AWESOME Dinosaur Fossil

I wish I had taken a picture of it, but at a touring rock and minerals show a few years ago I was shown a fossilized dinosaur skull that had a large hole and within that skull there was a fossilized dinosaur brain! (EXTREMELY rare) OH if I only had the money to buy it at the time it would have fetched a BIG price on ebay!

By now some rich fugger probably has it in his personal collection. I google image searched for it but nothing came up that looked like what I saw that day!

 

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How much was it selling for? Several years ago I was camping at Lyme Regis, it's known for fossil finds in the sea cliffs, and there is a rather awesome shop that stocks local finds, and fossils from around the world. In the window was a fossilised shark, intact, measuring some 4ft x 2ft, no price on it. Next to it was a fossilised skate, also perfect, at just over a foot square, and the price tag on that was £2000. I hate to think how mush the shark would have sold for. I bought a small fossilised fish, about 1.5" long, for a few quid, just as a memento. It's sat on top of one of my desk speakers as I write.

 

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Would have been interested in that. Never heard of a fossilized brain before. Soft tissue is usually incredibly unlikely to fossilize.

 

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It was most likely a fill cast of replacement stone, like the surrounding limestone.

Soft tissue preservation - while extremely rare - indeed occurs, sometimes in significant quantity. That is how we know that T Rex is related to chickens now by sequencing 'fossil' DNA from preserved soft tissue. There have been a few articles on this in recent issue of the science mags.

Green River limestone fossils of skates have been around for years, though the price has kept them off my shelves. An entire fossil shark would indeed be a find as they are cartilage, not bone, and thus are far less likely to be fossilized. I do have a couple of megladon teeth...big fishies, those.

 

Ah, I have an urge to buy a megalodon tooth,... seen a few nice examples, my local camping and outdoors shop has a rather fantastic example in a display case, it's not for sale, it's just window dressing. I have a couple of 'Otodus obliquus' teeth, made in necklaces,... surfer lore says you'll be safe from shark attacks if you wear a shark tooth. I certainly will be, as we only get Basking Shark where I surf!

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Amazing dinosaur brain fossil, technically known as a dinosaur endocranial cast. A fossil endocranial cast is a natural cast of the brain. A dinosaur endocranial cast is the closest artefact scientists have to a true representation of a dinosaur brain. An endocranial cast will preserve original features such as nerves and blood vessels, and occasionally, actual impressions of the brain's soft tissue are preserved! We are indeed very fortunate to have this detail preserved on this specimen. Dinosaur endocranial casts are among the world's rarest fossils. Apart from this specimen, there are only two other known Iguanodon endocranial cast fossils from the UK, and probably only a few dozen specimens known worldwide - all reside in museum collections. In this specimen the fossil brain has been separated from the skull (by natural process of erosion), which is a good thing, if one wants to see and touch a dinosaur fossil brain.

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http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...ruHgCw&usg=AFQjCNFSXoaskXSvAXNpeb_YUeLccRMcjQ

 

NOVA had an episode on hominid evolution that featured a fellow who collected casts of hominid brains to study the physiologic evolution of our brains through the centuries. It appears that homo habilus had a brocca area sufficiently well developed to speak, though whether they actually did or not is impossible to tell now as there aren't any left. (That we are aware of) They were quite the runners as well.

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It is a proof that dinosaur era really exists.