I hope that National Geographic will print a retraction on its
fanciful
"packs of nanos" quotations in its May 2005 issue. Some other people
should also be eating crow(osaur) with this announcement.
< To be fair, a number of paleontologists (including Phil Currie, Bob
Bakker, and
Jorn Hurum) still regard Nanotyrannus as a valid
species distinct from Tyrannosaurus rex.>
Despite possible dissenting opinion (and the Burpee would have more to
gain if its specimen did turn out to be a Nanotyrannus), the museum
says it's a juvenile T. rex:
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Then, one day, Henderson received an unexpected visit from Dr. Greg
Erickson, a paleobiologist from Florida State University. Erickson had
discovered a way to count growth rings inside of dinosaur bones to tell
how old they were when they died. Henderson supplied him with a piece
of Jane?s shinbone and, within a few months, Erickson had determined
that, at the time of death, Jane was 11 years old?and still growing.
In the end, all the evidence pointed to the same conclusion: Rather
than being an adult Nanotyrannus, Jane is a juvenile T. rex. So what
does this mean for Nanotyrannus?
?Nanotyrannus is no more, basically.? Says Henderson. ?When we first
laid eyes on Jane, we thought for sure we had a Nanotyrannus. But a
closer examination has changed our minds. That?s the way science works.
You have to go with what the bones tell you. Jane told us she?s a young
Tyrannosaurus rex. And that?s just fine with us.?
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