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The World's Deepest Dinosaur 312

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the nice-shootin-tex dept.
FiReaNGeL writes to tell us BiologyNews.net is reporting that Norway has uncovered their first set of dinosaur remains. The catch? They found it 2,256 meters below the ocean floor. From the article: "It is merely a coincidence that the remains of the old dinosaur now see the light of day again, or more precisely, parts of the dinosaur. The fossil is in fact just a crushed knucklebone in a drilling core - a long cylinder of rock drilled out from an exploration well at the Snorre offshore field."
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The World's Deepest Dinosaur More

The World's Deepest Dinosaur

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  • Forget the dinosaur... (Score:3, Funny)

    by fotbr ( 855184 ) on Monday April 24, 2006 @11:28PM (#15194444) Journal
    Give us the details on the drilling rig!

  • Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)

    by ral315 ( 741081 ) on Monday April 24, 2006 @11:30PM (#15194452)
    A crushed knucklebone in a drilling core,
    Everybody find the dinosaur!

  • Wow (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Capt'n Hector ( 650760 ) on Monday April 24, 2006 @11:31PM (#15194454)
    I wonder what things will be like 200 million years from today, what adanced (or not so advanced) civilization will uncover the golden gate bridge, or statue of liberty. Entire continents submerged under thousands of feet of water and mud? This impetuous yet infinitesimal progression of gradualism really makes catastrophic events like Katrina seem like child's play. There's no greater force than time.
    • Agreed. That oil rig really is one old dinosaur.

    • Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)

      by ozmanjusri ( 601766 ) <aussie_bob@hoMOSCOWtmail.com minus city> on Monday April 24, 2006 @11:38PM (#15194481) Journal
      I wonder what things will be like 200 million years from today, what adanced (or not so advanced) civilization will uncover the golden gate bridge, or statue of liberty.

      They'll probably collapse onto the sand and shout "You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!"

    • Re:Wow (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I wonder what things will be like 200 million years from today, what adanced (or not so advanced) civilization will uncover the golden gate bridge, or statue of liberty.

      Or the Slashdot servers. Holy crap, what if they're reading this post?! I for one welcome our 200 million year future overlords! (Just put my knucklebone somewhere nice please)

      • Re:Wow (Score:3, Funny)

        by SEWilco ( 27983 )
        Just put my knucklebone somewhere nice please

        Hey, Marge! They had knucklebones! The Slashdot users were dinosaurs!

    • Re:Wow (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      There will be no 200 million years from today. It all ends 12/21/2012

    • Re:Wow (Score:4, Interesting)

      by RancidPeanutOil ( 607744 ) on Monday April 24, 2006 @11:58PM (#15194558)
      200 million years is a long time. I'm guessing the statue of liberty, barring some perfect preservation disaster, will be an oblong mass of blue-ish powder, and the golden gate bridge will be a square-ish patch of whatever color its metal will corrode to. Most likely a zigzag shape, what with the earthquakes etc. over that period of time. Our (human) pyramids are only 6000 years old, and their outer surface is gone - another 100k years, they'll just be piles of rubble. Even with millions of years, fossilization is a rare occurance, and the materials of earth are destined to be reabsorbed - aliens of the future will find plastic powders where our landfills were, with little clue as to real shape or function. Makes ya wonder how many skyscrapers and pyramids the dinosaurs made 650 million years ago that have eroded away.

      • What will remain of us in 200 million years? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Beryllium Sphere(tm) ( 193358 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @12:11AM (#15194615) Journal
        The lunar landing sites will still be recognizable in 200 million years. Even the footprints are estimated to survive for a hundred times the age of the Pyramids.

        Voyager 2 and Pioneer 10 will outlive the Earth.

      • Re:Wow (Score:2, Informative)

        by Wyatt Earp ( 1029 )
        On the other hand much could and likely will survive. We have dinosaur's footprints, eggs, skin and poo which has survived. We have the banks of an ancient river at Dinosaur National Monument and we have the Burgess Shales in Canada. We have the gigatons of Banded Iron Formations world wide as evidence of bacteria which has survived hundreds of millions if not billions of years. Steel, concrete, titanium and aluminum constructs will survive for hundreds of millions of years in some way, shape or form.

