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Have We Found A Lower Jurassic Dinosaur?


Welsh Wizard

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Hi Carcharodontosaurus. We'd like to enter it but will wait until its prepped if that's ok.

Thanks

Nick

You can enter it this month (the month in which you found it), or you can enter it in the month that the prep is completed. I'm with you regarding the wait. ;) This find is going to make a bigger splash once you can show all its secrets. :D

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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Wow !!!!!!!! this is fantastic !! what a find !! gwneud yn dda !!

"A man who stares at a rock must have a lot on his mind... or nothing at all'

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi

JohnJ, Spookwoman and ckmerlin, thanks for the comments.

Just thought I'd do a quick update.

We've cast the outer surface of the skull block for a record of where missing bits of bones were. We've then only air abraded the surface with bicarbonate. The skull is completely disarticulated and a lot of bone is missing. We appear to have two premaxillas, one with a tooth in and two maxillas, one with some teeth that have come loose and one without. There are other partial bones there as well, including what looks like some cervical ribs and possibly the skull roof or palatine. There may be some more bones underneath the ones we can see but we've taken the decision to stop prepping.

To give you an idea of the size of this animal, the maxilla and premaxilla together are about 2 - 4 inches in length. Pretty small really

I'm now waiting for some experts to have a look at it.

All the best

Nick

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Yes, thanks for the update. Pictures speak a thousand words. Haha

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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Hi Charlie

I won't be posting any more pictures until it has been described scientifically. Then I'll post a full set of before and after photos.

Apologies for putting things on hold but I'd rather the people who are going to work on it had a good look at it first. This is quite a difficult decision for me as I'd love to post everything now.

Regards

Nick

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I totally understand and agree. I would rather further the knowledge of the scientific community than appease the anxiety of we fellow TFF members. Take your sweet time sir! Good luck with everything.

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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I'm sure it will be well worth the wait. Don't forget to share lots of photos and stories when it is finally published!

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  • 5 months later...

Hi all

I thought I'd do a short update on where we are up to with this find.

We are still going through the process of donating the find to the museum.

The preparation is complete, although the bones have been left in the matrix rather than removing them.

The cladistics work is now complete and a number of trees produced and reviewed.

The paper describing the animal is in preparation and a sedimentary log has been done of the section by the museum and is being written up.

It looks like we have a new species of Theropod from the very bottom of the Jurassic.

Here's a couple of photos of one of the tail verts and chevron. Sorry but the others will have to wait until we have published which may be early next year.

post-11234-0-75432500-1411227962_thumb.jpg

post-11234-0-47172100-1411228037_thumb.jpg

post-11234-0-76982800-1411228068_thumb.jpg

post-11234-0-35304000-1411227885_thumb.jpg

post-11234-0-98062500-1411227903_thumb.jpg

Best regards

Nick

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Ooh, it's a young animal (vertebral neural arch not fused to the centrum). Very cool. Of course, that makes describing a new species a bit difficult, because the adult might not look exactly the same! Really looking forward to the paper!

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Nick, when all the tees are crossed, I hope you'll post it to the Member Contributions to Paleontology gallery: LINK :)

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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Nick, when all the tees are crossed, I hope you'll post it to the Member Contributions to Paleontology gallery: LINK :)

I'd love to. I won't need any persuasion. I would've liked to enter it for FOTM but I may have missed that boat.

Ooh, it's a young animal (vertebral neural arch not fused to the centrum). Very cool. Of course, that makes describing a new species a bit difficult, because the adult might not look exactly the same! Really looking forward to the paper!

Thanks. It looks like a juvenile and the bone preservation is fantastic. It was found in marine sediments which have helped and hindered. Non-exposed bone is fantastic but anything that the sea touched corroded really quickly.

Hunh, didn't see this earlier and just reading now; that's pretty awesome :) looking forward to the paper.

-Arion

Thanks Arion

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Ooh, it's a young animal (vertebral neural arch not fused to the centrum). Very cool. Of course, that makes describing a new species a bit difficult, because the adult might not look exactly the same! Really looking forward to the paper!

+1!!!

Thanks for the update Nick!

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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Wow Nick! :blink:

Thanks for posting! :)

What an incredible experience this must be.

Best regards,

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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Old bones and Charlie. Thanks for the comments

Kris, thanks for the suggestion but we are OK at the moment as I have a number of experts already working on it.

Tim. It's been a great experience, albeit one that goes from elation to frustration. Things haven't stopped since we found it about 6 months ago. Firstly, there was the collection and preparation, during which time we had to convince a number of people that we'd actually found a dinosaur and not a marine reptile. In the first stages this was difficult, but when we'd prepped it, it was obvious to all what it was. We've had a mention in Dean Lomax's excellent book Dinosaurs of the British Isles and I've had numerous palaeontologists visit to view the thing. I've had the thing CT scanned and X-Rayed, I've had the skull block cast and reverse cast to fill in missing bones that had been destroyed by the sea. I've even had one of the verts scanned and 3D printed. I've spoken to lots of people who are experts in everything from Dinosaurs and the T-J boundary to sedimentology and oysters. It's been a fantastic experience and I've learnt a lot. The only downside has been the slow speed that things can move at but the great thing about dinosaurs is that everyone is interested and it's been fantastic.

Best regards

Nick

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  • 7 months later...

A word about juvenile dinosaurs in marine beds. On the Lt. Cret. Eastern U.S. Coastal Plain, a lot of the dinosaur remains are of juveniles. I tend to think of them as stupid children, who failed to take their mother's good advice not to play too close to the banks of coastal rivers, especially in Spring flood.

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A word about juvenile dinosaurs in marine beds. On the Lt. Cret. Eastern U.S. Coastal Plain, a lot of the dinosaur remains are of juveniles. I tend to think of them as stupid children, who failed to take their mother's good advice not to play too close to the banks of coastal rivers, especially in Spring flood.

lol

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:popcorn: John

I had a friend once, but the wheels fell off. Sad, very sad. - Nightwing

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A word about juvenile dinosaurs in marine beds. On the Lt. Cret. Eastern U.S. Coastal Plain, a lot of the dinosaur remains are of juveniles. I tend to think of them as stupid children, who failed to take their mother's good advice not to play too close to the banks of coastal rivers, especially in Spring flood.

Hi Diceros

The other thing we get along the coast, is animals that have fallen off the cliffs and died. You see sheep, cows and deer sometimes washed up along with the usual marine stuff.

Nick

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