Su-Yin
05-06-2005, 03:00 AM
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Slashersaurus-the-missing-link/2005/05/05/1115092628880.html
Guided by a blackmarket fossil dealer, American researchers have found an ancient killing field where as many as a million dinosaur bones from a previously unknown species are embedded in less than a hectare of primordial mudstone.
The new species "is a missing link in the history of dinosaurs," said Scott Sampson, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Utah Museum of Natural History.
The scientists owe the discovery to Lawrence Walker, who found the creatures while poaching fossils from federal lands, digging at night. Convinced they belonged to a new species, Walker revealed the latitude and longitude of the remote mesa where the bones had been found. He later served five months in jail for theft of government property and paid $US15,000 ($19,200) in restitution as the price for bringing the bones to the attention of science.
:hmm:
Guided by a blackmarket fossil dealer, American researchers have found an ancient killing field where as many as a million dinosaur bones from a previously unknown species are embedded in less than a hectare of primordial mudstone.
The new species "is a missing link in the history of dinosaurs," said Scott Sampson, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Utah Museum of Natural History.
The scientists owe the discovery to Lawrence Walker, who found the creatures while poaching fossils from federal lands, digging at night. Convinced they belonged to a new species, Walker revealed the latitude and longitude of the remote mesa where the bones had been found. He later served five months in jail for theft of government property and paid $US15,000 ($19,200) in restitution as the price for bringing the bones to the attention of science.
:hmm: