Alien Vs. Predator Vs. Parasaurolophus

A few days ago, I sat down and, with several hours of homework to do, watched Ridley Scott's 1979 classic "Alien."  It was phenomenal, and I enjoyed it, and went on to watch Predator (great) and Prometheus (not so great).  Now, on this excellent but snowy Thursday afternoon, I'm about an hour into "Aliens," knowing that any second now an Alien xenomorph is going to appear out of nowhere and kill something.  But that's not why I paused the movie at the 54:44 minute mark.  What I've been thinking about is far more pressing: what's the purpose of that enormously distended xenomorph cranium?

If you have no idea what's going on in this picture yet, that means you're probably sane.

Usually with aliens, you can just pass off a big head as an indicator of big brains.  Ki-Adi Mundi from Star Wars, for example, has two brains in that big 'ol Cerean cranium of his, and an extra heart to boot.  If you rewatch "A New Hope" extra carefully, see if you can't spot Pons Limbic (note the brainy pun) in the Mos Eisley Cantina, the big-brained Siniteen whose head literally resembles a brain.  The Guardians of the Universe from the D.C. Comics franchise are often pretty wise, but in light of some recent events, they might not be quite as level headed and emotion spectrumless as we thought (but that's a story for another bright snowy day).  The Face of Boe from Doctor Who seems to be pretty smart, given that he's literally just a giant head in a tank and can communicate telepathically.  Then there's Zilius Zox, a Red Lantern from the D.C. universe, who also appears to be little more than a giant head.  Both Jumba (from Disney's "Lilo and Stitch") and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) seem to have noggins that are larger than average in proportion to body size, and seem to have above average intelligence to match.  Marvin the Martian and Roger from American Dad?  Both smart, both big-headed.

A skull of the duck-billed hadrosaur Parasaurolophus at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, from my visit last summer with my good friend Zach Evens (who also deserves some credit listing big-brained aliens).

Now what about the aliens, or xenomorphs, from the "Alien" franchise?  Although undeniably intelligent to some degree, they aren't what you'd typically think of when the subject of brainy aliens comes up around the dinner table, at least not in terms of processing power.  But they definitely have big heads.  So what are they used for if not for thinking?  We, of course, can turn to the science of dinosaur paleontology to help us with this question.  Take a look at the dinosaur skull above.  This critter is a hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur, called Parasaurolophus.  Scientists believe that it blew air through its special crest to produce a sound very similar to that of a trombone!  Many hadrosaurs had wild cranial ornamentation, as did other dinosaurs such as some of the ceratopsians and the pachycephalosaurs, just to name a few.  These wacky head-dos almost certainly had a whole lot to do with attracting a mate and sexual selection.  Essentially, the bigger your crest is, the more attractive you are.  Is it possible a similar sort of thing evolved for the Alien xenomorphs?  In "Aliens," we can see that the queen has a different head pattern than do all of the other xenomorphs that we've seen so far, indicating some sort of sexual dimorphism is potentially at work.  Interesting.  What should you take from this blog post?  Probably just that I have way too much time on my hands.

On a brief side note, I realized I've actually talked about the skull of the xenomorphs previously, before I'd even seen the movies.  Check out that post, all about otter skulls, by clicking HERE.

Alien vs. predator vs. Parasaurolophus vs. Tyrannosaurus vs. Lego Gilderoy Lockhart vs. Darth Vader vs. Polly Pocket vs. creepy frog candle vs. macaw vs. Apatosaurus vs. medieval archer vs. Boba Fett Pez Dispenser vs. Ambelodon vs. mallard vs. fisherman from an ironic fish cake vs. Jumba vs. Craire Cat Hello Thingy vs. six different types of shark vs. Taz monster truck vs. Aragorn son of Arathorn vs. Liam Payne vs. Marty from "Pirates of the Caribbean" vs. mouse cat toy vs. basilisk lizard vs. Spider-Man vs. penguins with jet packs and missile launchers vs. Themistocles vs. Terri Irwin.  And this is why it takes me so long to write a blog post.  I think we were all a little surprised about how quickly things escalated.  Yeah, I definitely have too much time on my hands.

