Gemstones Retrieved From Opal Field Turn Out To Be Dinosaur Fossils

Australian opal history is full of grand tales, superstitions and hard yakka (hard work). Read about it all here, or submit your own!

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PinkDiamond
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Gemstones Retrieved From Opal Field Turn Out To Be Dinosaur Fossils

Post by PinkDiamond »

I can't tell if there's supposed to be an image or video beneath the header since it's just a black square on my screen, even after refreshing the page, and right clicking didn't indicate a photo location link, so if anyone pulls it up and finds one, please let us know and post them in this thread. I would think they'd at least have a pic, so maybe something on my system is blocking it, although this hasn't happened before. Even if there is no pic or video, keep an eye out for some shots of it elsewhere in cyberland, and let us know if you find any. This is way cool. 8-)

Gemstones Retrieved From Opal Field Turn Out To Be Dinosaur Fossils
9 December 2018, 7:41 am EST By Allan Adamson Tech Times

"What first appeared as precious gemstones unearthed from an opal field in Australia turned out to be the opalized fossils of a previously unnamed dinosaur.
Dog-Sized Dinosaur

The dinosaur was named Weewarrasaurus pobeni after the Wee Warra opal field near the small country town of Lightning Ridge where the fossils were recovered, and Mike Poben, an opal dealer who got the fossils in 2013.

Poben later donated the fossils to the Australian Opal Center, a museum in Lightning Ridge that houses the world's largest collection of opalized fossils.

Based on the size of the creature's jaw and teeth, which were the parts immortalized in the opal, paleontologists determined that the fossils were small pieces of ornithopod, a group of bipedal herbivores that includes the Parasaurolophus and the Iguanodon.

The dinosaur species was about the size of a Labrador retriever, walked using its hind legs and had a beak and teeth for eating vegetation. The creature may have moved in herds or small groups for protection.

Preserved In Opal

The nearly 100-million-year-old remains were hewn from brightly-colored opal that formed over the course of many years from the concentration of silica-rich solution below the ground. These gemstones give off a rainbow of colors and in this case, a sparkling green and blue.

Poben came across the sparkly remains when he bought rough opals from miners and had them inspected by Phil Bell, a paleontologist from The University of New England in Australia.

Bell related that the first time he saw the specimen, his jaw dropped and ... "

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/2361 ... ossils.htm
PinkDiamond
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Shea_O
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Re: Gemstones Retrieved From Opal Field Turn Out To Be Dinosaur Fossils

Post by Shea_O »

The black box at the top of the article is just an endless loop of video advertisements - you’re probably unable to interact due it being blocked by a spam/adware blocker (my guess)

I would love to see pictures of the fossils too, but I doubt they will be made public unless they come into the hands of a museum. Stuff like this usually never see’s the inside of a display case even... I imagine this is the stuff that stays hidden somewhere and is made visible per invitation
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