New Dinosaur Species Found in India

AP ^ | August 13, 2003 | RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM

[nwrep]

New Dinosaur Species Found in India

2 hours, 55 minutes ago

Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!

By RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM, Associated Press Writer

BOMBAY, India - U.S. and Indian scientists said Wednesday they have discovered a new carnivorous dinosaur species in India after finding bones in the western part of the country.

AP Photo Missed Tech Tuesday? Check out the powerful new PDA crop, plus the best buys for any budget

The new dinosaur species was named Rajasaurus narmadensis, or "Regal reptile from the Narmada," after the Narmada River region where the bones were found.

The dinosaurs were between 25-30 feet long, had a horn above their skulls, were relatively heavy and walked on two legs, scientists said. They preyed on long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs on the Indian subcontinent during the Cretaceous Period at the end of the dinosaur age, 65 million years ago.

"It's fabulous to be able to see this dinosaur which lived as the age of dinosaurs came to a close," said Paul Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago. "It was a significant predator that was related to species on continental Africa, Madagascar and South America."

Working with Indian scientists, Sereno and paleontologist Jeff Wilson of the University of Michigan reconstructed the dinosaur skull in a project funded partly by the National Geographic (news - web sites) Society.

A model of the assembled skull was presented Wednesday by the American scientists to their counterparts from Punjab University in northern India and the Geological Survey of India during a Bombay news conference.

Scientists said they hope the discovery will help explain the extinction of the dinosaurs and the shifting of the continents — how India separated from Africa, Madagascar, Australia and Antarctica and collided with Asia.

The dinosaur bones were discovered during the past 18 years by Indian scientists Suresh Srivastava of the Geological Survey of India and Ashok Sahni, a paleontologist at Punjab University.

When the bones were examined, "we realized we had a partial skeleton of an undiscovered species," Sereno said.

The scientists said they believe the Rajasaurus roamed the Southern Hemisphere land masses of present-day Madagascar, Africa and South America.

"People don't realize dinosaurs are the only large-bodied animal that lived, evolved and died at a time when all continents were united," Sereno said.

The cause of the dinosaurs' extinction is still debated by scientists. The Rajasaurus discovery may provide crucial clues, Sereno said.

India has seen quite a few paleontological discoveries recently.

In 1997, villagers discovered about 300 fossilized dinosaur eggs in Pisdura, 440 miles northeast of Bombay, that Indian scientists said were laid by four-legged, long-necked vegetarian creatures.

Indian scientists said the dinosaur embryos in the eggs may have suffocated during volcanic eruptions.

[AndrewC]

In fact, modern physics requires that something (virtual particles) is created out of nothing, every instant of time.

Am I to conclude that time and space are nothing?

[Right Wing Professor]

Am I to conclude that time and space are nothing?

They're two parts of a coordinate system.

[Aric2000]

You would NOT believe thedeal that I just got at Office Depot, I could NOT believe it.

A Maxtor 80 gig hard drive, 8 Megabytes Cache, 7200 RPM, and ATA133, $110 - $10 in store rebate - $10 Homeshool teachers rebate - and $30 mail in rebate.

I just picked this puppy up for $60, I could NOT believe it, the lowest price drive that was even close to $60 was a 40 gig hard drive 7200, ATA133 w 2 meg cache. Unreal, I am very excited!! YES!!!

I just got TWICE the hard drive for the same price, TOO COOL!!

Megahugs!!
(that was for Alamo-girl, not you RA..;))

[AndrewC]

They're two parts of a coordinate system.

Coordinate systems are constructs. Time seems pretty real to me.

[Right Wing Professor]

Time seems pretty real to me.

Real in what sense?

[ThinkPlease]

Some folks get an A for effort in trying to explain causation of the big bang, but it does not hold up to scientific scrutiny and is, like the theory of evolution itself, ultimately a matter of faith.

I don't agree with you. It's pretty simple, since all astronomical evidence points to an old universe, started with some sort of rapid expansion from a single entity. There is no other widespread evidence to convince us otherwise at this time.

[Aric2000]

Done deal, no problem.

Man, she is gonna come at me with one of her BIG guns pretty quick!!

I'll be good, promise!!;)

[VadeRetro]

So your 80 gig drive holds four times what my 20 gig drive will hold. But I've had it three years and it's still got 16 gig of free space. What are you going to do, store whole movies?

Anyway, congrats! (Do you have a nice zip drive for backups?)

