Skip to main content

Portuguese palaeontologists protest

A Portuguese construction contractor has caused dismay amongst archeologists after he dug up some dinosaur bones. The man put the sauropod tail bones, which measure a total 3.6m long, for sale on the Internet causing a flurry of protest from Portuguese palaeontologists. The valuable bones are thought to be from 146-152 million years old. However, the contractor has so far refused an offer of €100,000 from a Portuguese museum and is also refusing to tell palaeontologists where the find was made.
July 6, 2012 Read time: 1 min
A Portuguese construction contractor has caused dismay amongst archeologists after he dug up some dinosaur bones. The man put the sauropod tail bones, which measure a total 3.6m long, for sale on the Internet causing a flurry of protest from Portuguese palaeontologists. The valuable bones are thought to be from 146-152 million years old. However, the contractor has so far refused an offer of €100,000 from a Portuguese museum and is also refusing to tell palaeontologists where the find was made.

Related Content

  • Contracts are about to be signed for the Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link
    March 13, 2015
    Nearly eight years after Denmark and Germany agreed to construct a major undersea road and rail tunnel, the first contracts are about to be signed. David Arminas reports. Construction is due to start later this year on one of Europe’s most ambitious, as well as the world’s longest, road and rail tunnels, the 17.6km Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link between Germany and Denmark. Fehmarnbelt is expected to cost around US$7.5 billion and be five times the length of the Øresund tunnel between the Danish capital Copenhagen
  • Euro Auctions: from Dromore to many more in 20 years
    December 20, 2018
    Euro Auctions is celebrating 20 years since its first event in Dromore, Northern Ireland, on the same site that is now the company’s global headquarters. At the event, a one-day auction, 371 vehicle and equipment lots went under the hammer to aachieve sales close to €1.12 million, said Derek Keys, founder of the business. Euro Auctions expanded into England in 2000 with its first sale in Wetherby where it auctioned a selection of Volvo dump trucks from the Far East. A couple of years later the company acq
  • Towers of power: California’s Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement
    May 8, 2019
    Challenging ground conditions meant a design rethink - and some engineering firsts - for California’s Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project* The Port of Long Beach on Terminal Island south of Los Angeles is the second-busiest container port in the US. It handles around 15% of all imported goods, much of it with Asia. As the Port of Long Beach was growing in importance over the past half century, the 51-year-old Gerald Desmond Bridge has faithfully been delivering thousands of daily commuters to wo
  • India’s longest road tunnel continues apace with Atlas Copco support
    May 20, 2014
    The challenging construction of India’s largest road tunnel is part of a vital US$500 million project aiming to connect the isolated northern state of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the vast and highly populated country. Guy Woodford reports Travelling on National Highway 1A (NH 1A) in northern India should be the dictionary definition of ordeal. The single lane, narrow and winding road crosses some of the steepest, most treacherous terrain on the planet. The arduous route becomes especially difficult t