When it comes to dinosaurs and mammals, neither had quite yet evolved yet. Most people consider animals like Herrerasaurus and Eoraptor to be among the oldest known dinosaurs, but others now consider Nyasasaurus to be the oldest, originating from 240 MY old rocks from Tanzania. Many dinosaurs looked very similar to other, closely related archosaurs, and only extensive research and more specimens will be able to shed light on these ancient critters. Mammalian ancestors took the form of the now-extinct dicynodonts and the cynodonts, the latter of which include modern mammals, as well. In modern mammals, you can see how the skull only has a single hole behind the eye (the space where the coronoid process sneaks in between the main part of the skull and the extruding zygomatic arch), making it a synapsid, or "one-holer." In previous posts, we've talked about primitive, mammal-like animals such as Dimetrodon and Cotylorhynchus. Both of these critters are synapsids. Diapsids, or "two-holers" (remember from our recent Latin/Greek Roots post that the root "di" means "two" [click HERE to read that post]), is another large group, and includes everything from crocodiles to dinosaurs, lizards to snakes, and tuataras to birds. It also includes the archosaurs, a subgrouping of diapsids that are characterized by an additional hole in the skull, bringing the total number of skull holes up to three. So some diapsids are also archosaurs, such as birds, dinosaurs, and crocodiles. There's also the anapsids, which are animals with no holes in the skull, such as amphibians and turtles. Taxonomically, this can get a bit confusing (especially since sometimes an animals classification doesn't correspond to the number of holes that it has at that point in its evolutionary history), and maybe later we can go into greater detail about these different 'apsids, but below we have a nice picture that should help clear things up a little.
Holes in the skull. On the top left, we have the prehistoric sea turtleProtostega, an anapsid, with no extra holes behind the eye socket. Below Protostega, we have Prestosuchus, a type of archosaur. Not only does Prestosuchus have the two holes in the skull behind the eye socket that characterize older diapsids, but it also has a third hole, in front of the eye socket, but behind the nose openings. On the bottom right, we have Edaphosaurus, a primitive synapsid. The largest hole in the skull, furthest on the right, is what will one day become the hole that the coronoid process sneaks through, between the zygomatic arch and the rest of the skull. In the picture above Edaphosaurus, you can see what I'm talking about, with the extinct mammalian synapsid Hyaenodon. Here, you can see the little nub of the coronoid process between the zygomatic arch and the skull.
As we talked about in that Latin/Greek post that I mentioned above, the name of the primitive, fin-backed synapsid Dimetrodon means "two measures of teeth," referring to the two different types of teeth this animal possesses. This is a feature known as "heterodonty," a term that means "different teeth." Most mammals are heterodonts, and most other animals like reptiles are not, but it doesn't always work that way. Modern cetaceans such as the sperm whale, as well as orcas and dolphins, are homodonts, meaning that they only have one type of tooth in their mouth. If you look at ancient ancestors of whales, such as Basilosaurus or Zygorhiza, you can see that they have different types of teeth in their mouth. This condition can be traced all the way back to 50 MY old Pakicetus.
A trio of cetacean skulls. On the top left, we have Pakicetus, a terrestrial ancestor of the cetaceans, that lived in Pakistan approximately 50 MYA. Below Pakicetus, we have Zygorhiza, a more derived and fully aquatic cetacean. In both Pakicetus and Zygorhiza, you can see how the front teeth and back teeth are different, with the front teeth more for gripping prey, and the back teeth perfect for slicing. On the right, you can see the skull of the modern killer whale, or orca, which has only one type of tooth in their mouth, the conical, gripping teeth.
Then, of course, there are the heterodont reptiles and dinosaurs such as the CretaceouscrocodilianMalawisuchus, and the dinosaurs Heterodontosaurus (literally meaning "different-toothed lizard") and the oviraptorosaurIncisivosaurus. We also talked about the primitive pterosaurDimorphodon (two morphs of teeth) in the Latin/Greek post as well. If you look at the skulls of any of these animals, you can clearly see the different types of teeth in their mouth. Cynodonts were not merely an aberrant heterodont form amongst a vast sea of closely related homodonts, but instead were precursors to the default heterodont condition seen in mammals.
