Below, we have a picture of Greg Tally helping out with the cameraman and Mr. Bones!
Showing posts with label North America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label North America. Show all posts
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Mr. Bones Visits the Morrison Natural History Museum!
Yesterday, Mr. Bones, a local dinosaur enthusiast who's created some amazing looking dinosaur skeleton suits, visited the Morrison Natural History Museum! The museum was also visited by Greg and Meredith Tally and their children, the fantastic people who are renovating the Best Western Denver Southwest to be a dinosaur-themed hotel! All of these folks were here to make a brief teaser sort of thing to promote both the dinosaur hotel and the Morrison Museum! I took a little bit of video, as well as some pictures, so make sure to check them out here!
Greg Tally is attacked by Mr. Bones!
Running is useless!
Just a little too big for the door!
If you want to see some video of the museum's encounter with Mr. Bones, check out the video below!
Here, we have some shots of Mr. Bones taking a swipe at the museum sign out on the road!
Kids LOVE Mr. Bones!
One of his other suits, a Utahraptor! All of the other shots are of him wearing his "Kindergarten Tyrannosaurus rex" suit!
A size comparison between the two suits.
Mr. Bones goes in for the kill!
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Xiphactinus: The Inception Fossil
If you were to travel back 100 million years from where I live in Colorado, the face of a very, very different planet would emerge. I suppose emerge isn't necessarily the best word in this context: submerged is more of an adequate description! You see, unlike the mountains you would see in Colorado today, Late Cretaceous Colorado was even flatter than present-day Kansas....and a whole lot closer to sea level! Between about 100 and 70 million years ago (MYA), an enormous seaway stretched northwards from the Gulf of Mexico, and southwards from the Arctic. Within these waters, hundreds, perhaps thousands of animals flourished, many of which we have nothing like today. Massive sea turtles like Archelon slowly swam through the waters, while the long-necked plesiosaurs cruised around, snapping up fish before they even knew they were there. While sharks and mosasaurs were probably the most impressive denizens of the seaway, these massive carnivores fed on fish as well. And the subject of today's post is one of those fish: a 17-foot long beastie called Xiphactinus.
Due to the numerous pictures uploaded to Pinterest by the Best Western Denver Southwest hotel (read more about it HERE), I'm going to be using a lot of pictures from this site! Make sure you check it out by clicking HERE! Unless otherwise noted, photo credit for all of the pictures in this post goes to that Pinterest page!
Why did I call Xiphactinus (pronounced zye-FACT-un-us) "The Inception Fossil?" Well, that's a description that I came up with (don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise!) that has to do with one of the most interesting things about Xiphactinus: numerous specimens of the fish have been found with the remains of other fish in its stomach! Just as the premise behind Inception is "a dream within a dream," so too are specimens of Xiphactinus sometimes "fish within a fish!" The specimen below is a thirteen foot Xiphactinus that died with a fish known as Gillicus arcuatus in its stomach!
Unlike sharks, Xiphactinus would have been unable to bite off chunks of flesh from its prey, and instead would have had to swallow its prey whole, which is what makes the Inception Fossils so spectacular! Some paleontologists propose that this lack of chewing may have been what killed some of these Xiphactinus specimens, and that they actually choked to death on their last meal! I suppose it's possible, but I don't actually know enough about these specimens to be a very good authority on them!
The next three pictures below are pictures that I took of a specimen that I saw a week or so ago. Long story short, my friends Isabel and Sam Lippincott and I had gone to a presentation given by paleontologist Dr. Ian Miller about the Snowmastodon Project a few months back, and he was impressed with Sam's paleo drawings when we showed him after the lecture. He invited us to come on down to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science so that he could show us around behind the scenes, which he very kindly did a few weeks ago! These are pictures I took of the 80 MY old Mancos Shale specimen of Xiphactinus, which was discovered in 1966 by some kids who had been hunting with their dad near Snowmass in Colorado. They had stumbled across the rib cage of the animal, and had notified the Denver Museum. The next summer, the museum excavated the remarkably complete, 13-foot specimen, taking it back to the museum, where it has been stored to this day!
Here are some more cool pictures from the Pinterest page! This is a diorama of paleontologist Charles Sternberg caught in the act of discovering one of his "Inception fossils!"
And here are another pair of reconstructions of Xiphactinus!
Make sure to check out the Pinterest page of the Best Western Denver Southwest by clicking HERE!
Due to the numerous pictures uploaded to Pinterest by the Best Western Denver Southwest hotel (read more about it HERE), I'm going to be using a lot of pictures from this site! Make sure you check it out by clicking HERE! Unless otherwise noted, photo credit for all of the pictures in this post goes to that Pinterest page!
