Giant dinosaur tail discovery in northern Mexico leaves archaeologists stunned

[:eek:]

http://www.express.co.uk/news/scien...northern-Mexico-leaves-archaeologists-stunned

 

[Doctor Evo]

People still don't know the difference between archaeologists and paleontologists?

 

[redhawk23]

People still don't know the difference between archaeologists and paleontologists?

 

[Godzilla2000]

I'm going to claim it had something to do with Godzilla.

 

[Teelie]

Maybe it was originally archaeologists who found it. There is mention of an anthropology and history institute. Although they seem to freely mix in paleontologist with their reference to the scientists excavating so who knows.

 

[Darthphere]

I think they were just covering all the angles.

 

[Siby]

That's a cool discovery but the article is so poorly written.

In the second image they used the wrong "tale" instead of "tail". lol

 

[Darthphere]

Yahoo! article http://news.yahoo.com/archaeologists-discover-dinosaur-tail-northern-mexico-010029019.html

Its the same article with a few edits.

 

[Doctor Evo]

Maybe it was originally archaeologists who found it. There is mention of an anthropology and history institute. Although they seem to freely mix in paleontologist with their reference to the scientists excavating so who knows.

Yahoo! has edited their article (I read the original this morning):

(This version of story corrects to show researchers were paleontologists, not archaeologists)

They dun goofed.

 

[Piper Maru]

People still don't know the difference between archaeologists and paleontologists?

Er...ah..nature will find a way.

 

[Trainwreck2100]

People still don't know the difference between archaeologists and paleontologists?

how do you know they are all paleontologists? Does someone go out into the park and look at their degrees?

 

[Ant-manic]

hopefully it belongs to a really small dinosaur; to balance out the T-rex.

 

[BrollySupersj]

I can't be the only one that things the wonder of dinosaurs is kinda ruined after finding out they're just glorified old bird ancestors right? Dinosaurs were cooler when they were thought to be lizards, IMO.

 

[Lily Adler]

Raptors are turkeys and T-Rex's are chickens. Take that President Lincoln.

 

[Doctor Evo]

how do you know they are all paleontologists? Does someone go out into the park and look at their degrees?

1) Archaeologists have no real interest in fossils.

2) The article was later edited to reflect the fact that they were actually paleontologists and not archaeologists.

3) The original article - as was already pointed out - seemed to use the terms interchangeably.

4) I know from personal experience that it is a common mistake. I've mentioned to people that my recent work involves fossils, and they have immediately asked how I became interested in archaeology. It's still annoying, even after all this time.

You learn to put two and two together after a while.

 

[Doctor Evo]

I can't be the only one that things the wonder of dinosaurs is kinda ruined after finding out they're just glorified old bird ancestors right? Dinosaurs were cooler when they were thought to be lizards, IMO.

*Shrugs* I think it makes them even cooler. Birds and crocodilians are more closely related to each other than they are to squamates (lizards and snakes). Does that make you feel any better?

 

[Manic]

Archaeology is a subset of anthropology. Anthropologists study people, but archaeologists study ancient people. Paleontologists cover all the prehistorical stuff like dinosaurs.

 

[Trainwreck2100]

its my fault for using an obscure ian malcolm quote earlier in this thread

 

[KevanG]

"Science peoples find rock tail"

 

[SuperFerret]

I can't be the only one that things the wonder of dinosaurs is kinda ruined after finding out they're just glorified old bird ancestors right? Dinosaurs were cooler when they were thought to be lizards, IMO.

What's wrong with birds?

 

[Doctor Evo]

its my fault for using an obscure ian malcolm quote earlier in this thread

I get it now.

 

[Schlosser85]

By all the gushing about "giant", "huge", "stunned", etc., I was expecting something more than the 16-foot tail of a hadrosaur.

 

[jaqua99]

By all the gushing about "giant", "huge", "stunned", etc., I was expecting something more than the 16-foot tail of a hadrosaur.

Right? I was expecting something atleast the size of Argentinosaurus

 

[SuperFerret]

The article explains that tails seem to be a rare find, and the images point to it being in amazing condition, so it's a big deal. Dinosaur fossils, despite being remnants from a group of animals that dominated the landmasses of this planet at one point, are pretty rare in general, and museum quality finds even moreso.

 

[Teelie]

The tails are usually missing bits and pieces because of scavangers and the way the bodies are fossilized. Being further from the mass of the body itself, it often is the first to lose parts along with toes, fingers and other smaller bones of that sort.

So finding one in one piece is a big deal but the article is exaggerated on the relevance of it. Maybe the article writer thinks in Mexico the bones are ground up for drugs.