The skull of Heterodontosaurus, on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. You can see the two different types of teeth in the skull, especially in the lower jaw.
If you're a fan of Bob's Burgers, you might remember the Season 4 episode entitled "Ambergris" (check out the full episode HERE), in which the Belcher children discover a strange, aromatic hunk of...something...on the beach. This something turns out to be an interesting byproduct produced by the sperm whale: and even a small hunk of it can be worth thousands of dollars to the right buyer. But what exactly is the stuff?
Much like the title of the episode, this hunk of surprisingly expensive junk is called "ambergris," and scientists believe its production is related to the sperm whale's diet. Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) love to eat giant squid who, despite their relatively squishy nature, possess a very tough beak, a feature seen in other cephalopods such as octopi and nautilus. In my opinion, the cephalopods can be some of the most fascinating animals ever. Period. We can delve deeper into why these creatures are so fascinating some other time, but for now, I leave you with this video of the ultimate in animal spy-gadgetry that would make even James Bond sea-sick with envy. (To see the full Ted-Talk that this video clip is taken from, click HERE.)
Another thing that I think is really cool about animals such as the octopus and the squid is that they have an extraordinarily tough beak. Partially composed of keratin (the same thing your fingernails, hair, porcupine quills, whale baleen plates, claws of reptiles and mammals, horns,* etc.), this beak very closely resembles beaks seen in some types of birds, and is often referred to as a "horny, parrot-like beak."** To truly understand the close resemblance, check out the pictures below!
Now, if you've ever tried to digest a bit of antelope horn or Komodo dragon claw, you might have noticed that it doesn't go down very easy, and comes out the other end with even less easy involved.*** For whales, most of the squid is pretty easily digestible, as they don't have to worry about scales or claws, feathers or hair. That is, other than that tough, keratinous beak. So what does the sperm whale do with this sharp section of squid structure? The answer to that is kind of cool, albeit still poorly understood.
Here's what scientists think happens. In order to keep the squid beak from harming the sperm whale from the inside, the whale somehow surrounds the tough bits of indigestible material (including the squid beak), to keep any sharp edges from being exposed. That part seems to be fairly widely agreed upon, although it seems that the exact methods are still not terribly well understood. Sources differ on how the ambergris leaves the whale's body, however. One Scientific American article states that the whale passes the ambergris with its feces because "it smells more like the back end than the front" when it is first cast out of the body. However, other sources explain that whale feces are liquidy, and hard matter could be difficult for the whale to process. Instead, these sources state that ambergris builds up in the whale over the course of its lifetime, and are released when the animal dies.
So why is ambergris so poorly understood? Well, researching whales, and sperm whales in particular, can be extraordinarily difficult. You need the proper equipment, you need the money, and you need to be able to find the whales. Sperm whales can also be more tough to study than other whales because of their natural behavior. They will dive thousands of feet deep in search of their prey, and spend most of their time beneath the ocean's surface. When they do protrude above the surface, it can still be difficult to find them, as they often don't protrude very far, and their spout of water released upon surfacing is much smaller than in many other whales.
Because of these and other factors, sperm whales remain poorly understood. Ambergris is only known to form in the sperm whale and the related pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps), both of which are very hard to study. Furthermore, studies have found that ambergris is only found in 1-5% of these whales, making the substance even rarer still!**** Because it is so rare, no one has ever seen ambergris expelled from a sperm whale, and the association is only known because of dead sperm whale bodies with ambergris discovered inside.
In spite of this rarity, or perhaps because of it, ambergris is something of a hot commodity, and apparently has been for thousands of years. The Scientific American article quoted above cites the use of ambergris in many different ancient cultures, including the ancient Egyptians, Middle Easterners, and the Chinese. It seems to have been regarded as a "cure-all" in some cultures, including Britain during the Middle Ages. More recently, it was commonly used in perfumes, to fix odors and make the smells hang around for a longer period of time. Although synthesized replacements have taken the place of ambergris in many scenarios, there apparently still is quite a market for the stuff, and even a relatively small hunk of it can fetch a price of several thousand dollars from the right buyer!
