No more doubts about dinosaurian skin texture.

[spcglider]

Okay folks, here's the latest and greatest from our good buddies at the Black Hills Institute.

This is a replica of a fossil Triceratops hunk.  I am told by one of the diggers that it comes from the flank of the creature. That's not the official line, as you'll read below, but an educated guess by the scientific staff (who can't publish it because its just a guess). The amazing thing is that it clearly shows the style of skin texture on this particular dinosaur.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Even more amazing is that on the back side, where the piece was fossilized against the underbelly of the beast, there is a stunning negative impression of the plates underneath... very crocodile like.

Spoiler: ShowHide

This is one of the best skin representations I've ever seen.

So don't let anyone tell you we don't know what dino skin looked like.  Science keeps moving. And sometimes it moves MUCH faster than popular myth.

Here's what they have to say about it at the Black Hills Website:
"This fossil skin was found with an amazing Triceratops dinosaur nicknamed LANE. LANE's skeleton was excavated from the Zerbst ranch in Wyoming, from the original Lance formation "type area," where most of the original 30+ skulls of Triceratops were collected in the late 1800's and early 1900's. One thing that makes LANE so amazing is the large blocks of skin that were found with the skeleton.

This skin section has pattern on both the front and reverse sides. The front side of this skin section has large coarse textured positive tubercles reaching 3/4" in size. This represents the front facing side of one of more than a dozen skin textures found with LANE. The reverse displays the negative side of a 1 1/4 x 3/4 rhombohedral pattern. Because this block of sandstone was broken off from the main block of sandstone that held the skeleton at the time of discovery, and the skeleton itself is a little jumbled in the rock, it is unclear where these particular patterns of skin would have been located on the body of Triceratops. LANE is currently being prepared for the Houston Museum of Natural Science."

-Gordon

[Talyn]

Is this the same one that the big story was about a few weeks ago?

[villaintagonist]

Oh marvelous! One less thing to worry about...

[spcglider]

Is this the same one that the big story was about a few weeks ago?

What story was that?


-G

[Kogwheal]

This one:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071203-dino-mummy.html

[spcglider]

Nope.  But its a very similar find.

-Gordon

[mjukis]

I feel triceratops hide luggage trunk inspiration flowing...

[akumabito]

I feel triceratops hide luggage trunk inspiration flowing...

NEIN!!!

Make that a triceratops hide gun case to store that dinosaur rifle..

[villaintagonist]

I feel triceratops hide luggage trunk inspiration flowing...

NEIN!!!

Make that a triceratops hide gun case to store that dinosaur rifle..

Perhaps a matching luggage set and gun case?

[Wrath the Mad]

Why stop there? The stock, and yes your BOOTS may yet be dinohide! Hmm... That sounds like something you'd line the cargo bay of a transport velocipede with, doesn't it? "Protect your investment, with DinoHide!"

[Sir Nikolas of Vendigroth]

REcuisition monseiur Verne's time machine and go back and hunt dinosaurs!
We'll go back about 65 million years, because they're going to be made extinct some time aboiut then by an asteroid anyway.
*so we go back in time and hunt dinosaurs to extinction, knowing that it's alright, because the asteroid's coming. It turns out there was no asteroid......*

[heavyporker]

REcuisition [sic] monseiur Verne's time machine and go back and hunt dinosaurs!
We'll go back about 65 million years, because they're going to be made extinct some time aboiut then by an asteroid anyway.
*so we go back in time and hunt dinosaurs to extinction, knowing that it's alright, because the asteroid's coming. It turns out there was no asteroid......*

Requisitioning one sounds fantastic, and that little twist at the end is so marvelously entertaining. It rings true, though, unfortunately.

[Mr. Oliver]

So when are we going to grow some dino skin in a tube? I would love a wallet!

[akumabito]

REcuisition [sic] monseiur Verne's time machine and go back and hunt dinosaurs!
We'll go back about 65 million years, because they're going to be made extinct some time aboiut then by an asteroid anyway.
*so we go back in time and hunt dinosaurs to extinction, knowing that it's alright, because the asteroid's coming. It turns out there was no asteroid......*

Requisitioning one sounds fantastic, and that little twist at the end is so marvelously entertaining. It rings true, though, unfortunately.

"In the greatest cover up ever attempted, time traveling dinosaur hunters have commandeered a spaceship to set course to intercept an asteroid. They plan on altering the asteroids course in space... and time to cover their tracks in what may well be the greatest human involvement in natural evolution ever."

[Phineas Lamar Alexander]

Why not the Sierra Club has been rather lacking in the "humans are ruining the planet" bit lately. It would give those pompous blaggards something new to complain about!

" The nice thing about being a hypocrite is that you get to keep your principles!"

[spcglider]

Why not the Sierra Club has been rather lacking in the "humans are ruining the planet" bit lately. It would give those pompous blaggards something new to complain about!

" The nice thing about being a hypocrite is that you get to keep your principles!"

Hey... wait a minute.  Humans AREN'T ruining the planet?  Lazy bastards!

All of you... GET BACK TO WORK!  Drive! Drive! Drive!  Consume! Consume! Consume!

Lord knows what will happen to the multinationals if we all start living like we have a stake in our own environment!  Economic collapse! DOOOOOOM!!!!

-Gordon

[Johannes von Koenigsbach]

REcuisition monseiur Verne's time machine and go back and hunt dinosaurs!
We'll go back about 65 million years, because they're going to be made extinct some time aboiut then by an asteroid anyway.
*so we go back in time and hunt dinosaurs to extinction, knowing that it's alright, because the asteroid's coming. It turns out there was no asteroid......*

Just like Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder"   except, as I recall, that one didn't end terribly well....

JMK

[Kogwheal]

Wasn't it Wells' time machine, or am I about a hundred years behind the times? Did Verne write about a time machine as well?