[DittoJed2]

I don't agree with you. It's pretty simple, since all astronomical evidence points to an old universe, started with some sort of rapid expansion from a single entity. There is no other widespread evidence to convince us otherwise at this time.
A voice from heaven wouldn't convince you. And am I to assume that you have consumed all astronomical evidence? To the contrary, there is evidence that shows a young earth even in the stars. Of course, this goes against "the theory", so why bother to even study it.

[DittoJed2]

You still have a system. It isn't "nothing".

[Aric2000]

Yeah, I have a 100 meg ZIP that I picked up at a garage sale for $5 with 5 disks. Works great.

And I want A BIG hard drive because I have a digital camera, and want room to store and organize all those pictures, and I am also learning Flash 5.0 so need LOTS of space to store my flash stuff.

And I am running 18 gigs right now, 1 15 gig a a 3 gig, and the darn thing is fuller then full, I had to do something or I was going to be in BIG trouble.

Besided, I am putting together a new system, so wanted a nice HD to go with it.

Got a new case/power supply, new hard drive, new keyboard, then I am going to take my CD-Rom out of this one and the video card and I will have one rocking system. Just waiting for the Mobo and CPU and RAM to arrive and I will be ALL set up!! I can't wait!!!

[ThinkPlease]

A voice from heaven wouldn't convince you. And am I to assume that you have consumed all astronomical evidence? To the contrary, there is evidence that shows a young earth even in the stars. Of course, this goes against "the theory", so why bother to even study it.

Since I spent 8 years of my life getting an advanced degree in the subject, I can say that I've spent quite a bit of time looking at the data in sufficient detail. I've also spent a bit of time looking at alternative theories, and I've found them very lacking. Creationist theories in astronomy are pretty absymal when it comes to explaining physics in the heavens.

[DittoJed2]

When you approach your evidence, do you make assumptions or is there a blank slate? (such as, do you approach fossils in layers and assume a certain age? )

[ThinkPlease]

I'm getting a 120 GB drive from my family for my b-day this weekend. It's fire wire, so I get to play with finding a home for it (my mac laptop or my wifes dell laptop). It's solely for backup purposes. We have all of our CD's converted to mp3, (about 65 GB worth) plus more pictures, websites, scientific data, etc etc. It should be pretty cool!

Sounds like your computer upgrade is an undertaking! Good luck!

[BMCDA]

In fact, modern physics requires that something (virtual particles) is created out of nothing, every instant of time. And the measured values of several physical constants depend on that creation of something from nothing.

Isn't that demonstrated by the Casimir effect, if I'm not mistaken?

As an aside, IMO "from nothing" resp. "out of nothing" is a reification fallacy (Odyssean fallacy ;-). We treat "nothing/nobody" as an actual entity and not as a placeholder (like zero) and this causes a lot of confusion. Unfortunately it seems to be just a nasty artifact of our language (not sure if this is also the case in non-indo-european languages).

[DittoJed2]

http://www.desy.de/pub/www/projects/Physics/ParticleAndNuclear/casimir.html

In this theory you still have something. You have particles. You have photons. You have "uncharged plates" You don't have "nothing".

[Aric2000]

Yes, it is a lot of fun.

I am unemployed right now, so couldn't afford a new system, but I have an anonymous benefactor, so my wife told me that I could spend $100 on the upgrade. So, that's what I bought with it.

The Mobo. CPU amd Ram are coming from a friend, a P-4 2.3 Ghz CPU, and ASUS P4G8X Deluxe and 512 meg of RAM.

I will finally be able to betatest like I used to, and my flash, Internet webpage programs etc will run a LOT better.

I do a lot of CPU intensive stuff, and this K6-3 450 just can't do the job anymore. Oh, and my Gforce4 does NOT work worth a darn on this P5A mobo. It works, but just barely, I cannot run Glide or 3D graphics mode on it or it crashes my mchine.

[VadeRetro]

In this theory you still have something. You have particles. You have photons. You have "uncharged plates" You don't have "nothing".

Poster-boy example for a "How Not To Spin the Casimir Effect" education campaign.

The plates are in a "vacuum" as we normally consider it. In the skinny volume between the plates there is less pressure than in the "vacuum" surrounding the plates. Attractive forces between the plates can be eliminated. Thus, the "vacuum" wasn't empty.

Your attempted rebuttal simply misses the point. It's like those "You still have a designer" rebuttals to any scientific experiment conducted in a lab by a human.

[DittoJed2]

Do you or do you not have photons? Do you or do you not have particles? You miss my point. You do not have NOTHING because in this world you can NOT have nothing.

[VadeRetro]

You do not have NOTHING because in this world you can NOT have nothing.

Has Physicist told you yet what the total mass/energy content of the universe looks like? (If you hear it from me, you won't believe it.)