![]() "Some commercial collectors just want to dig up fossils as trophies, so they don't bother to gather these data (and may even lack the professional expertise to know what data to collect)," he said.Ībove, Shen the T. The process of unearthing a fossil, therefore, requires a slow and precise investigation of all of these factors. So conclusions based on such specimens are really hearsay, not data."Īccording to Holtz, the scientific information in paleontology is not just the bones, it is also the position they are found in the rocks, the content of the sediment around them, and the exact level in the rocks in which it was found. "Specimens in private hands might be accessible to one set of scientists (perhaps friends of the rich person who buys it) but are not necessarily available to anyone else to check for themselves. "One very important part of scientific research is 'repeatability': the ability of independent researchers to examine the same materials and see if they come to the same (or different) conclusions as the first set of scientists," Holtz said. rex specimen was sold by Christie's in 2020 for $31,800,000 in Abu Dhabi, making it the most expensive fossil ever sold. rex's Tiny Arms Might Have Helped Them Have Sex Enormous Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Texas Riverbed Dried by Drought.Cannonball-Sized Dinosaur Eggs Filled With Crystals Discovered in China.Gregory Erickson, a professor of paleobiology at Florida State University, told the BBC he fears that these million-dollar sales of dinosaurs "sends a message that it's just any other commodity that you can buy for money and not for scientific good." When a Gorgosaurus skeleton was sold by Sotheby's in July for $6 million, many experts spoke up about their concerns. Specimens which are privately owned are not so accessible, and even if they are now they might not be in the future," he said. "Fossils which are in museum collections are in principle accessible to researchers now and into the future for analysis and study, including types of analyses and studies that we can't even imagine yet. Holtz, a principal lecturer in Vertebrate Paleontology at the University of Maryland, told Newsweek. "The problem with treating fossil specimens like trophies or collectibles is that their real significance comes from the information in the bones (from the obvious anatomical features to microscopic structures to even the isotopic composition of the molecules in the bone crystals), not from the object itself," Thomas R. Many dinosaur skeletons have been sold at auction in the past, but scientists have not historically been supportive of dinosaur skeletons and other rare artifacts being sold. "After the unforgettable, record-breaking sale of STAN at Christie's New York in 2020, it is a thrill and an immense privilege for us to be trusted with the sale of another wonderous T. rex skeletons to come to auction," James Hyslop, Head of Science & Natural History at Christie's Hong Kong auction house, said in a statement. "From its surging, bloodthirsty stance, to its remarkable preservation, this is one of the most scientifically studied T. rex's skeleton (seen above) is set to be auctioned off in November in Hong Kong, and is expected to be bought for at least $15 million. Wollaton Hall has an international reputation for rare dinosaur exhibits, and in 2017 ran a Dinosaurs of China exhibition with a selection of fossils that had never been seen outside Asia before.Shen the T. About 100 or so T rex fossils have been found. Visitors would be able to take a close look at the specimen’s features “and try to decide if in fact he was covered in scales or feathers or both”, he said.Ī study published in April estimated that 2.5 billion T rex walked the Earth over 127,000 generations for between 1.2m and 3.6m years. “Titus is an incredibly well-preserved specimen with important and unique pathologies that advance the science of palaeontology and our understanding of these iconic dinosaurs,” he said. The exhibition, which received funding from Arts Council England, aims to dispel some myths about the dinosaur, which roamed the earth more than 66m years ago.ĭr David Hone, a palaeontologist and senior lecturer in zoology at Queen Mary University of London, was part of the team tasked with bringing Titus to life. A complete T rex skeleton has never been found, and most dinosaur skeletons on display in exhibitions are casts of the real bones. The fossil was around 20% complete once fully conserved, so although it is a ‘real’ skeleton, many of the bones are reconstructions made of black obsidian. Titus in situ at at the Wollaton Hall Natural History Museum.
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