        Likely
      • Our (human) pyramids are only 6000 years old, and their outer surface is gone - another 100k years, they'll just be piles of rubble

        I believe that their nice shiny white outer surface was actually stolen/reused... in the nice shiny white buildings around Cairo. People cant resist shiny stuff... so maybe that actually proves your point that they wont be around for ever, but it wasnt environmental factors that have removed their brilliant coverings...

        a ref [egyptgiftshop.com] that says so... i have read it elsewhere too...
        • If you walk in the older bits of Cairo with a keen eye, you can spot bits and pieces of temple stones in the masonry of the older houses...

          This of course is nothing new, proper building material has always been hard to come by and already prepared stone blocks from some old ruins nobody cares about are always tempting. It's been done all over the world.
      • the outer surface (dressed stone) of the pyramids in egypt were cannibalized over the centuries for other projects - until is was deceided to preserve them. the coliseum in rome was used as a quarry for stone for a couple hundred years as well. it also has been hit with a couple earthquakes. unless it starts to rain a whole bunch for the next 100k years, i think the pyramids will still be there.

        • Re:Wow (Score:2)

          by x2A ( 858210 )
          "unless it starts to rain a whole bunch for the next 100k years, i think the pyramids will still be there"

          yeah cuz they're actually just very large sandcastles... it's no real mystery how they were built, large buckets, filled with sand and patted down, and emptied on top of each other. So either rain, or an beach-style-egypt-bully comes along and stamps on 'em... yeah that's it :-p

        • Re:Wow (Score:4, Insightful)

          by dajak ( 662256 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @06:35AM (#15195416)
          the outer surface (dressed stone) of the pyramids in egypt were cannibalized over the centuries for other projects - until is was deceided to preserve them. the coliseum in rome was used as a quarry for stone for a couple hundred years as well. it also has been hit with a couple earthquakes. unless it starts to rain a whole bunch for the next 100k years, i think the pyramids will still be there.

          It's worth noting that these are examples of landmarks that are exceptionally well-preserved. In Eqypt there is hardly a shortage of stone for construction, and Rome has been continually inhabited by people who considered the builders of the Coliseum their ancestors.

          In parts of Europe where stone is scarce the only signs of Roman presence are Roman milestones found in newer stone constructions like city walls and castles. The towns and roads are completely gone, and we can only guess where they were once located.

          Metal is also continually reused. Our large constructions will only survive if there is no mankind around. Places in ancient Eqypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, etc. are preserved because of desertification.

      • 200 million years is a long time. I'm guessing the statue of liberty, barring some perfect preservation disaster, will be an oblong mass of blue-ish powder, and the golden gate bridge will be a square-ish patch of whatever color its metal will corrode to. Most likely a zigzag shape, what with the earthquakes etc. over that period of time. Our (human) pyramids are only 6000 years old, and their outer surface is gone - another 100k years, they'll just be piles of rubble.

        It's worth pointing out that the [Egy

    • Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)

      by cashman73 ( 855518 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @12:48AM (#15194707) Journal
      Just wait until they discover the historical documents [amazon.com]!
    • Future civilizations will find all our plastic bits and try to reconstruct our society from them.
      • Won't plastic be heavily recycled by then ? I'm not sure there will be that much lying around.

        Unless we find oil in space and figure a way of bringing it back, plastic may become a valuable material...
    • Interesting question. Does it apply to this civilisation? what is the possibility of finding an older human civilisation burried underground?

  • Likely Evidence (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 24, 2006 @11:34PM (#15194469)
    The fossil is in fact just a crushed knucklebone in a drilling core

    Quick! someone call CSI!

  • The dinosaur isn't as amazing as. . . (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Who235 ( 959706 ) <`moc.aic' `ta' `9xtnegaterces'> on Monday April 24, 2006 @11:39PM (#15194483)
    . . .the fact they can tell what species it was by just a knucklebone.

    • Re:The dinosaur isn't as amazing as. . . (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Random Destruction ( 866027 ) on Monday April 24, 2006 @11:49PM (#15194523)
      ...a /crushed/ knucklebone.

    • Amazing (Score:3, Funny)

      by Mark_MF-WN ( 678030 )
      What amazes me is that the Great Flood receded so quickly and forcefully that it was able to drive a dinosaur bone over two kilometres into the sea floor. That's divine wrath for ya.

