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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.
They're only running from God,
You are mistaken, but that's a common misbelief for some reason I have yet to figure out.
Oh, that's an easy one to understand. It's a throwaway line, like, "Republicans are the party of the rich!" or "People who are against the War on Drugs just want to get high!", or, "Americans are just imperialists who want to take over the world!", or "All gun owners want to do is kill!"
Making sweeping generalizations about one's opponents saves one the trouble of actually understanding what they think, and why they think as they do.
As a point of information, I was trying to think of a polite way of mentioning this. But since I can't think of any way to do it without ruffling feathers, let me say...I am more than a little disappointed.
A scab won't heal, folks, if you keep picking at it. To those in the Evo camp who are continuing to argue legalistic minutiae, I say...Knock it off!
'Nuff said???
Sorta like Europe being a prime area for Bulgarians.
How old is Ohio? Do you understand the fallacy of the argument you are making here?
But wouldn't this imply, by your own argument, that dinosaurs and mammoths/elephants would have lived together and therefore have been fossilised in the same strata during the Flood?
Knocking it off is much worse than picking at it.
(Ducking)
Well, I do see a problem with telling a whole class of people that they are not welcome. And I therefore find that the response ---> Free speech is a problem for you. You should start your own discussion club in your closet where it's relatively safe. to be justified.
So all the marine-environment layers of the geologic column (that thing that doesn't exist) lie below all the land-environment layers?
So the annual variations seen in samples of Greenland ice, which date back to at least 50,000 BC and can be correlated with known historical events like volcanic eruptions, arose how?
Please define the "right" order, and contrast it with your explanation of what would be the "wrong" order.
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