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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.
Yes, they do. But only in the sense that the mutated offspring of a particular creature can't be all that different from the parent. Quite so. Micro-evolution. But when that process is continued over thousands and millions of generations, those little changes can add up to be a considerable difference. Again, what conceivable mechanism (except extinction) would intervene to prevent this from happening?
If "omnipresent" means what I think it does, He's not supposed to have ever left the building.
I think we may safely presume that He will do a better job of explaining why the evidence is the way it is than His proxies have thus far managed to do. In the mean time, we continue plugging away as best we can ;)
There is the big news, at least as considered by its authors.
Of course, that is perfectly consistent with evolution.
That is my definition of "kind".
Before you seemed to say that "kind" referred to "family". Now you say it's "species". But this gets back to why I asked you about bears. Different species of bears can reportedly produce viable offspring with each other...but not always. So how many "kinds" of bear are there?
Then, too, there are many different "kinds" of ant, even within the same colony! They can't all produce viable offspring with each other. It's not a definition that is very easily applied.
Worst of all, it leaves you with the problem of how Noah got all those species of beetles onto the Ark.
You aren't going to have lizards mating with birds and coming up with a transitional species.
That's good, because it would fly in the face of evolution if they could. Once again, you aren't debunking evolution, but rather your misconceptions about it.
Vade, without getting into the previous debate again - it is commonly understood by those of us who believe the Bible is inerrant that "all that there is" was made by Jesus Christ (John 1:3) --- i.e. the Father made all things by Jesus (Hebrews 1:2) --- who entered the physical realm once and will return. (Acts 1:11)
The Father and Jesus are One (John 10:30) - Jesus left to return to heaven, so that the Holy Spirit could come (John 16:7)
Hence, with the Trinity - the statement "that He never left the building," and "the Creator will return" are both true.
It's been a long time on this forum since these types of arguments have been discussed. And since many conservatives are Christian (and some fundamentalist) it is particularly helpful to Lurkers to see the points and the counter-points presented by other conservatives.
Again, thank you!
There is the big news, at least as considered by its authors.
It's the same nonsense we demolished about two months ago. It's based on the unfounded assumption that helium diffuses easily in zircons. It doesn't. A recent paper found a activation energy for helium diffusion of 44 kcal/mol., and a closure temperature of 190 C. (The closure temperature is the temperature below which diffusion is negligible). A zircon which has not been exposed to temperatures above 190C should retain its helium.
He diffusion and (U-Th)/He thermochronometry of zircon: initial results from Fish Canyon Tuff and Gold Butte. Reiners, Peter W.; Farley, Kenneth A.; Hickes, Hunter J. Department of Geology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA. Tectonophysics (2002), 349(1-4), 297-308.
As Creator of ”all that there is” there is nothing of which anything can exist but Himself. Thus, as the Scriptures say in Acts 17:28 “For in him we live, and move, and have our being”
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