As an interesting side-note, fossilized ambergris has been discovered in 1.75 million years old Pleistocene deposits in Italy. Some of these fossils, which apparently number more than 25, are even about two feet high and four feet wide! The abstract of the article (link HERE) describe these fossils as "the only known example of Pleistocene sperm whale coprolites," indicating that the authors of the article consider ambergris to be a poopy product of the sperm whale. Within the fossilized ambergris, parts of squid beak and "altered organic matter" have been found.
So yes, ladies, long story short, it is possible (although unlikely) that you have sprayed yourself with squid beak byproduct that was somehow expelled from a sperm whale at some point in your life. If you feel slightly foolish, just remember: you can be sure that you never drank any coffee that was created from the partially digested excretions that came from the hindquarters of the Asian palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), or freshened up with the assistance of the male musk of the the aptly named musk deer (Moschus moschiferus), a scent which the females of the species find most alluring.
Oh wait, you might have done both of those. Coffee made from animal poop....I have no doubt that Gene Belcher would love to have a cup. Just remember on your next date, it's not coffee breath or a lack of perfume you have to worry about: its civet-butt breath and a lack of musk deer scent and whale byproduct. You just better hope that there aren't any female musk deer around....
*Note that antlers are different from horns, and are not made out of keratin. For a more in-depth discussion regarding the differences between antlers and horns, click HERE and HERE.
**Not that kind of horny.
***Based on speculation on the part of the author, and NOT personal experience. Please do not try this at home without the supervision of a parent or guardian who has been trained in such matters.
****This statistic comes from the following source: http://www.environment.gov.au/node/18363. It doesn't actually say how this statistic was determined, but I assume from analysis of whale carcasses. I don't think many people have tried to look at the digestive systems of whales that are still alive.
*****Yes that kind of horny.
So a month or two ago, I went down to Greeley, Colorado to see my good friend Masaki Kleinkopf perfom in the All State Concert Band. One of the songs that they played there was a piece by composer Alex Shapiro entitled "Immersion." One of the movements in the piece was entitled "Beneath," and it was particularly interesting! In it, the band played with one of the most musical animals in the world: the whale! I was very interested in this piece and the work that went into it, so I contacted the composer and asked her a few questions, and she was kind enough to oblige! I found her answers very, very interesting, and I hope you guys find them as interesting too!
Alex Shapiro! Photo Credit: Paul Chepikian
The Natural World: What made you decide on including whale song in the piece?
Alex Shapiro: Interestingly, the choice wasn't pre-meditated; the song found me, and I welcomed it in unexpectedly. To back-track for a moment, BENEATH-- for symphonic wind band and prerecorded electronics-- was originally a far more intimate piece for contrabass flute and that very same prerecorded electronic track, titled BELOW. Anyone curious can hear excerpts from both versions of the music: the original solo piece for contrabass flute and prerecorded electronics, BELOW:
Around the same time that I was beginning to think about a commission from the wonderful flutist Peter Sheridan for what ended up becoming BELOW, I happened to be poking around on the NOAA Vents Program website (http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/index.html), fascinated by the sounds from our oceans. If I weren't a musician, I might have become a marine biologist, and I also have a fascination with the geology of the ocean floor. I found-- and ended up using to open and close the piece-- a recording of a volcanic eruption from the floor of the Pacific. Perusing the NOAA website, I clicked through to the area with whale songs (http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/acoustics/sounds_whales.html) and from there, I found my way to many other websites with marine mammal audio files. And that's how I discovered the whale who I realized would be a perfect duet partner with Peter. The song was so haunting, I just had to use it as the centerpiece of the music.
TNW: What specific whale did you choose?
