Saturday, January 3, 2009

New trove of dinosaurs in China

OK, some stuff is just plain interesting. Sorry I can't be witty, I just found this an article indicating that there is still a lot of science to be done out in the big wide world.

Huge dinosaur discovery in China: state media

What really struck me was this:

"Zhao said the discovery of so many dinosaurs in such a dense area could provide clues on how the animals became extinct towards the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago, the Beijing News said."

But this doesn't make sense to me:

"Included in the find was the largest "platypus" -- or "duck-billed dinosaur" in Chinese -- ever discovered measuring nine metres high with a wingspan wider than 16 metres, the report said."

I thought the duckbills were Jurassic, not Cretaceous. And, uh, "wingspan"?

More research is needed.

So here's another link on this:

China finds major dinosaur site

Most of the other stuff is based on the single Beijing News article. The Australian picked up on the "platypus" word, apparently missing that it was really a duckbill.

Have to wait until National Geographic runs something on this to get the good word (even though they were duped by some forgeries awhile back).

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