Oct 16 2007
New Dinosaur Discovered - Futalognkosaurus dukei
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The nerd within me is rejoicing and doing a happy dance that is most definately defying the laws of gravity right now. But with this kind of news can you blame me:
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - The skeleton of what is believed to be a new dinosaur species — a 105-foot (32-meter) plant-eater that is among the largest dinosaurs ever found — has been uncovered in Argentina, scientists said Monday.
Scientists from Argentina and Brazil said the Patagonian dinosaur appears to represent a previously unknown species of Titanosaur because of the unique structure of its neck. They named it Futalognkosaurus dukei after the Mapuche Indian words for “giant” and “chief,” and for Duke Energy Argentina, which helped fund the skeleton’s excavation.
I’m not exactly thrilled to hear that the new dinosaur’s name includes the company that helped to fun the dig, to me that just screams of commercialism to an awful extent though. Other than that, I’m thrilled by this new discovery and I can’t wait to read and hear what new information this find could yield. The archaeological record has so many gaps and holes in it, but with each new piece we get that much clearer of a picture.
lol to the nerd inside rejoicing; funny how I didn’t hear about this in the news, yet you hear about some bs shooting or other temporary nonsense. I’m not too big on them naming if after the company either, but perhaps that can be a good thing? Might lead to more exhaustive searches in hopes of naming the new find after your company…kinda like a reward for all the years of study. This thing is pretty huge too…too bad I can’t pronounce it’s name haha. When they make Jurassic Park 35 hopefully it will be in the mix ;). You know they started a frozen zoo btw? No more species on Earth today will ever be “extinct”…pretty cool uncovering the past, and toying with genomes of the future.
That is unbelievably cool. I am a (closet) nerd too.. LOL.. I get excited everytime I hear about new discoveries in space, or new developments in science. I’m also a huge computer nerd too. Oh well..
Of course they named the dinosaur after the people who funded the dig, that is what the world is made up of now–Commercializing off of something that you may have just happened upon. But it is really cool news. A new dinosaur uncovered! That’s exciting.
Matt,
Yes it is rather ridiculous that we hear about all of these other over reported and sensationalized stories before we hear about the “real” news. But then again, that was I made this blog separate from my personal one. So that I could give attention to more interesting stories.
Now, you would think that exhaustive searches would be a good thing but in reality it’s not so good. Every time a new site or find is discovered it is never fully dug up. They might have found the remains of this dinosaur and removed them, but they will have marked the site and continue excavating it at a later point in time. The reason that sites are never fully excavated upon discovery is because technology and methodology is constantly changing and evolving. The item in question, while important, does not yield all of the pertinent information on it’s own. Rather, the contextual data, the area it was found in, is just as important as it gives us information we would never have without it. This is why artifacts recovered from the black market are never of much value. The contextual data is lost.
That said, only portions of a site will be excavated so that the information can be gleaned now to date and study the find and the rest will be preserved so that paleontologists, geologists, and anthropologists can come back with more sophisticated techniques and equipment and see what new information is discovered from an old site. So by endorsing mass exhaustive excavations we would actually be doing ourselves a disservice. Sure we could find all sorts of things, but the data that could be better gleaned at a later date will be lost.
Ah, my apologies for the long reply. This topic just touched home for this anthropology student.
Holly,
It’s a sad world we’re living in now huh? Back in my day the new discovery was named after the person or region it was found in in some cases but for living and formerly-living finds it was given a scientific name that described it’s appearance or function. Such as the Australopithecus afarensis for example. Okay I’m not that old, but damn, sometimes this crazy world does things that really do make me feel like I should be telling stories about walking X-miles to school in X-feet of snow if you catch my drift. LMAO!
Ode to the Futalognkosaurus
by A. B. Curtiss
They now have discovered a new dinosaur.
All the papers were swift to announce it..
It has such a strange name I couldn’t believe
I would ever learn how to pronounce it.
My teacher suggested I make up a song
That used FOO-ta-long-koh-SOHR-us.
And since I wanted to learn it quick
I repeated the name in the chorus.
Eighty million years or more
This creature lived before us.
He stands more than four stories high,
He’s one humungus-saurus.
His length is plus one hundred feet,
Head to posteri-or-us.
He has at least three hundred teeth,
But probably wouldn’t gore us.
Even if he saw us, chances are
He would ignore us.
He’s mainly interested in plants.
Because he’s herbivorous.
This is the song, this is the song
Of the FOO-ta-long-koh-SOHR-us.
The FOO-ta-long, the FOO-ta-long
The FOO-ta-long-koh-SOHR-us.
i don’t believe this…
those people just want fame so they connect their names or company names to the project.
they fund research inorder to be popular.
that’s why i’m sometimes not excited with these discoveries.
how sad.
This is truly an exciting discovery, maybe they’ll include this species if they make another (horrible) Jurassic Park movie.
I’ve read the news on yahoo. Quite strange but that’s the truth. I know there are still a lot of undiscovered species down there. It will really take time for us to know it all. After all, our world is full of mysteries and surprises.
Nerd inside rejoicing???? Whats the relation between a nerd and dinasaur???? LOL
Really cool name :). Let’s hope more and more new interesting species will be discovered, I am sure that there are plenty of them to be found still.
I have to agree. Good article. Keep it up
This is just too commercialized for my taste. Another dinosaur was discovered pretty recently and named after Niger, where its remains were discovered. Sporting stadiums are named for corporations left and right these days. It won’t be long until we’re naming our kids Coke and Pepsi.
Wow, that’s great. Can’t believe I only just heard about this. I agree with you about it being a shame that it is partly named after the company that funded the excavation though - but maybe this is the way of the future. Perhaps with all googles recent announcements about new areas they are investing in we can look forward to reading about the “googlesaurus” sometime soon!
Without the commercialization, the dino bones never would have been found. With that said, I still have mixed feelings about the whole situation.
I agree with “Atlanta” up there….this alone is enough to call for another Jurassic Park!
As if they didn’t do bad enough with the last one…
This is truly an exciting discovery, maybe they’ll include this species if they make another (horrible) Jurassic Park movie.
It’s interesting how scientists keep discovering new species every year and claim that this was a missing link between previously known species :-).. It keeps you on your heel to know when the chain would be complete !!
Wow .. I wonder if they will make a movie about it … imagine. I hope they keep in discovering these species.