AS: The recording I use is that of a male Pacific Humpback whale; I'm told that they're the ones who do the best singing. I actually listened to a couple of hundred whale songs from seven or eight different kinds of whales before I came across this heart-wrenchingly beautiful song. I became adept at hearing the differences in the vocalizations of each species, and could identify a Minke from a Blue from a Sperm just from the audio. Orcas-- the most familiar whales where I live on San Juan Island, Washington, are easy to discern because, as members of the dolphin family, they make high-pitched chirps. Like the Orcas, many whales don't have a song that lends itself as well to human composition needs when it comes to melody (I place the blame for this on the limitation of our musical language, not theirs!). Too many short blasts, pulses, and other non-linear sounds (all of which are great for rhythm, though!). But the Humpback really does sound much more like a human voice, and when I found this particular song, I was mesmerized. I went over to my piano and began improvising with it. Amazingly, the whale was perfectly pitched with my well-tempered instrument, and I immediately found harmonies that worked beautifully (thus making it a whale-tempered piece!). The only audio editing I needed to do was to use filters and equalization to "clean up" the sound of the audio file, so that the blanket of low-humming water noises picked up by the hydrophones that recorded the animal, didn't overpower the higher pitch of the song itself.
TNW: Are you planning on incorporating nature motifs into any later pieces?
AS: Absolutely! I'm often recording the sounds around me-- from nature, and even from my travels through and across nature, such as last week when I was on the ferry from Friday Harbor to Anacortes, on Fidalgo Island, and used my iPhone to capture a hypnotic rhythmic passage created by the boat engine that I'll use in an upcoming work. And one of my upcoming 2014 symphonic wind band commissions will be centered around recording the sounds of the state of Wyoming, and using them in the digital audio track I create to accompany the band. The possibilities are endless, and inspiring.
TNW: Where did you get the idea to do a piece about Wyoming? Have you already come up with the ideas for the sounds you are going to use?
AS: The piece is an upcoming commission for wind band and prerecorded electronics, commissioned in part by a grant from The Biodiversity Institute, a division of the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming, to be premiered by conductor Bob Belser and the University of Wyoming Symphonic Band, that will entail me returning to Wyoming to capture the sonic essence of the environment. U of Wyoming gave a beautiful performance of IMMERSION last year (the piece that includes BENEATH, with the whale), and and you can imagine, this new piece is a perfect fit for me!
And again, anyone curious can hear excerpts from both versions of the music: the original solo piece for contrabass flute and prerecorded electronics, BELOW:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Shapiro for taking the time out of her busy schedule to chat with me! Hopefully we can ask a few more questions for her once her Wyoming piece is released! I feel as if I speak for all of us when I say we look forward to hearing more from her in the future, both blog-wise and music-wise!
The most recent song: presenting "My Hearing's Alright," to the tune of "Feelin' Alright" by Joe Cocker. Pretty sure that this is the only song ever to work the primitive bat Onychonycteris in! Below is the link
to the song:
Here are the lyrics to the song:
Seems I've got to have the best hearing
Cuz under a few feet of snow I hear lemmings
My hearing's just as good as a dolphin
Random clicks and whistles or so it seems
To them its sounds as loud as a scream
But they're using echolocation to help them see
My hearing's alright, (uh oh)
My hearing's quite good myself (uh oh) (x2)
There's no use in, tryin' to go and hide
Above your heads I'm way up high
Using echolocation while I'm above to help myself while flyin'
Suddenly under an attack, bugs just don't know why
Eating mosquitoes and their allies
Other bats drink blood I can't deny
My hearing's alright, (uh oh)
My hearing's quite good myself (uh oh) (x2)
52.5 million years from today
A bat named Onychonycteris lived, that's hard to say
Researchers say that this bat could fly but not echolocate
So these bats probably flew during the day
'Til something came along to take their place
The birds had come at last: to the night they chased
My hearing's alright, (uh oh)
My hearing's quite good myself (uh oh) (x2)
Are you diggin' the songs? Well, then check out our playlist below!
