Re: Dino/Birds? was Mesozoic snow? and fund for Antonio

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Aidan Karley (aidan_karley@yahoo.co.uk) wrote:

<Surely you are being hyperbolic. Surely?>

  Unfortunately, not.

  Wang, X. L., Wang, Y. Q., Wang, Y. et al. 1998. Stratigraphic sequence and
    vertebrate-bearing beds of the lower part of the Yixian Formation in
Sihetun
    and neighboring area, western Liaoning, China. _Vertebrata PalAsiatica_
    36(2):81-101. (in Chinese)

  This cites a specimen of sauropod of which only a few remains were recovered
that had been just so tossed aside. The big catch in Liaoning are the feathered
beasties, not the fish, lizards, crocs, choristoderes, etc., that are also
present, nor the big reptilian fellows. Incomplete specimens have been often
"completed" by addition of other specimens of animal (not always the same kind)
into a make-shift slab, whereas others have had unfortunately interesting
information removed in order to facilitate this forgery. All in the name of
picquing interest, thereby gaining more money of what is the "better" market.
Science, however, is not driving this market, private collectors are, otherwise
the discoverers would be salvaging all the available material and not screwing
with it.

  Cheers,

Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps 
in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all 
learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than zoom by it.

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the 
experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to 
do so." --- Douglas Adams

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