Nodosaur Mummy

Ironic discovering an extinct species, nodosaur, as the best preserved specimen of its kind, in the Alberta oil sands - via an industry driving so many contemporary species, including humans, towards extinction, even a "sixth mass extinction."

Alberta Oil Sands: Before and After

Will some unknown being - perhaps from another planet - be digging up our fossilized remains one day?

Nodosaur remains?

A dinosaur this well preserved is so remarkable a discovery, Michael Grenshaw of National Georgraphic calls it, "as rare as winning the lottery." 

Via the NY Times, Don Brinkman at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta says they get two to three significant specimens each year now due to mining; the role of province and museum notwithstanding - as Alberta law makes all fossils the property of the state and, "Dr. Brinkman said the museum was careful not to inhibit industrial activity when retrieving fossils so that excavators weren't afraid to call when they found something."

Hm.

Of course, it's wonderful paleontologists are finding these specimens, but the bottom line remains: you can't drink oil - or lottery tickets, for that matter. There are other ways to "fuel" paleontology (something I bet a lot of paleontologists'd agree with) - i.e. without turning us, too, one day, into mummified specimens. 

Whether or not anyone (from a planet they take better care of?) even bothers to come along and find .. what will then be - what was it.

Climate-change policy protesters