On our California driving trip in 2010, my family and I stayed a few nights in a cute little campsite on the coast, sort of near Monterey in Santa Cruz. We had heard that you could see whales there sometimes, but unfortunately we saw none. However, on one fine morning, my mother and sister did see a skunk! It was just kind of chilling over in the outdoor showers, and looked deceptively cuddly! Here are some pictures!
On the same trip, our family was camping in Big Sur, and my dad and I were outside of our tent reading, when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked, and there was a skunk, so close to me that I could have easily reached out to touch it! Fortunately I didn't startle it or anything, as it moved off without spraying us. The next morning (I remember this, but strangely enough, no one else in my family does), we also saw a mother skunk cross our dirt driveway with three or four baby skunks in tow!
Antlers and horns often look the same, but underneath, they are actually quite different! Today we are going to look at not only what defines both antlers and horns, but also take a look at some of the animals that have each of them! All aboard!
Let's start off with antlers. As defined by the Google dictionary thing, an antler is "One of the branched horns on the head of an adult (usually male) deer,
which are made of bone and are grown and cast off annually." Something that I would like to add is that antlers are unique to the family Cervidae, which includes:
Deer
Elk
Moose
Caribou (Reindeer)
The only member of the family Cervidae that has horns on both the males and the females is the caribou, frequently referred to as the "reindeer." However, it has been documented, on numerous occasions, for fertile females from other species of the cervids to occasionally grow antlers, but this is typically due to unusually high testosterone levels.
The family Cervidae is one of the many families in the order Artiodactyla, frequently referred to as the "Even-Toed Ungulates" (so called because they either stand on two or four toes). There are around 220 extant (still living, as opposed to extinct) species of artiodactyl, and included within this order are many familiar groups. These groups, broken down by family, include:
(Interestingly, the whales, dolphins, and porpoises should be included within the order Artiodactyla, but instead they have been placed within their own, separate order, Cetacea. This area of the family tree is still messy, and a possible merging of the two orders, Artiodactyla and Cetacea, is being considered, which would create the order Cetartiodactyla.)
Also included within the order Artiodactyla is the extinct family Entelodontidae. Later today, we will finally be getting around to what was supposed to be the monthly "What Is It?" challenge, but has turned into more of a quarterly or tri-monthly event! Anyways, we will be announcing the winners of THE LAST CHALLENGE later this evening, after we look at horns!
So why did I split this post up into five parts? Well, originally it was all just one big post, but it was simply too big, like so often happens. So I will just post the rest of the parts throughout the next few days. So here is part number two!
3. Liopleurodon - A member of the short-necked Plesiosaurs, or Pliosaurs, Liopleurodon was the top predator of the Middle and Late Jurassic shallow seas that covered Europe at that time. Fossils of Liopleurodon have been found in England, France, Germany, and Russia.
4. Shonisaurus - Shonisaurus is a fascinating example of convergent evolution. When similar environmental and ecological pressures went to work on the ancestors of Shonisaurus, and the rest of the ichthyosaurs, as well as the ancestors of the dolphins and porpoises, they produced very similar results in very different kind of animals. Shonisaurus and the rest of the ichthyosaurs are marine reptiles, while the dolphins and porpoises are both mammals. Shonisaurus lived during the Late Triassic Period, right around when the dinosaurs were first making their debut. At least thirty-seven skeletons of this giant have been discovered in Nevada. In fact, Nevada is still a fantastic place to see some of these creatures, especially Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park in Berlin, a few hours outside of Reno (pictured below)! This is where the first bones belonging to Shonisaurus were actually discovered! Definitely high on the list of places that I want to go!
Since ya'll kinda get gypped on Wednesdays with the "What Is It?"
challenge, I decided that, when I do do the challenge, I will also
include a "Top Ten" list. I mean, come on now, who doesn't like lists?
I know some of my friends would be absolutely and completely lost
without them! So for today's "Top Ten," we are going to take a look at
some of the world's most amazing, extinct sea monsters. This is also up
for debate, so if you disagree, just give me a holler! Also, they are
not in any particular order, I just kind of threw them all in there! So
without further ado, here we go, with our "Top Ten: Extinct Sea
Monsters!"
