Latest news with #ThomasCarr
Irish Examiner
19-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Historic Singers shop in Cork City closes its doors after 150 years in business
One of Cork City's longest-standing shops has announced its closure after 150 years in business. The historic Singers shop has closed its doors for the last time after providing garment alteration and sewing services to Cork customers since the 1870s. Located on the ground floor of the five-storey early Georgian building on Grand Parade, Singers Corner is a landmark spot with its distinct gold and black facade, which was renovated in 2014. The black and gold floral motif was decided on to reflect the design of the black wooden sewing machines, some of which have been kept on display in the windows below. Steeped in history, the end of terrace building dates to the early 1800s, and was acquired in 1870 by the Singer Manufacturing Company, founded by the inventor Isaac Merritt Singer. The ground floor was remodelled in the 1930s and 1940s. Cork's Singer's Corner was the company's Irish HQ for many years, with a number of other Singer shops scattered around Ireland. It became one of the first global brands to go the franchise route, and in 1960, Thomas Carr, a former manager of the Cork business, took on ownership and subsequently acquired the Grand Parade property. However, after a rich history operating in the centre of Cork City, the sewing shop posted a notice on its doors last week announcing that it would be closing the business. Customers with uncollected alterations or machine repairs have been encouraged to collect them immediately by calling the store. The business has now been listed as 'Permanently Closed' on Google. Contacted by the Irish Examiner, the company referred it to the appointed liquidators, with the process of winding down set to be completed by next week. It marks the second closure of a landmark Cork City business in recent weeks, following that of clothing retailer Mannix & Culhane. The historic store closed its doors for the last time in March after 95 years in business.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
More T. rex fossils being sold to private collectors: Study
(NewsNation) — More Tyrannosaurus rex fossils are landing in the hands of wealthy private collectors through the luxury auction market, which is affecting how many of the treasured species are being made available for scientific research. A study that was recently published in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica revealed that more T. rex fossils are now held by private individuals than by public museums or trusts. The study, conducted by Thomas Carr, a leading paleontologist at Carthage College in Wisconsin, found that 71 T. rex specimens, including 14 juveniles, are in the possession of private collectors. Compared to this, 61 of the fossils are held in public trusts. The study also found that only 11% of the commercially discovered T. rex fossils actually end up in museums. Missing veterinarian's body found in Nevada's Lake Mead Meanwhile, private buyers who obtain scientifically valuable fossils have been able to gain possession of more specimens since 1992 than public museums and other institutions have been able to in nearly 150 years. In his study, Carr determined that the total of 71 specimens currently in public hands is likely being undercounted due to the 'secretive nature' of the private market for the fossils, reported. 'Vertebrate paleontology is at a point in history where it is faced with a society that considers it acceptable to sell rare nonrenewable fossil resources as luxury items,' Carr wrote in the scientific study. The 14 juvenile specimens carry the heaviest scientific costs, Carr determined, because 'the early growth stages of the T. rex are bedeviled by a poor fossil record,' the study said. In 2020, a 67 million-year-old T. rex specimen nicknamed 'Stan' shattered an auction sales record after it fetched nearly $32 million at an auction at Christie's New York. The previous record for the priciest fossil was $8.36 million in 1997. That sale involved a T. rex fossil known as 'Sue,' which was sold to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Carr has called the shift to the T. rex fossils landing in private collections 'dispiriting and exasperating,' according to a statement provided to Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The world's super rich are buying all the T. rex fossils — and scientists have had enough
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Fewer Tyrannosaurus rex fossils are available for scientific research because wealthy people are purchasing them for private collections, a new study has found. Dinosaur fossils are a popular showpiece at many high-end auctions, with near-complete skeletons selling for tens of millions of dollars. However, the private trade in T. rex specimens could be hampering researchers' understanding of the iconic Cretaceous predator, the study found. T. rex researcher Thomas Carr, an associate professor of biology at Carthage College and director of the Carthage Institute of Paleontology in Wisconsin, showed that there are now more scientifically valuable T. rex specimens in private or commercial ownership than in public museums and other public trusts. Carr told Live Science in an email that the situation was "dispiriting and exasperating" and noted that the ownership of juvenile and subadult specimens was especially worrisome. "The early growth stages of T. rex are bedeviled by a poor fossil record, and so the loss of them carries the heaviest scientific cost," Carr said. "At the current moment, our knowledge of one of the most basic aspects of T. rex biology is frustratingly compromised by market interests." Carr published his findings, titled "Tyrannosaurus rex: An endangered species," on April 10 in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica. Related: Did The Rock buy Stan, the most expensive Tyrannosaurus rex on record? To better understand the private market's impact on the number of T. rex fossils available to researchers, Carr targeted what he described as "scientifically informative" specimens — skulls, skeletons and isolated bones that researchers would include in studies of T. rex development and variation. Carr counted the "informative" specimens in public and private ownership by scouring books, museum records, news articles, auction records, anecdotal reports and other sources. He found a total of 61 specimens in public trusts and 71 specimens, including 14 juveniles, in private ownership — likely an underestimate given "the secretive nature" of the private market and year-to-year discovery of new specimens, according to the study. Commercially sourced specimens sometimes end up in public museums, either on loan or after being purchased by the museum. But Carr found that only 11% of the commercially harvested T. rex fossils end up in public trusts, and that commercial companies are now discovering twice as many T. rex fossils as museums. Carr also noted that the private sale of dinosaurs isn't limited to T. rex. The luxury fossil market includes all kinds of dinosaurs — the most expensive ever sold was a stegosaurus, auctioned for $44.6 million in 2024. (It is currently on loan to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City). Carr hopes his study will inspire other researchers to examine how the commercial market is impacting other ancient species, like he has done for T. rex. "My hope is that concerned colleagues will start counting up, and publishing on, the specimens of the species that they study that are lost to the commercial market," Carr said. Thomas Holtz, Jr., a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Maryland, has been researching the changes in Tyrannosaurus during its growth, and said it was "disheartening" to find out that many critical specimens that would help to clarify those changes aren't accessible. RELATED STORIES —T. rex could have been 70% bigger than fossils suggest, new study shows —T. rex was as smart as a crocodile, not an ape, according to study debunking controversial intelligence findings —Kids discover extremely rare teen T. rex fossils sticking out of the ground during North Dakota Badlands hike "Much like Carr, I am concerned not merely that there are good specimens which are not accessible to researchers, but especially that juvenile and sub-adult specimens happen to be overrepresented in the commercial samples," Holtz told Live Science. David Hone, a reader in zoology at Queen Mary University of London, told Live Science that while he'd love to see more specimens in public collections, he wasn't as concerned about the T. rex fossil trade as Carr. "For a start, there's not that much that can realistically be done about the commercial trade of things like this," Hone said. "And while I'd certainly love to see more specimens in public collections, there are still plenty that can be studied. There are rarer and more important things that are being traded illegally that I'd be more concerned about," he said — referring to Brazilian and Mongolian fossils, including dinosaurs, that are smuggled illegally out of their respective countries.
