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Science News General; Stuff that doesn't need its own topic
Topic Started: Apr 9 2014, 07:11 AM (11,235 Views)
Flisch
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Scrublord
Oct 24 2016, 08:08 PM
One thing that's always bothered me about life on Mars is the fact that we seem equally obsessed with trying to colonize/terraform the planet. By definition, wouldn't that mean causing a planetwide mass extinction of any existing life?

Colonizing a planet and terraforming it are two different things. Also, your above statement implies that terraforming planets is feasible/fundable/possible. Although it sounds easy in theory, once you realize the massive proportions of an entire planet you start to realize that we are farther away from terraforming than most of the other "out there" future dreams. (Heck, I'd wager that we'll invent working FTL and transporter technology before we manage to make terraforming lucrative.)

Not to mention that even if terraforming was possible, it'd take centuries, at least. Why would anyone start such a project if not even their grandchildren are going to benefit from it in the slightest.

If we find life on Mars AND we are willing to colonize it, it will end up being inside hermetically sealed domes for the foreseeable future anyway.

Sphenodon
Oct 24 2016, 11:54 PM
I think that the most feasible course of action would be to send a manned mission of researchers to survey various Martian areas first. While far more cost-prohibitive, resource-intensive and fragile than probes, they are infinitely faster and can operate and analyse data without the rovers' seven-hour delay. After a few such missions (or several, depending on your level of caution), life would either be discovered or not; how things proceed from there would be fairly self-explanatory.

I wouldn't say that the results from a few manned missions would be conclusive (unless, of course, life is found). Not only would you need to send enough manned missions that they could search a reasonable amount of the surface, at which point it'd probably be easier to just establish a colony, but also they need to have advanced enough machinery to be able to, for example, search for life below the crust, which is probably best manufactured (or at least cobbled together) on-site, and considering the size of such machinery, you'd need more than a manned mission to even build a drill that goes into a significant depth.
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LittleLazyLass
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Apparently from last year, but this is rather interesting: https://peerj.com/articles/1523/#p-43
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Rodlox
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Oct 21 2016, 06:49 PM
I know the rovers are remote controlled. But even so they are quite limited in what they can actually do. Humans could access areas that would be difficult or impossible for rovers to access and could potentially conduct searches and studies far more advanced than what a rover can.
ah, but you'd also have to feed and house the humans, keep them healthy enough that they can do the science without mistakes, and prevent accidents (like but not limited to getting a hole in the suit)


its also easier to fold a robot up for transport to the Red Planet. :)
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Scrublord
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Don't know how old this is, but check this out. Apparently, there might have been a 135-foot, 200-ton ichthyosaur, but the only fossil evidence we have of it was lost when the ship carrying it sank:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00288306.1971.10426331

That's right, there might have actually been a sea reptile as big as the mosasaur in Jurassic World.
Edited by Scrublord, Mar 11 2017, 07:13 PM.
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Nyarlathotep
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Yeah, Sea Amphi is the common nickname. If you assumed isometric scaling (very big if) from Shastasaurus, you're getting an animal well over 40m long and 250 tonnes. Of course, different proportions are far more likely, but even then, it's a giant, no question.
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LittleLazyLass
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The crazy thing is that even if that 200 ton maximum estimate is correct, it still might not have been bigger than the largest whales.
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Nyarlathotep
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Yeah, there are those alleged reports of 33.5m long blue whales, which if isometrically scaled from smaller ones would reach 250 tonnes. That's a big if though again. And 200 tonnes would still be far above the average blue whale size, and with a far smaller sample, so it doesn't dismiss possibilities altogether.
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YixianBirdBeast
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I really hope that a Parasaurolophin Lambeosaur is discovered in the Hell Creek Formation

I mean like Hell Creek has it's own equivalents of Velociraptor, Deinonychus and Gigantoraptor in the form of Acheroraptor, Dakotaraptor and Anzu so why not a Hell Creek equivalent to Parasaurolophus?
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WaterWitch
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The issue stems from the probable competition that would arise with Edmontosaurus/Anatosaurus annenctens which already fills in a role of "Large hadrosaur" and thus there isn't really room for a Hell Creek Lambeosaur
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YixianBirdBeast
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May 15 2017, 08:43 PM
The issue stems from the probable competition that would arise with Edmontosaurus/Anatosaurus annenctens which already fills in a role of "Large hadrosaur" and thus there isn't really room for a Hell Creek Lambeosaur
Dinosaur park formation and Two medicine formation have more than one Hadrosaur so why couldn't Hell Creek formation have more than one Hadrosaur? :angry:

For example, Dinosaur park formation had

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosaurolophus

Prosaurolophus maximus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gryposaurus

Gryposaurus notabilis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corythosaurus

Corythosaurus casuarius

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambeosaurus

Lambeosaurus lambei

Lambeosaurus magnicristatus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasaurolophus

and the majestic and amazing Parasaurolophus walkeri itself
Edited by YixianBirdBeast, May 15 2017, 08:58 PM.
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Dragonthunders
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Dinosaur park formation and Two medicine formation have more than one Hadrosaur so why couldn't Hell Creek formation have more than one Hadrosaur?

Maybe because they are separated by time and places, at least for Dinosaur park formation and Hell creek is a gap of almost 10 millon years (Dinosaur park is around 76 to 74 million years and Hell creek is around 66 million years), in that time many species can disappear and be replaced by others.

For the present evidence suggests that Edmontosaurus had a prominent role and that it was probably taking the place of other varieties of hadrosaurs that disappeared, and although there is a possibility that other types of hadrosaurs may existed in the same area, the evidence is poor.

Look, do not try to come here complaining about paleontologist has not yet found one Parasaurolophin Lambeosaur, it just looks bad, it does not help to build a conversation, and above all it seems very childish.
Come to "wish" things to happen without reason do not generate any interest in these topics, especially because these topics are about recent news of verified findings, if you continue with this attitude you are assured of being ignored
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LittleLazyLass
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To be fair, Hell Creek seems to have supported at least two species of ceratopsid; a second hadrosaur wouldn't be impossible.
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YixianBirdBeast
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Hell Creek's current lacking of a Parasaurolophin Hadrosaur is why I am forced to have 7 episodes for My idea for a dinosaur documentary

http://timelordeternal.deviantart.com/journal/The-Forgotten-Stories-Of-The-Mesozoic-662608183

instead of merely 6 because Hell Creek Megafauna really just sucks rotten eggs in terms of the sheer lacking of diversity
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ÐK
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May 15 2017, 09:42 PM
To be fair, Hell Creek seems to have supported at least two species of ceratopsid; a second hadrosaur wouldn't be impossible.
What's the second one? Hell Creek only ever seems to have had one ceratopsid at any given time, and even if we assume Torosaurus is wholly distinct from the Triceratops-types at the bottom of Hell Creek, we're only ever left with T. prorsus from there on out.
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WaterWitch
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YixianBirdBeast
May 15 2017, 09:45 PM
Hell Creek's current lacking of a Parasaurolophin Hadrosaur is why I am forced to have 7 episodes for My idea for a dinosaur documentary

http://timelordeternal.deviantart.com/journal/The-Forgotten-Stories-Of-The-Mesozoic-662608183

instead of merely 6 because Hell Creek Megafauna really just sucks rotten eggs in terms of the sheer lacking of diversity
You could make an episode on the 25 species of Hell Creek Turtles ;)
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