1. Megalodon - This gigantic relative of
the extant great white shark was thought to be simply massive: perhaps
even sixty feet in length! Living the world over, Megalodon stalked the
seas during the Miocene and Pliocene Epochs, and only died out during
the current Pleistocene Epoch, around two million years ago. It is
thought that Megalodon evolved to such gigantic proportions in order to
be able to attack the massive whales that had started to evolve in the
cooler seas of the Miocene and Pliocene. Remember now: if it's a shark, then it's a fish!
A tooth fragment from Megalodon at this excellent restaurant called The Crab Shack on Tybee Island off of the coast of Savannah, Georgia.
2. Basilosaurus - A massive, predatory whale (and, therefore, a mammal)
that cruised the seas in the Late Eocene Epoch, 40 to 34 MYA, fossil
discoveries of this massive animal were reportedly so common in the
southern United States during the early 19th century, that bones of Basilosaurus would be used as furniture! It was first discovered in Louisiana, and is the state fossil of both Mississippi and Alabama. Basilosaurus has also been found in Egypt and Pakistan. At around sixty feet in length, the same estimated length of Megalodon, Basilosaurus is thought to have been the biggest creature alive at the time.
So last night my friend Masaki Kleinkopf and I were hoping to see Ginger Kathrens, a woman who is big on horses, and presented three fantastic episodes for the PBS show "Nature" about a specific horse named Cloud (as well as other wild horses in Montana), speak at the Colorado Horse Rescue. However, despite the fact that we were told that it was going to be free, it was not. There was a ten dollar entrance fee. We decided not to go but, since, Ginger Kathrens lives and often works in Colorado, I will probably get another chance to meet her eventually.
However, at my volunteer job thingy at the Morrison Natural History Museum, I got the opportunity to work with Dr. Robert Bakker again, as well as a few other really cool people, like Matt Mossbrucker, Guy, and John, as well as a few other volunteers. I also had the pleasure of meeting a few really nice folks from Florida who come up to this area of Colorado for the summer. All in all, it was a pretty fun day!
Both Bakker and the Florida Folks were able to confirm what I had as a porpoise rib. I guess "confirm" is not really the right word, as I thought that it was a giant ground sloth tooth.
OK, again, I would just like to point out how awesome it is that I get to work with Dr. Bakker. Although by no means the only source, or the only place that would say this, but this list of the top ten most influential paleontologists lists Dr. Bakker as number two. That's kind of a big deal! Some very, very exciting stuff!
This post was originally going to be a part of today's earlier post, previously entitled "The Fauna of South Carolina: Cetaceans, Foxes and Otters." However, when I tried to upload all of the pictures of the cetaceans, foxes and otters, the computer slowed to a crawl. So I decided just to split the post into two parts, and just pretend like it was one. So without further ado, I present to you...."The Fauna of South Carolina: Cetaceans."
Bottlenose Dolphins at "The Inlet"
If you recall, a few weeks ago I posted about another fascinating creature that I learned about when we visited South Carolina in June, called THE BLACK SKIMMER. We saw it hunting while we were in a small coastal inlet, which we shall henceforth refer to as "The Inlet." Our main purpose for our visit to "The Inlet" was to see dolphins. We had seen them last time we had gone to South Carolina at the same place, and we lucked out again. We saw a group of at least three, but possibly four bottlenose dolphins swimming through the area. My mom was able to snap a couple of pictures, but it was very difficult to predict where they would next surface.
Dolphin going under. What you see in the picture is its tail.
Although all four of these pictures of the dolphins were taken at "The Inlet," we saw dolphins a couple of other times as well; I believe I saw them on four other occasions, all while out on our friends boat.
Dolphin dorsal fin, the same fin that strikes fear into people who have seen Jaws too many times.
