Discovery of biggest dinosaur ever hailed by scientists as fossilised bones of Patagotitan unearthed

[n2doc]

A study proclaims a newly named species the heavyweight champion of all dinosaurs, making the scary Tyrannosaurus rex look like a munchkin.

At 76 tonnes (69 metric tonnes), the plant-eating behemoth was as heavy as a space shuttle.

The dinosaur's fossils were found in southern Argentina in 2012. Researchers who examined and dated them said the long-necked creature was the biggest of a group of large dinosaurs called titanosaurs.

“There was one small part of the family that went crazy on size,” said Diego Pol of the Egidio Feruglio palaeontology museum in Argentina, co-author of the study published on Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The researchers named the dinosaur Patagotitan mayorum after the Patagonia region where it was found and the Greek word titan, which means large. The second name honours a ranch family that hosted the researchers.

more

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/dinosaurs-patagotitan-biggest-ever-bones-fossils-patagonia-argentina-titanosaurs-t-rex-cience-a7883636.html

[SHRED]

1. Surpassing the Republican Party as...

...the biggest dinosaur.

Sorry...couldn't resist.

[Kleveland]

2. So, I guess the ark was pretty large, eh?

Amazing that the remains were hidden by God for 5000 years, just to test our belief.

Looks to be related to Jim Baker as well, who was also recently unearthed to spill his blessings upon us.

[tanyev]

3. I had a pastor that believed the bones were hidden by God as a test.

I was gobsmacked. And this is a denomination where pastors first earn a bachelor's degree and then go to seminary for 4 more years. Conservative, yes, but I'd never heard any other pastors in that denomination say such a thing. Funny thing was, his two young sons were crazy about dinosaurs.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. I grew up in a Missouri Synod Lutheran church where that was the teaching...

Most other Lutherans aren't that crazy, though.

[tanyev]

5. Yep, this was LCMS, but that was the first time I'd ever heard it.

My dad was an LCMS pastor, I went to LCMS elementary school and college, and this was at a congregation I attended in my mid 20s.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Parents pulled me out of public school and I ended up in parochial...

grade and high schools. Very odd experience-- extremely conservative, but the secular education was outstanding. Brilliant math, history and literature teachers. Great theater program. Except for the religion classes (not mandatory for non-Lutherans) religion never entered the classroom.

In biology class, though, they didn't rip out the evolution chapter from the textbook, and we were not told not to read it, but we were simply advised they weren't teaching that part.

Smart-ass kids, though. They pulled that "God's testing us" stuff out from somewhere when we wouldn't stop asking about it.

[hunter]

8. Evolution gets it's own chapter in high school texts precisely so it can be skipped...

... by idiot biology teachers in backwards anti-intellectual communities. That's one thing that makes me dislike high school biology texts.

Evolution ought to permeate every page of a high school biology text.

As Theodosius Dobzhansky said, Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution.

I don't have much tolerance for religions that celebrate a tiny, deceitful, and capricious god.

[Lionel Mandrake]

9. When I was in high school, we were not allowed to say the bad "E" word.

In the year that I took high school biology, no teacher mentioned it, either. Of course the textbooks were evolution-free as well.

The teachers weren't bible-thumpers. They just wanted to avoid controversy and keep their jobs.

I don't praise God. I praise Galileo, Charles Darwin, and Theodosius Dobzhansky, among others.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. Amazing...

I think they had a special on unearthing the dinosaur on TV, a couple of years back, hosted by David Attenborough? Really good show...

Sad, that despite the physical evidence clearly shown on the show, that the dinosaur bones were clearly buried for millions of years, that there are folks who believe otherwise, that God had a hand in this/e.g., not buried more than 5000 years etc.

I, for one, wouldn't want one of these 'contrary to all evidence' guys to be my doctor, dentist, teacher, lawyer, or anything, period. You would be putting your life in harms' way.