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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.
If I understand Behe correctly, he acknowledges that evolution occurs. Even macro-evolution. It's just that he also thinks there are some things that couldn't have evolved, so they seem to him to have been designed.
If Behe ever succeeds in persuading the scientific community, what we would then have is (if I may coin a phrase) "enhanced evolution." But the principles that evolution now works with won't change very much. There will still be mutation and natural selection. The fossil record will still form a "tree of life" showing the inter-relatedness of life on earth.
In other words, it won't be a triumph for Genesis-based creationism. All that young earth, global Flood stuff will still be out in the cold, because (as Behe seems to understand) there's just too much evidence against it. I don't understand why so many creationists seem to see Behe as their champion.
Wow, how times change. I apologize if I offended you. Or anyone else.
The times, they are a-changin'. Welcome to the "kinder, gentler" crevo threads. Science with a velvet glove. A soft answer turneth away wrath. All that.
Huh? What is a "man" element?
The difference between humans and apes (and as well as other mammals) is a difference in degree and not in kind. I'm sure every geneticist you'll ask will confirm this.
Species, being a man-made classification.
Yes, that's what I'm saying all the time. And there are even several species concepts depending on the situation
No matter what variation in human population you see, a pigmy is still as much of a man as a North American scientist. You are not going to get the kind of change you are reaching for.
That's true, we are still pretty similar but you don't know that this can't happen if you keep the pigmies isolated long enough. Of course, since a human life span is pretty long this can take quite some time (my layman estimate would be some hundred thousands of years).
According to the hypothesis which said that they shared reproductive capability before.
Which hypothesis? I think even you will agree that the members of a population should be able to interbreed with each other. I mean these two groups were part of one population in the past.
How long is 'long enough'?
Well, this can be thousands of years or even a few million. It depends a lot on the duration of a reproductive cycle as well as on the environmental stress on that particular population.
Assuming they were genetically fit to reproduce with the comparison species to begin with.
Not sure what you're meaning here.
Well, was just a suggestion ;)
But I'm sure you can also find it at a library so you don't have to buy it.
It's all gradual, all the way. A whole population evolves. They never lose compatibility with each other. You are making gruesomely naive errors here. Gruesomely naive.
The TO forum and TO_Archives have somewhat different characters. The forum does feature interactive debate between evos and creos. The Archives are overwhelmingly pro-evolution articles.
I've never really hung around on the forum, so I personally don't know what it's like for a creo to try to post there. What I and many evos use as a resource is the "archives" web site. You obviously won't like the articles it hosts, but I suggest you start answering their content and not the site that hosts them. You've plastered AiG all over this thread, so it's ridiculous for you to criticize evolutionary rebuttals as "biased."
Remember that post of Patrick's you didn't read? The one we're still talking about your cop-out?
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