Why did I call Xiphactinus (pronounced zye-FACT-un-us) "The Inception Fossil?" Well, that's a description that I came up with (don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise!) that has to do with one of the most interesting things about Xiphactinus: numerous specimens of the fish have been found with the remains of other fish in its stomach! Just as the premise behind Inception is "a dream within a dream," so too are specimens of Xiphactinus sometimes "fish within a fish!" The specimen below is a thirteen foot Xiphactinus that died with a fish known as Gillicus arcuatus in its stomach!
Unlike sharks, Xiphactinus would have been unable to bite off chunks of flesh from its prey, and instead would have had to swallow its prey whole, which is what makes the Inception Fossils so spectacular! Some paleontologists propose that this lack of chewing may have been what killed some of these Xiphactinus specimens, and that they actually choked to death on their last meal! I suppose it's possible, but I don't actually know enough about these specimens to be a very good authority on them!
The next three pictures below are pictures that I took of a specimen that I saw a week or so ago. Long story short, my friends Isabel and Sam Lippincott and I had gone to a presentation given by paleontologist Dr. Ian Miller about the Snowmastodon Project a few months back, and he was impressed with Sam's paleo drawings when we showed him after the lecture. He invited us to come on down to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science so that he could show us around behind the scenes, which he very kindly did a few weeks ago! These are pictures I took of the 80 MY old Mancos Shale specimen of Xiphactinus, which was discovered in 1966 by some kids who had been hunting with their dad near Snowmass in Colorado. They had stumbled across the rib cage of the animal, and had notified the Denver Museum. The next summer, the museum excavated the remarkably complete, 13-foot specimen, taking it back to the museum, where it has been stored to this day!
And here are another pair of reconstructions of Xiphactinus!
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Not Enough Bacteria, Too Many Allergies
If you were to hear someone say "by making our world more sterile, we're actually making ourselves sicker," you might think they were full of it: initially, it sure doesn't sound like it makes any sense. Interestingly, however, it seems as if this may, in fact, be true: our attempts to make our world a cleaner place, we are slowly and steadily weakening our own immune systems!
It all started yesterday as I was working at the Morrison Natural History Museum, watering and destroying the angiosperms from the Jurassic Garden with "extreme prejudice," as angiosperms do not appear to have inhabited Colorado during the Jurassic Period. I started wondering why there was so much dead plant material around the base of the plants in the garden, and, for lack of a better conclusion, decided that it was probably because the bacteria that would normally digest these plants didn't actually live here. (I still don't know whether that is true or not). The topic of bacteria triggered my brain to start thinking about digestive bacteria: I was quite hungry, you see. It had been brought to my attention in the past that, even if humans were somehow able to miraculously clone a dinosaur, we almost certainly couldn't keep them alive. Each animal on the planet has its own, unique set of bacteria that helps it to digest its food. With the extinction of the dinosaurs, it is almost certain that the bacteria that constantly accompanied them in their digest tracts went extinct, as well.
This line of thought made me think about the passing of bacteria from the parents to their offspring. How is it done? I assumed that they weren't born with it, but I wasn't sure. I ended up thinking that perhaps, in animals that regurgitate food into the mouths of their young (like penguins), perhaps this was how the bacteria was passed. With perfect timing, out came Matt Mossbrucker, the director and curator at the Morrison Museum. I asked him whether it was, indeed, regurgitation that passed the bacteria on, and he said yes: partially. You know how many animals (such as your dog and cat at home) will eat poop? That's at least part of the reason: they're trying to get bacteria from the poop to help them digest their food!
After thinking about it for a few seconds, I realized that humans (most of us, anyways) neither regurgitate our food for our young 'uns, nor do we eat each others poop. So I asked Matt whether humans get this bacteria through breast milk: turns out, we don't. So how do we get the bacteria?
According to recent research, humans aren't getting enough bacteria to digest their food. Much of this research seems to indicate that perhaps this is the reason why so many humans have digestive issues, allergies, and the like. Matt also said that, just like I said in the introduction, "by making our world more sterile, we're actually making ourselves sicker." Still sound paradoxical? Well, ultimately, humans are trying so dang hard to sterilize their world with hand sanitizer, bleach, alcohol, and soap, that we aren't being exposed to as many pathogens. While in some cases this is a good thing, in other cases, our immune systems, just like the six-pack of someone who doesn't exercise, slowly weaken. And, of course, a weak immune system is good for no one!
So is the moral of the story to stop washing your hands? No, of course not. It's to go out there and eat poop. See you later, everyone!
