German dinosaur graveyard found

[bh480@scn.org]

From: Ben Creisler bh480@scn.org
In case this news item has not been mentioned here yet:

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?
type=worldNews&storyID=543216&section=news

Huge dinosaur graveyard unearthed
Wed 7 July, 2004 16:42 
        
BERLIN (Reuters) - German scientists have unearthed the 
biggest collection of dinosaur fossils ever found in the 
country, including bones that could belong to previously 
unknown species, researchers said on Wednesday. 
"This is the largest discovery of its kind in Germany -- 
you could call it a dinosaur graveyard," said Klaus-Peter 
Lanser of the Museum of Natural History in Muenster, 
western Germany, which put the fossils on show this week. 
Scientists think the 130 million year-old fragments of 
bones and teeth come from six different species that could 
be related to the predatory carnivores Velociraptor and 
Deinonychus, as well as from prehistoric crocodiles and 
tortoises. 
"Dinosaur remains have been found before in Germany but 
this find is unique because of the variety of dinosaur 
species to have left traces in the same place," said 
Franck Tafertshufer, a local authority spokesman in the 
state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which backed the dig. 
Staff at the Muenster museum found the fossils during a 
two-year excavation of a five-metre (16-ft) deep trench, 
which Lanser believes was a prehistoric watering hole.