In 2003, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey reported that his group had found “the biggest dinosaur that we know of in Virginia.” Earlier this year an Indian newspaper reported on a dinosaur discovery that they termed the “oldest fossil record from Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh.” Not long after, papers in Rio were reporting on a small plant-eating dinosaur that was the “oldest of 11 dinosaurs found in Brazil.”

A curator of a museum in Illinois promoted an exhibit by saying, “We have the oldest T. rex specimen, in terms of years when it died, and we have the youngest here.” Prospector Rod Peterson was recently feted for finding “the biggest dinosaur bone site in New Mexico.”

Sometimes estness leads to disputes about who has discovered the estiest dinosaur of all. —Syephen Strauss —Smallest, oldest, fastest, dumbest dinosaur stories (CBC)