It all started yesterday as I was working at the Morrison Natural History Museum, watering and destroying the angiosperms from the Jurassic Garden with "extreme prejudice," as angiosperms do not appear to have inhabited Colorado during the Jurassic Period. I started wondering why there was so much dead plant material around the base of the plants in the garden, and, for lack of a better conclusion, decided that it was probably because the bacteria that would normally digest these plants didn't actually live here. (I still don't know whether that is true or not). The topic of bacteria triggered my brain to start thinking about digestive bacteria: I was quite hungry, you see. It had been brought to my attention in the past that, even if humans were somehow able to miraculously clone a dinosaur, we almost certainly couldn't keep them alive. Each animal on the planet has its own, unique set of bacteria that helps it to digest its food. With the extinction of the dinosaurs, it is almost certain that the bacteria that constantly accompanied them in their digest tracts went extinct, as well.
This line of thought made me think about the passing of bacteria from the parents to their offspring. How is it done? I assumed that they weren't born with it, but I wasn't sure. I ended up thinking that perhaps, in animals that regurgitate food into the mouths of their young (like penguins), perhaps this was how the bacteria was passed. With perfect timing, out came Matt Mossbrucker, the director and curator at the Morrison Museum. I asked him whether it was, indeed, regurgitation that passed the bacteria on, and he said yes: partially. You know how many animals (such as your dog and cat at home) will eat poop? That's at least part of the reason: they're trying to get bacteria from the poop to help them digest their food!
After thinking about it for a few seconds, I realized that humans (most of us, anyways) neither regurgitate our food for our young 'uns, nor do we eat each others poop. So I asked Matt whether humans get this bacteria through breast milk: turns out, we don't. So how do we get the bacteria?
According to recent research, humans aren't getting enough bacteria to digest their food. Much of this research seems to indicate that perhaps this is the reason why so many humans have digestive issues, allergies, and the like. Matt also said that, just like I said in the introduction, "by making our world more sterile, we're actually making ourselves sicker." Still sound paradoxical? Well, ultimately, humans are trying so dang hard to sterilize their world with hand sanitizer, bleach, alcohol, and soap, that we aren't being exposed to as many pathogens. While in some cases this is a good thing, in other cases, our immune systems, just like the six-pack of someone who doesn't exercise, slowly weaken. And, of course, a weak immune system is good for no one!
So is the moral of the story to stop washing your hands? No, of course not. It's to go out there and eat poop. See you later, everyone!
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Otters of the Americas
Most scientists today accept that there are thirteen extant (still living, opposite of extinct) otters in the world. Of these, five are native only to the Americas, while one, the sea otter, lives in both the Old World and the New World! In this post, though, we are going to be only looking at the New World otters, the otters of the Americas! Let's start up north and work our way downwards!
If we're starting up north, then that would mean that our first otter of the day is the North American river otter! The diet of the river otter is primarily composed of slow moving, bottom feeding fish, but will eat many other different animals given the opportunity! Reports of river otters catching and eating snowshoe hare have been recorded, as well!
When my friend Masaki Kleinkopf, my father and I were able to go on a behind the scenes tour at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo with my grandparents, one of the keepers at the grizzly bear enclosure told us a very interesting and funny story! A few years ago, the four river otters had managed to create a hole in their enclosure large enough for them to squeeze through, and some of them escaped. One of the river otters was never found, and to this day is still probably roaming the mountainside (unless it got eaten). If I remember correctly, another one of the otters was captured a few weeks later farther down the mountain, swimming around. The final two otters were much easier to capture, however, and this is the funny part of the story! If I remember correctly, the zookeepers figured out that the otters were missing because they went up and visited the nearby grizzly bear enclosure. Instead of being greeted with the typical blue pond loaded with fish, they were met with a vision of a bloodbath: the waters were red with blood, and there were fish parts everywhere! And there, on the side of the pond, were two fat and happy otters!
In other river otter news, one was recently captured on a camera trap in Boulder, Colorado, the first such sighting in the area for around 100 years! Click HERE to be directed to an article to learn more!
Next up, we have the sea otter, the heaviest mustelid, and the only other otter native to North America! Sea otters also have the thickest fur of any mammal, with around an astonishing ONE MILLION HAIRS PER SQUARE INCH! Now THAT'S a lot of hairs! This unfortunately has attracted many, many poachers over the years, and sea otter populations the world over took a serious tumble. However, in recent years, they have recovered to around two thirds their historical numbers, making it one of the most successful marine conservation movements ever! The sea otter will also hold hands with other sea otters to avoid floating away from each other, and sometime will form what scientists call "rafts" of around 2,000 individuals! Click HERE to learn more about the hand holding and the rafts!
Let's take this trip south of the Equator to Mexico, Central, and South America! The next otter is the neotropical otter and, as you can see by the range map below, is native to all three of those places! A solitary animal, not a great deal is known about its behavior and habits.
