Statuesque Dinosaur Fossil the Best Preserved of Its Kind

On the afternoon of March 21, 2011, a heavy-equipment operator named Shawn Funk was carving his way through the earth, unaware that he would soon meet a dragon.

A beautiful, perfectly preserved fossil of a Nodosaur (ankylosauridae) has finally been revealed by National Geographic, 6 years after its initial discovery. It is to be featured in next month's issue! It is in such remarkably good condition that it resembles a statue!

At first glance the reassembled gray blocks look like a nine-foot-long sculpture of a dinosaur. A bony mosaic of armor coats its neck and back, and gray circles outline individual scales. Its neck gracefully curves to the left, as if reaching toward some tasty plant. But this is no lifelike sculpture. It’s an actual dinosaur, petrified from the snout to the hips.

The creature’s immortality hinged on each link in this unlikely chain of events. If it had drifted another few hundred feet on that ancient sea, it would have fossilized beyond Suncor’s property line, keeping it entombed. Instead Funk stumbled upon the oldest Albertan dinosaur ever found, frozen in stone as if it had gazed upon Medusa.

It suffered from countless setbacks. Apparently when it was carved down to a manageable 15,000lbs, it was lifted out of the excavation pit and, tragically, broke into pieces. It was carefully packed and traversed quite the distance, and after 7,000 man-hours in 5 years, the rock was cleared away revealing this beautiful masterpiece of nature!

We are forever indebted to dedicated individuals in their preservation of history. Archaeologists receive a lot of flak from the conspiracy community but we are necessary to preserve history!

More wondrous photos and story at
National Geographic

a reply to: SargonThrall

The spikes on it's shoulders are wicked cool.
Good article.

Wow.

How dinos looked has been the center of many controversies but to actually see one...that's incredible.

Another once in a life time find like sue

This great thread means nothing until we can convince the 6000 year old simpletons otherwise..... i tellz ya, it's like pissing in the wind, my trousers are drenched.

I need help.

"I need help".



Yes......... an undeniable fact upon the very face of it.

originally posted by: scubagravy
This great thread means nothing until we can convince the 6000 year old simpletons otherwise..... i tellz ya, it's like pissing in the wind, my trousers are drenched.

I need help.

I don't know why those particular simpletons bother you so much. Are they out to get you and brainwash you into their cult? Do you feel like you got to go out of your way to fix them or something?

Besides this topic is just about an amazing fossil find, not a rant about convincing a group of people, you characterize as simpletons, to change their irrational beliefs into your own.

A giant horny toad.

Image s

a reply to: SargonThrall

Beautiful, thanks for sharing.

originally posted by: MichiganSwampBuck

originally posted by: scubagravy
This great thread means nothing until we can convince the 6000 year old simpletons otherwise..... i tellz ya, it's like pissing in the wind, my trousers are drenched.

I need help.

I don't know why those particular simpletons bother you so much. Are they out to get you and brainwash you into their cult? Do you feel like you got to go out of your way to fix them or something?

Besides this topic is just about an amazing fossil find, not a rant about convincing a group of people, you characterize as simpletons, to change their irrational beliefs into your own.

Wow mate, your reply makes it sound like i mentioned you by name. I believe in evolution, i am not asking you to, nor am i ranting, but moving forward is key, and the more people like you and the poster before your comment lay down in the middle of the road to make your statememnt.... well i have to stop , open the boot of my car, grab the shovel out and scrape your butt off the bitumen.

originally posted by: scubagravy
This great thread means nothing until we can convince the 6000 year old simpletons otherwise..... i tellz ya, it's like pissing in the wind, my trousers are drenched.

I need help.

Just ignore them. They're a very tiny section of radical fundamentalists anyway.

What is funny is how a lot of people try to paint people who believe in God by the quaky beliefs of a fringe few.

a reply to: SargonThrall


The new display with this beast and others has just opened this month at the Royal Tyrrell Museum
.
www.tyrrellmuseum.com

I think I need to go for a drive down there and check it out.

Great seeing a detailed dad gum dinosaur
ScubaGravy.....if evolution is real, God invented it

Love these types of stories being it's nothing short of amazing. It's a sorely needed find too, to know more about dinosaur's skin; the color of it, and other attributes. The sands, might just be holding many more of these treasures.

originally posted by: scubagravy

originally posted by: MichiganSwampBuck

originally posted by: scubagravy
This great thread means nothing until we can convince the 6000 year old simpletons otherwise..... i tellz ya, it's like pissing in the wind, my trousers are drenched.

