem?
If the guy owns the fossil, TS for the purist critics that sneer at his rights, his ownership or his desire to sell.
Of course, if you subscribe the ‘precious scientific heritage of all peoples’ concept of fossils ownership vs. traditional private property rights, you might be outraged.
In that case...here’s hoping you become extinct.
Hey... I just posted it...
I have no dog in the hunt
But do you have a dog that likes bones? That’s the real question.
And here I read that as "LaGrande" at first... ;-)
Well, just imagine them going to town on a prehistoric mastodon skull! The ultimate chew toy!
Sorry, you’re clean as the driven snow - I was being rhetorical. If the guy’s a creationist and people want to come his museum or buy his stuff - fine. Some in the scientific community with fascist impulses think this kind of thing is a crime. Personally, I’m for choice - and traditional freedoms. IMO, evolution doesn’t cut the mustard too cleanly either.
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