Re: Titanosaurs found in Australia

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

On Thu, May 17th, 2012 at 4:51 AM, Paul P <turtlecroc@yahoo.com> wrote:

> "Without a museum collection facility ... the material will 
> remain scientifically unpublished," Dr Hocknull said.
> 
> So, they're going to keep the bones--which likely represent 
> one or more new taxa--in the rancher's calving barn until 
> such time that the government antes up $1.25 million for 
> an on-site museum..? Why not take them over to UQ or another 
> existing institution? 

Firstly, I can assure you Australia has neither 'ranchers' nor 'calving barns' 
(whatever they may 
be). I think you meant some stockman's shearing shed. :-)

Secondly, he's almost certainly using hyperbole in an attempt to drum up 
publicity for the planned 
Eromanga Natural History Museum: 
http://ogf.org.au/eromanga-dinosaur-project/

According to their website:
"OGF [Outback Gondwana Foundation] fossil preparators, Queensland Museum 
technicians and 
volunteers prepare all the Eromanga dinosaur?s bones in a purpose build field 
museum about 
30kms from the excavation site."

The Eromanga Natural History Museum is intended to be a place to permanently 
house specimens 
in the area, and to 'expedite the classification process'. Plenty of other 
fossils from the area have 
been described so far, so I doubt any important finds would remain completely 
unpublished even 
without a local museum facility. It might just take a bit longer to happen.

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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