I need help.

I don't know why those particular simpletons bother you so much. Are they out to get you and brainwash you into their cult? Do you feel like you got to go out of your way to fix them or something?

Besides this topic is just about an amazing fossil find, not a rant about convincing a group of people, you characterize as simpletons, to change their irrational beliefs into your own.

Wow mate, your reply makes it sound like i mentioned you by name. I believe in evolution, i am not asking you to, nor am i ranting, but moving forward is key, and the more people like you and the poster before your comment lay down in the middle of the road to make your statememnt.... well i have to stop , open the boot of my car, grab the shovel out and scrape your butt off the bitumen.

I see, not only are you implying that I'm part of your "6000 year old simpletons" group but that I am road kill that needs to be shoveled off the road (and I bet you thought my feathers got ruffled). I never wrote that I believe in a 6000 old universe. I never wrote what I think or believe in my post other than your comment was unnecessary. You assume a great deal and seem far more defensive than I am about it, of course I did mention you by name.

What I think is deeply insightful, well researched and outside the subject of this thread. Besides, I can tell that your own ignorance blinds you (no offense) and isn't worth any effort on my part to help you take the blinders off.

ETA: When driving down the highway doing 80 miles per hour (130 kilometers/hour), you would be lucky to survive an impact with a full sized white tail buck jumping out of the swamp at you and crashing right through your windshield.

originally posted by: scubagravy
This great thread means nothing until we can convince the 6000 year old simpletons otherwise..... i tellz ya, it's like pissing in the wind, my trousers are drenched.

I need help.

I will help you.

Try turning 180 degrees and piss in that direction.

It makes no sense to soil yourself.

a reply to: SargonThrall

This is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen pulled out of the Earth. When I was a child, I used to visit the Natural History Museum in London as often as I could. Every time we went to London, for any reason, I would beg to be taken round to see the exhibits, from animatronic dinosaurs, to the life sized model of a Blue Whale, from the tiniest fossil creatures, to the enormous skeletons of some of the largest creatures ever to walk the world. That place remains, to this day, one of the most fascinating places I have ever had the pleasure of spending time, and with exhibits changing on a regular basis, there is nearly always something new to see. I wish I could get over there more often!

I say all that, because my enthusiasm for this discovery is all the more potent, given my level of fandom of the subject. I find this discovery extremely exciting, because I have NEVER seen a fossil in this absolutely astounding condition before. The detail still visible after all this time, is just breathtaking. I can promise you this much:

If ever this fossil winds up doing a tour of the worlds renowned natural history museums, I will definitely be paying it a visit in London. To see this thing in person would be an absolute rush!

originally posted by: scubagravy

originally posted by: MichiganSwampBuck

originally posted by: scubagravy
This great thread means nothing until we can convince the 6000 year old simpletons otherwise..... i tellz ya, it's like pissing in the wind, my trousers are drenched.

I need help.

I don't know why those particular simpletons bother you so much. Are they out to get you and brainwash you into their cult? Do you feel like you got to go out of your way to fix them or something?

Besides this topic is just about an amazing fossil find, not a rant about convincing a group of people, you characterize as simpletons, to change their irrational beliefs into your own.

Wow mate, your reply makes it sound like I mentioned you by name. I believe in evolution, i am not asking you to, nor am i ranting, but moving forward is key, and the more people like you and the poster before your comment lay down in the middle of the road to make your statememnt.... well i have to stop , open the boot of my car, grab the shovel out and scrape your butt off the bitumen.

I don't much care about the age of things I leave all of that to God millions of years 6000 don't care. The part you are missing is the darkness surrounding us and the fact of its existence and the war that is raging as you remain unaware.

2 Peter 3:8–9 reads:

‘But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’

Someday they may decide particles hitting the planet which was previously unknown affect our ways of calculating age makeing the dinos 1000 years old. Not like we haven't had such things happen.

The group theorizes that large errors in carbon dating result from fluctuations in the amount of carbon 14 in the air. Changes in the Earth's magnetic field would change the deflection of cosmic-ray particles streaming toward the Earth from the Sun. Carbon 14 is thought to be mainly a product of bombardment of the atmosphere by cosmic rays, so cosmic ray intensity would affect the amount of carbon 14 in the environment at any given time.

www.nytimes.com...

It's all hindsight and amature blunders, but it could have been removed intact with a bit of skill and just a little bit more effort and care. Rather than risk breaking it, (which failed big) go a bit slower, it's just a shame.

Never the less, it's magnificent as Fossils and Dinosaurs go.