By far the most memorable occasion was out in Charleston Harbor. We were just on our way back from buzzing around Fort Sumter (the starting point of the Civil War). We had been (boating? driving? floating?) for a few minutes when Captain Jim stopped the boat: he had spotted dolphins. A pod of dolphins was swimming around our boat. None of them got closer than twenty-five or so feet, but that was still pretty close! We knocked on the side of the boat to try to draw them closer, as dolphins are very curious, like the polar bear, but nothing doing. They stayed nearby our boat for awhile, and they didn't seem to be hunting or anything, so my guess is that they were probably curious, but a little nervous about getting too close. Or perhaps they were getting close, and we just couldn't see them under the water! Or, perhaps they were just, as today's urban youth says, "Chillin'."
Another shot of the dolphin dorsal fin
Later on, we went to an excellent restaurant called "The Crab Shack" (scroll down to the "Alligator" part of the post), and they had a small display of local fossils. I took a picture of a few of the more interesting ones, seen below.
Dolphin vertebrae
A whale bone
These large bones help the whales to "see" via echolocation at the deeper, darker levels of the ocean, where seeing with your eyes is virtually impossible without massive eyes, like those seen in the giant squid.
On our last two nights of our vacation, we stayed at a little place called Tybee Island, near Savannah, Georgia. On one of those days, we joined a local ecologist named Dr. Joe Richardson on an ecology tour. It was a lot of fun, and I hope to devote a post to him and his tour later on. Also on the island was a small museum, called the "Tybee Island Marine Science Center" (TIMSC), which was also very cool. I know for a fact that I will have at least one post later on about an amusing incident that took place at the center, and probably mention it in passing a few times as well. But for now, all you need to know is that they had a few bones of a sperm whale that had washed up on the beach there a few years back, I think perhaps in 2002. Take a look below!
Sperm whale bone, I don't remember what bone this was. If anyone has any idea, shoot me an email!
Sperm whale ribs
Sperm whale vertebrae
Finally, on our last night there, we stopped at a small shop. I had gone down to South Carolina in the hopes of nabbing a Megalodon tooth or two (I know you're tired of hearing this, but a later post!) but I had been foiled. I did find a couple of really cool fossils, including other sharks teeth, a few fossils belonging to stingrays, as well as a fossilized horse molar! A lot of what I have is unidentified at this point, but I will keep you posted as I find out more. But I decided to buy two whale bones at this fossil shop, and below are two pictures. The Rupee is there for comparison.
Fossil whale vertebrae
Fossil whale bone, I believe it to be a jawbone.
This post is part of "The Fauna of South Carolina" series. For the rest of the posts in this series, click HERE.
Hello again! Thank you to our guessers for this week: surprisingly, one of you got it exactly right! Congratulations to Kristie C., who guessed this weeks mystery animal 100% correct! The correct animal was Pakicetus, an ancient ancestor of the cetaceans, or the whales, dolphins and porpoises. Around 53 MYA, Pakicetus lived in a world that was gradually becoming what we see today. At this time, what we now know as India was its own special island continent, moving steadily northwards until, eventually, India crashed into Asia. This crash resulted in the largest mountains we have today, the Himalayas.
However, 53 MYA, during the Eocene Epoch, India hadn't quite reached Asia, a small sea separating the two, the remains of the vast Tethys Ocean. The Tethys Sea was high in saline, which is incredibly good for life. Microscopic organisms like plankton flourished, sending reverberations up the food chain, all of the way to the fish, which exploded in numbers as well. And on the shore of this Tethys Sea, in what today is Pakistan, stood Pakicetus.
As Pakicetus watched the gread abundnace of fish in the waters, he began to take short fishing trips into the water. Over millennia, as Pakicetus took more and more fishing trips, of longer and longer duration, adaptations that proved beneficial for hunting fish in the water occurred, like a more streamlined shape, most likely webbed feet, and nostrils placed further back on the head. Over a few million years, Pakicetus evolved into another ancient whale, called Ambulocetus.
Check back in a few hours for your next "What Is It?" challenge? I promise you, after the last two, this one should seem like a piece of cake! See you all then!
