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Posted on 08/13/2003 9:02:05 PM PDT by nwrep
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2 hours, 55 minutes ago
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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.
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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.
I believe this to be true as well. The one time I ever suspected anything not on the square to be going on (the case of EsotericLucidity) proved unfounded.
What exactly is this for? It looks like baiting to me.
AndrewC: Seems odd behavior for someone who willingly left, as Aric2000 relates.
So, are you inviting concisetraveler and the lurkers to believe that goodseedhomeschool did not resign publicly from FR? Perhaps you'd like to clarify any ambiguity which could give people a bad impression.
If the bannee we assumed to be goodseed-redux was indeed goodseed (sure looked like her), that would only indicate "resigner's remorse."
I was there too. She did ask Jim to ban her and he obliged. She then immediately went to another site and began badmouthing FR, Jim, and all the "RINO's" here. She's still posting under that name on at least two other sites. You might consider checking them out.
I never heard that about her returning under another name and, given the messages she posted elsewhere, it would surprise me.
AndrewC: Seems odd behavior for someone who willingly left, as Aric2000 relates.
Seems like perfectly clear English to me. I find it hard to believe that someone who willingly leaves needs to come back disguised. Having no evidence that GSHS came back under disguise, I would tend to reject that she did. Now having evidence of her desire to leave willingly it is even more doubtful that she did attempt reentry. Who would know except the person attempting the reentry and those affirming it?
To be precise, she posted to herself. However, I am not contending that the intent was to leave JR out. I also do not tail people to see what they do.
How could I forget? Yes. Alas! She became an activist on drug-legalization. I miss her, but that was a disappointing choice and not just for FR-posting purposes.
Not exactly the way I recall it. I think she had an original identity that she had lost the password to but which she recovered afterwards. As far as I know, she only came back on it to say goodbye.
I have a very clear recollection of a post on DesignedUniverse.com's message board that a female poster there (who I thought was gshs) had tried and failed to post here under a false identity. But in the midst of my researching the message threads last night to locate the post to see who it was that made the claim and the precise wording, I was barred.
Therefore, I cannot substantiate it one way or the other and underline my previous withdrawal of the assertion. I apologize for any discomfort caused by the unsubstantiated assertion!
I doubt that. Evos live very full-flavored lives too. I'd been posting a lot on threads about offshore outsourcing until lately. Ran out of things to say. OK, I guess we do specialize a bit.
You miss a lot. I'll drop it, per RWP's suggestion.
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