Tea at Trianon: The Controversy Over Tyrannosaurus Rex

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, October 29, 2023

The Controversy Over Tyrannosaurus Rex

I did not know there was one. But there is so much we are just beginning to discover. From Big Think:

Gregory Paul, an independent and prolific paleontologist, thought there might be another explanation. Perhaps these different forms of T. rex are not T. rex at all, but other species in the genus Tyrannosaurus. With the surge of fossil discoveries, Paul finally felt he had the data he needed to put this idea to the test. After assessing three dozen Tyrannosaurus specimens, Paul and his team of researchers argued that the fossils cluster into three distinct species. To name any species, researchers follow an international convention. Species names are split into two words. The first indicates the genus name, and the second lists the specific name, or epithet. Together, the words make up a unique species name. Now, along with T. rex (Latin for the “king” Tyrannosaurus), Paul and colleagues proposed the inclusion of T. imperator (“emperor”) and T. regina (“queen”). Their results, published in the journal Evolutionary Biology, sparked intense debate among paleontologists. Robustness is not the only line of variation. Tyrannosaurus specimens also exhibit differences in their teeth. Some possess a single incisiform tooth, while others have two. Paul and his colleagues contend that since these variations progress within the genus over geological time, the differences could hint at evolution at the species level. (Read more.)