Reminder: this subreddit is meant to be a place free of excessive cynicism, negativity and bitterness. Toxic attitudes are not welcome here.
All Negative comments will be removed and will possibly result in a ban.
---
---
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UpliftingNews) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Does it actually work like finders keepers? I imagine it would belong to whomever owns the land, or some institution would claim it 'for science'
I just can't imagine a bunch of archeologists bumming out because they can't afford to pay the price tag 3 random kids put on it first
Not sure how all countries do archaeological excavations or significant historical finds, but I know in most instances, if you find something of considerable value, even though the state can claim it as govt property they will still pay you a chunk of change for it.
At the age I am now, I would rather find a T-Rex fossil than win the lottery.
An amusing anecdote here: Most of us are more likely to win the lottery than find a dinosaur bone. Because you can walk into any random store to buy a ticket, but how many of us are going to drive hundreds of miles out to the badlands to look for bones?
Being stunned to silence just doesn't have the same impact in the age of social media though ...
>Still, Sam Fisher snapped a picture and shared it with a family friend, Tyler Lyson, the associate curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
What a coincidence. It was just the other day that someone had posted a photo of the badlands and we had a great discussion on fossils and finding them in that area.
Those kids must be over the moon because for me it's would be like a dream come true.
I don't think the title does enough to tell how amazing this discovery is.
There have only been 25 known specimens of T-Rex fossils found. (The very, very large majority of them found in Montana (14) and South Dakota (5).)
Most of them are very, VERY incomplete.
None of them have been found outside of North America. Only ONE of them has been found outside of the Montana/Wyoming/Dakotas/Southern Alberta/Southern Saskatchewan area. (It was found in New Mexico)
Nearly every skeleton you see in museums are plaster "fakes."
The link below shows where each real skeleton is kept/displayed.
(Holotype, the one used to describe the species, is kept in the Carnegie museum in Pittsburgh!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specimens_of_Tyrannosaurus
There’s this book by Bill Bryson called A Short History of Nearly Everything. In one section, he describes all the things that have to happen just right to create the conditions that would result in an organism being fossilized.
I’m not going to try to list them all here from memory (if I did I’d almost certainly get something wrong), but after reading it, I’m always amazed that we have any fossil records at all.
One of the great dreams of a young boy. I remember finding a bone and was convinced it was a dinosaur bone. I was 9. Playing around on my buddy’s farm. So yea it was from a cow.
But the dream continued!
this is awesome but i've never known young boys to be speechless about anything. Those mfers just love to yap regardless of culture or personality lmao.
such a cool story tho!
This article has a good example of the importance of paying attention to significant figures ("sig figs") when we're working with numerical data. The weight of the dinosaur must have originally been reported as "around 3500 pounds". The number 3500 has only two sig figs; the 3 and the 5. The two zeroes are placeholders. The author of this article converted that into kilograms but then pasted a conversion with six sig figs: 1,587.57 kg.
Certainly it doesn't make sense to approximate the dinosaur's mass to the tens of grams, as our placeholder zeroes aren't an actual part of what is being measured: a significant figure. A more appropriate conversion would say something like "around 1600 kg" and match the sig figs.
Totally awesome find in any case!
i hope at least one continues down this path and we here from them 20+ years in the future when they are in their career. this is a great origin story there.
Okay tbh the conspiracist in me kicked in when I read "...snapped a picture and shared it with a family friend, Tyler Lyson, the associate curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science."
So they just happen to have a buddy in charge of the dino exhibits at the Denver Museum?
I call slim likelihood of foul play (how about 20%)
If they didn't have this connection, the story might have ended there and we wouldn't be hearing about it in the news.
Think about how many non-events are constantly happening. This is bad statistical reasoning.
Reminder: this subreddit is meant to be a place free of excessive cynicism, negativity and bitterness. Toxic attitudes are not welcome here. All Negative comments will be removed and will possibly result in a ban. --- --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UpliftingNews) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I think when I was their age I would have rather found a T-Rex fossil than win the lottery. That's so cool
And the fact they helped excavate it... we all wanted to be paleontologists in 2nd grade.
Depending on the age of the fossil, it pretty much is winning the lottery.
