Notice how I put "complete skeleton" in quotes. A paleontologist's idea of complete is not exactly the same as everyone else's.. But this Gobi Desert Tyrannosauris-like Tarbosaurus has a lot of its bone. It was recently extracted from sandstone blocks dug up a couple of years ago.
Another nice thing about this fossil is that it is a youngster, roughly the size of Barny the Dinosaur. The five year old dinosaur dates to about 70 million years ago. (more info)
What is even more intereting is that the research was conducted by a natural history museum owned by a private high tech company, Hayashibara of Japan.
About the museum:
Hayashibara Museum of Natural Science of Hayashibara Group and Matsushita Electric Indutrial Co., Ltd. plan to develop new cultural facility "Digital Museum-Dinosaur Factory-" inside "Panasonic Center" which will be a base for receiving and sending information and will open in the autumn 2002. The museum is designed to foster children's creativity, satisfy their curiosity and spirit of inquiry, and share the joy of discovery in the process of dinosaur research. The facility will be a new type of museum where each guest can easily obtain information, utilizing state-of-the-art digital technology from Matsushita, about specimens of dinosaur fossils and research results in the possession of Hayashibara Museum of Natural Sciences. source
UPDATE: For actual information on this important find, visit Laelaps: A new juvenile Tarbosaurus. He's a wise ass, but he knows his dinosaurs.
Life Science
Comments
Mmmmm.... "Dessert Tyrannosauris." With a cherry on top, please?
Posted by: Laelaps | July 24, 2008 11:02 AM
"will open in 2002"? did it open?
Posted by: Texas Reader | July 24, 2008 1:30 PM
Texas... I don't know, I'm just givin' you what I've got. I think this particular company does not put a lot of effort into its English-version site.
Posted by: Greg Laden | July 24, 2008 2:27 PM
Yes, the Hayashibara Museum DID have an exhibit hall in the Panasonic Center in Tokyo, but it shut down in 2006. Their collections, however, although their collections are in the city of Okayama. I was last at both in the Spring of 2005, so unfortunately I missed this drool-worthy Tarbosaurus specimen. (Okay, I work on tyrannosaurids, so I get excited about finds of this quality...)
Posted by: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. | July 24, 2008 3:22 PM