Millions of years after dinosaurs ruled the Earth, their skeletons became fossils and were sought by humans for scientific research purposes, but there were also people who became chemical hunters. jelly and search for them to trade, auction.
This past Wednesday, a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil skeleton was presented to the public in Switzerland and will be auctioned off next month.
This giant fossil skeleton, named TRX-293 Trinity, is expected to be auctioned in Zurich on April 18 and has a starting price of .43 million.
This fossil skeleton is 3.9 meters tall and 11.6 meters long, making it the third T-Rex skeleton worldwide to be put up for auction and the first in Europe.
“The name of this skeleton is ‘Trinity’, because it was created from three different individuals and all were found in the US,” said Cyril Koller, owner of the auction house conducting the sale. said.
The rest of the name derives from the 293 bones in its skeleton.
Koller thinks that a particular individual will not be able to purchase this fossil skeleton, although he is certain that the public will still see it in the future.
Hans-Jakob Siber, a paleontologist at the Aathal Dinosaur Museum in Switzerland, said finds of T-Rex fossils were extremely rare.
“A complete skeleton like this is extremely rare,” Siber told Reuters. “In fact, until about 1970 or 1980, mankind only discovered fossils of less than 10 tyrannosaurs, but most of them are already present in the museums of the United States.”
Almost all T-Rex fossils are kept in museums, so every time a set of fossils goes out for sale, it attracts a lot of interest. general public.
Two other T-Rex discovered in North America – named Sue and Stan – tyrannosaur fossils named Sue, were sold to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in October 1997 for a price 8.4 million USD; Meanwhile, the world’s most complete T-Rex tyrannosaur fossil, named Stan, was sold by Christie’s Auction Company in New York City (USA) for a record $ 31.8 million (more than 733 billion VND). ).
How do fossils form?
Fossils only form under very specific conditions , which can be carbonized, frozen, in ice, or encased in a substance such as resin or amber. But these conditions are not easily available everywhere and at all times.
For this reason, only a small fraction of the organisms that have existed on Earth appear in the fossil record . Not to mention the majority of fossil samples are not perfect, although we now have modern programs to recreate them, they are not completely realistic. So while research is very important, it is also very difficult and requires a lot of work.
Fossils only form under very specific conditions.
Knowledge of fossils is very broad and requires understanding of geology, first we will learn a little about Earth’s geology and its effects on fossil formation.
The earth moves regularly, slowly and with the separation of continents, the endoplasmic movements are inside. All these activities will push the new layer of soil and rock to cover the old surface. This is why some rocks have layers, appearing vertical stripes or swirls instead of horizontal layers.
It is also why rocks of the same age can be found in many different parts of the world (due to the movement of the Earth’s surface that has tectonics from one place to another). We can see two important points for understanding fossils.
One is the sedimentary rock that makes up the Earth’s surface.
The second is that Earth’s motion has a major impact on where sedimentary rocks appear and how organisms are affected during continental motion.
Only a small fraction of organisms that have existed on Earth appear in fossils.
Whether an organism can form a fossil or not is determined by many factors, but there are 3 most basic factors:
Organisms necessarily have hard parts that are hard to decompose such as bones, shells, teeth or wood…. then in an extremely favorable condition even soft creatures such as insects or jellyfish as well. can form fossils.
The dead organism must be protected from destructive effects, if its body parts are crushed or corroded, the ability of the organism to form a fossil cannot be realized.
The organism needed to be buried and covered with material that would help it resist the harsh conditions that could cause it to decay. The carcasses of sea creatures are often very easy to form fossils. Because dead marine life after settling on the seabed is covered with sand, the sand in later geologic times will turn into limestone (limestone) or schist, small sediments (sediments). not easy to damage the organism’s carcass.