Top Ten Favorite Dinosaurs by Zack Neher (Part 4)

Part four of my Top Ten Favorite Dinosaurs list.  Enjoy!

2. Struthiosaurus

Just like Masiakasaurus, Struthiosaurus also lived during the Late Cretaceous Period.  Also like Masiakasaurus, Struthiosaurus was small.  But Struthiosaurus was small in a very different way than Masiakasaurus.  Remember when we talked about island/insular dwarfism in the context of the Channel Island fox?  Well, island dwarfism is back, in all of its glory!  A brief refresher, island dwarfism is what sometimes happens to animals that have become trapped on islands.  Over many generations, they shrink in order to match the limited food supply.  If there is a limited supply of food, then the smallest of your species, not the largest, are much more likely to survive.  Another factor that often helps island dwarfs is that predation is typically not as intense on islands as compared to mainlands, but that is not always the case.  Anyways, around 75 MYA, global sea levels were much higher.  In North America, we had the Western Interior Seaway dividing the continent, while Europe was simply reduced to a number of individual islands, one of which is now known as Hațeg Island.  And, if you are any good at guessing how stories end, you can probably see where this is going.  Yes, Struthiosaurus was an island-dwarf!  He is also really cool because he is an ankylosaur, a group of dinosaurs that are incredibly interesting!  Another thing that I absolutely have to mention here pertains to the picture of Struthiosaurus that we have below.  This picture was drawn by an incredibly talented young artist named Sam Lippincott.  Only in eighth grade, he is well on his way to achieving artistic greatness!  Below are some more pictures of his, all of them absolutely fantastic!  He made these pictures for my last lecture and I have the Struthiosaurus and Magyarosaurus pictures framed on my wall, I love them so much!  Let's all give Sam a round of applause! 

Struthiosaurus, an ankylosaur, by Sam Lippincott

Telmatosaurus, a hadrosaur, by Sam Lippincott

Magyarosaurus, a sauropod, by Sam Lippincott

Hatzegopteryx, a pterosaur, by Sam Lippincott

Europasaurus, another dwarf sauropod dinosaur, but from an island other than Hațeg Island

TO BE CONCLUDED IN PART 5

Top 10 Favorite Dinosaurs by Zack Neher (Part 1)

Just a few days ago, we had our first ever guest blog post by David Church.  Mr. Church did his top ten favorite dinosaurs, which got me thinking about what my favorite dinosaurs were, and inspired me to do this post!  So here is my top ten favorite dinosaur list!

10. Argentinosaurus

Inhabiting South America during the Late Cretaceous Period, the enormous sauropod Argentinosaurus is the heaviest known terrestrial animal and, according to BBC, also has the record for being the longest land animal.  It was, of course, discovered in Argentina, and would have been a contemporary of Giganotosaurus.  

A picture of Argentinosaurus (background) under assault from a Giganotosaurus (foreground) with my parents off to the left at the Fernbank Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Another shot of the Argentinosaurus at Fernbank

9. Allosaurus

Allosaurus was a thirty or so foot long carnivorous dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period.  Discovered in the Morrison Formation of Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming, this dinosaur (or one quite like it) was also likely found in the Tendaguru Beds of Tanzania.  The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry near Price, Utah holds the remains of more than forty individual Allosaurus bones.

Assorted Allosaurus bones from our visit to the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry

8. Spinosaurus

Spinosaurus is an enormous carnivorous dinosaur that we have talked about on multiple occasions, both in our "Biggest Carnivorous Dinosaur" trilogy of posts awhile back, but also in Mr. Church's Top Ten list.  Spinosaurus, despite the fact that it is easily the largest known carnivorous dinosaur, with an estimated length of almost sixty feet, did not eat meat like the other enormous dinosaurs: instead, Spinosaurus was a piscivore, or a fish eater.  This giant creature lived in Africa during the Cretaceous Period.