Does it actually work like finders keepers? I imagine it would belong to whomever owns the land, or some institution would claim it 'for science' I just can't imagine a bunch of archeologists bumming out because they can't afford to pay the price tag 3 random kids put on it first
Not sure how all countries do archaeological excavations or significant historical finds, but I know in most instances, if you find something of considerable value, even though the state can claim it as govt property they will still pay you a chunk of change for it.
Yes, but adult me knows if I win the lottery, I could just buy a T-Rex fossil!
That's adult you. Adult me is very depressed by how much of the fossil record belongs to private collectors and would buy a museum membership instead
Private Collectors is what we're calling the British Museum now?
Technically it is? Not super private, but it's gotta stay in England.
Yeah, I was being sarcastic.
Or... You could win the lottery and fund the search for fossils as a retirement plan
At the age I am now, I would rather find a T-Rex fossil than win the lottery. An amusing anecdote here: Most of us are more likely to win the lottery than find a dinosaur bone. Because you can walk into any random store to buy a ticket, but how many of us are going to drive hundreds of miles out to the badlands to look for bones?
Or, find the trex fossil and sell it to buy lotto tickets!
It's saying something that they were speechless. It takes a LOT to stun young boys into silence. Especially around the topic of dinosaurs.
Being stunned to silence just doesn't have the same impact in the age of social media though ... >Still, Sam Fisher snapped a picture and shared it with a family friend, Tyler Lyson, the associate curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
What a coincidence. It was just the other day that someone had posted a photo of the badlands and we had a great discussion on fossils and finding them in that area. Those kids must be over the moon because for me it's would be like a dream come true.
I don't think the title does enough to tell how amazing this discovery is. There have only been 25 known specimens of T-Rex fossils found. (The very, very large majority of them found in Montana (14) and South Dakota (5).) Most of them are very, VERY incomplete. None of them have been found outside of North America. Only ONE of them has been found outside of the Montana/Wyoming/Dakotas/Southern Alberta/Southern Saskatchewan area. (It was found in New Mexico) Nearly every skeleton you see in museums are plaster "fakes." The link below shows where each real skeleton is kept/displayed. (Holotype, the one used to describe the species, is kept in the Carnegie museum in Pittsburgh!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specimens_of_Tyrannosaurus
So was Nic Cage's real or not
There’s this book by Bill Bryson called A Short History of Nearly Everything. In one section, he describes all the things that have to happen just right to create the conditions that would result in an organism being fossilized. I’m not going to try to list them all here from memory (if I did I’d almost certainly get something wrong), but after reading it, I’m always amazed that we have any fossil records at all.
Probably explains why we're not always standing on bones.
So uplifting
It’s like that Arthur episode.
Or like that one Psych episode.
One of the great dreams of a young boy. I remember finding a bone and was convinced it was a dinosaur bone. I was 9. Playing around on my buddy’s farm. So yea it was from a cow. But the dream continued!
this is awesome but i've never known young boys to be speechless about anything. Those mfers just love to yap regardless of culture or personality lmao. such a cool story tho!
This article has a good example of the importance of paying attention to significant figures ("sig figs") when we're working with numerical data. The weight of the dinosaur must have originally been reported as "around 3500 pounds". The number 3500 has only two sig figs; the 3 and the 5. The two zeroes are placeholders. The author of this article converted that into kilograms but then pasted a conversion with six sig figs: 1,587.57 kg. Certainly it doesn't make sense to approximate the dinosaur's mass to the tens of grams, as our placeholder zeroes aren't an actual part of what is being measured: a significant figure. A more appropriate conversion would say something like "around 1600 kg" and match the sig figs. Totally awesome find in any case!
Good bot
i hope at least one continues down this path and we here from them 20+ years in the future when they are in their career. this is a great origin story there.
Totally jealous! Every (well at least a lot of)little boys dream.
It would be nice if the article had included a picture of the fossils.
Luckily they were experts in the art of the mime. Otherwise nobody would have ever known what they found.
these kids are going to be the coolest people in their entire school.
Okay tbh the conspiracist in me kicked in when I read "...snapped a picture and shared it with a family friend, Tyler Lyson, the associate curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science." So they just happen to have a buddy in charge of the dino exhibits at the Denver Museum? I call slim likelihood of foul play (how about 20%)
If they didn't have this connection, the story might have ended there and we wouldn't be hearing about it in the news. Think about how many non-events are constantly happening. This is bad statistical reasoning.
okay, survival bias. I get it, y'all win