      :P

      • I don't think there's any evidence the flood receded is there, I don't recall God saying that. No, before the flood there was no water at all in the oceans until the fountains of the deep gushed forth and filled them in, the flood on what is today still land was no doubt the boiling and frothing of the waters as they gushed forth and settled down.

        Obviously the areas now covered by Ocean were once the domain of the angels who spent there time planting "dinosaur" bones and other "evidence" in there ready for

  • Thats strange... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Elitist_Phoenix ( 808424 ) on Monday April 24, 2006 @11:40PM (#15194490)
    I though the worlds deepest dinosaur was cowboy neal

  • Dinosaurs all the way down... (Score:5, Funny)

    by HermanAB ( 661181 ) on Monday April 24, 2006 @11:46PM (#15194513)
    Hmm, so the old woman was wrong, the earth is not perched on the back of a turtle, it is dinosaurs all the way down...

  • Old song... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Ekhymosis ( 949557 )
    Reminds me of an old song "Dem Dem Dry Bones" or whatever it was called. However, I can't seem to recall the "knucklebone" stanza, so hopefully the scientists won't mess up the rebuilding. =)

  • Cue the.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by gardyloo ( 512791 ) on Monday April 24, 2006 @11:59PM (#15194562)
    "The FSM put it there!" comments :)

  • Drilling for fossil fuel? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mr. Flibble ( 12943 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @12:06AM (#15194597) Homepage
    So, they were drilling for fossil fuel? Looks like they knuckled down, and found the source. But still, with the odds of finding a fossil like that, so deep, it almost makes me wonder if the drill was intelligently designed...

  • Obligatory... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Monkey ( 16966 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @12:09AM (#15194609)
    Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
    • Oh freddled gruntbuggly...
    • Nyarlathotep?

      Ahtu?

      Ahiiieeee! and though you are known by by a hundred hundred names, here on the slashdotted plane your name shall be "Monkey" as only Nyarlathotep is obligated to speak the great deep one's true name.

      And lo' it was written:

      "There was the immemorial figure of the deputy or messenger of hidden and terrible powers - the 'Black Man' of the witch cult, and the 'Nyarlathotep' of the Necronomicon."

      You are that messenger... obviously.

  • Sign of Age (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Metabolife ( 961249 )
    Usually the lower beneath the surface a fossil is, the old it, due to the fact that soil is deposited over time. I wonder what the results of a carbon dating would show.
    • I'm not convinced rock contains a whole lot of carbon from organic sources. Just a guess, mind you. The oil, on the other hand, probably has LOTS of carbon from organic sources, but is likely much deeper. Unfortunately, carbon dating is not useful beyond a few tens of thousands of years - there simply isn't enough C14 left to date accurately, and it is next to impossible to get any kind of accurate calibration.

      (You've also got to consider that rocks don't always progress linearly. Folding - where older rock

  • It's a balrog (Score:5, Funny)

    by theurge14 ( 820596 ) * on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @01:06AM (#15194734)
    The Norwegians dug too deep and greedily.
  • ...and placed that knucklebone there about 6500 years ago because he knew in his infinite wisdom and omnipotence that someday we would send an exploratory core driller down in that exact location. I see it all clearly now.

  • Damn devil ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by vonmeth ( 656965 ) * on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @09:08AM (#15195920)
    ... trying to trick us with fossils into believing the world is older than 10,000 years.

  • Ocean != Sea (Score:3)

    by TonyJohn ( 69266 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @10:15AM (#15196321) Homepage
    A lot of the comments here are as the result of a misquote in the headline. The headline reports that the bone was found below the "ocean" floor, while the article describes it as being the "sea" bed, the North Sea in particular. There is a very significant difference between the two (apart from the depth - oceans are typicially a few km deep, while seas are only a few 100m), namely the way that they formed. The North Sea was once continental crust (upon which this dinosaur lived), but it stretched, sank, and was flooded. Ever since, sediments have been accumulating, and over time these have buried the fossil to its current depth. Ocean floor is formed from spreading ridges, and has never been part of the continent - you would not expect to find a land dinosaur there.

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