 7. Parasaurolophus

Parasaurolophus is another one of those dinosaurs that overlaps from Mr. Church's list to my own.  Parasaurolophus is certainly an interesting creature!  A member of the hadrosaurs, or duck-billed dinosaurs, Parasaurolophus, as Mr. Church discussed, is the only dinosaur I know of where paleontologists know with a high degree of accuracy what they sounded like.  The large crest on the back of the head of Parasaurolophus is full of hollow tubing, similar in shape and structure to the trombone, as well as similar in sound, too.  Unfortunately, I could not find a sound file or video of the call, so if anyone has access to a scientifically reconstructed call, let me know!

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2

Cal Orck'o: Not A Place for the Acrophobic

In 1994, Klaus Schütt discovered an enormous slab of dinosaur tracks.  You're probably thinking enormous like Jabba the Hutt enormous or my cat enormous.  (She's a big kitty).  But no, I mean ENORMOUS enormous.  And by ENORMOUS enormous, I mean a mile wide and 500 feet tall.  Yeah, that big.  Another thing about Cal Orck'o: its on a 70 degree incline.

Real fast, let me include a brief disclaimer: I have looked at probably 25 different books and websites that mention this place, and half of them spell it "Cal Orco," and the other half spell it "Cal Orko," while a few even spell it "Cal Orcko."  The UNESCO website calls it "Cal Orck'o," so that's the one that I went with on the blog.  So yeah, I really don't know which way is which, but nevertheless, this place is quite an interesting fossil site!

It wasn't until 1998 that Christian Meyer, a Swiss paleontologist, lead a team of scientists to investigate the site, which is near a concrete factory in Sucre, Bolivia.  They found that the enormous trackway is from the Late Cretaceous Period, dated at around 68 million years ago (MYA).  They learned that, at the time that the rocks and footprints were formed, the area was a lakeside where animals from all over would come to drink.  They also determined that Cal Orck'o was the "largest site of dinosaur tracks found so far," possessing the largest number of dinosaur footprints of anywhere in the world.

Cal Orck'o has over 5,000 dinosaur tracks made by at least six identified dinosaurs in around 250 trackways, some of which extend for hundreds of feet in a single direction.

Due to the extremely steep face of the fossil site, erosion is a constant threat to the dinosaur footprints.  The Bolivian government combats this by spending a whopping $30 million every year.  Despite this, a large chunk broke off in February of 2010, destroying around 300 footprints.   

Information on Cal Orck'o is extremely spotty, and the website for the site doesn't seem to have an "English" option.  My Spanish skills are pretty rudimentary at best, but I think I was able to come up with a list of the dinosaurs whose tracks are preserved at Cal Orck'o.  Now, keep in mind, very rarely do you definitively know what animal made a fossilized footprint, and most of the time these are simply good guesses.  For the picture below, I used ones taken from the garden area thing at the Cal Orck'o museum.  So if you are going to blame someone for inaccurate data, make sure you blame them and not me!

An abelisaur, a type of carnivorous dinosaur like Abelisaurus or Carnotaurus.

An iguanodont, a type of herbivorous dinosaur like Iguanodon.

A ceratopsian, a type of dinosaur like Triceratops or Protoceratops.

An ankylosaur, a type of dinosaur like Ankylosaurus.

A titanosaur, a type of sauropod dinosaur like Saltasaurus.

A dromaeosaur, a type of carnivorous dinosaur like Velociraptor.

A ceratosaur, a type of carnivorous dinosaur like Ceratosaurus.

A hadrosaur, a type of herbivorous dinosaur like Parasaurolophus.

A tyrannosaur, a type of carnivorous dinosaur like Tyrannosaurus.

Again, keep in mind that I have next to no idea which of these, if any, were found at Cal Orck'o.  I plan on doing a little bit of digging within the next few weeks, so hopefully I will be able to get back to you sometime soon!

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