Next up is the second largest mustelid in the world (after the sea otter, of course), the aptly named giant otter! Although much longer than the sea otter, the giant otter is much more slim. It is, however, the longest mustelid, growing to lengths of about five and a half feet! Unlike most mustelids, the giant otter is a fairly social animal, living in groups generally numbering between around four and thirteen individuals, usually composed of one pair of breeding individuals and their offspring from one or more generations.
One of the most interesting things that I have learned about the giant otter is entirely and categorically false: according to one TV show (I am pretty sure it was Survivorman), the giant otter is a threat to people. I can't remember the exact quote, but in one episode in which he was in the Amazon, he says something along the lines of "I definitely have to watch out for jaguars and insects here, but I've also been told to watch out for the highly aggressive giant otter." Which is total crap. The giant otter is often regarded as a nuisance to indigenous peoples, but nowhere have I been able to find anyone saying that they can be dangerous to humans! I don't recommend that show.
The second to last otter of the Americas is the marine otter. Much of the marine otter's time is spent out of water, and it rarely, if ever, ventures into rivers or estuaries. The marine otter is the second smallest otter (the only smaller otter being the Asian small-clawed otter), and, like the neotropical otter, not a lot is known about it.
Finally, we have the southern river otter, another otter about which not a great deal is know. Although called a river otter, the southern river otter spends a great deal of time in both fresh and salt water. Some people believe the southern river otter simply to be a sub-species of the North American river otter.
This was the birthday post of Julie Neher! Happy birthday, Julie! Want to see some cute (or ugly) baby animals featured here on your birthday? Well, if you have a birthday coming up, just email me the date at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com with the date and your favorite animal, and I will do my best to get a post in! And if you like what you are reading, please feel free to follow us here or via Facebook!
When my friend Masaki Kleinkopf, my father and I were able to go on a behind the scenes tour at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo with my grandparents, one of the keepers at the grizzly bear enclosure told us a very interesting and funny story! A few years ago, the four river otters had managed to create a hole in their enclosure large enough for them to squeeze through, and some of them escaped. One of the river otters was never found, and to this day is still probably roaming the mountainside (unless it got eaten). If I remember correctly, another one of the otters was captured a few weeks later farther down the mountain, swimming around. The final two otters were much easier to capture, however, and this is the funny part of the story! If I remember correctly, the zookeepers figured out that the otters were missing because they went up and visited the nearby grizzly bear enclosure. Instead of being greeted with the typical blue pond loaded with fish, they were met with a vision of a bloodbath: the waters were red with blood, and there were fish parts everywhere! And there, on the side of the pond, were two fat and happy otters!
In other river otter news, one was recently captured on a camera trap in Boulder, Colorado, the first such sighting in the area for around 100 years! Click HERE to be directed to an article to learn more!
Next up, we have the sea otter, the heaviest mustelid, and the only other otter native to North America! Sea otters also have the thickest fur of any mammal, with around an astonishing ONE MILLION HAIRS PER SQUARE INCH! Now THAT'S a lot of hairs! This unfortunately has attracted many, many poachers over the years, and sea otter populations the world over took a serious tumble. However, in recent years, they have recovered to around two thirds their historical numbers, making it one of the most successful marine conservation movements ever! The sea otter will also hold hands with other sea otters to avoid floating away from each other, and sometime will form what scientists call "rafts" of around 2,000 individuals! Click HERE to learn more about the hand holding and the rafts!
Let's take this trip south of the Equator to Mexico, Central, and South America! The next otter is the neotropical otter and, as you can see by the range map below, is native to all three of those places! A solitary animal, not a great deal is known about its behavior and habits.
Next up is the second largest mustelid in the world (after the sea otter, of course), the aptly named giant otter! Although much longer than the sea otter, the giant otter is much more slim. It is, however, the longest mustelid, growing to lengths of about five and a half feet! Unlike most mustelids, the giant otter is a fairly social animal, living in groups generally numbering between around four and thirteen individuals, usually composed of one pair of breeding individuals and their offspring from one or more generations.
One of the most interesting things that I have learned about the giant otter is entirely and categorically false: according to one TV show (I am pretty sure it was Survivorman), the giant otter is a threat to people. I can't remember the exact quote, but in one episode in which he was in the Amazon, he says something along the lines of "I definitely have to watch out for jaguars and insects here, but I've also been told to watch out for the highly aggressive giant otter." Which is total crap. The giant otter is often regarded as a nuisance to indigenous peoples, but nowhere have I been able to find anyone saying that they can be dangerous to humans! I don't recommend that show.
The second to last otter of the Americas is the marine otter. Much of the marine otter's time is spent out of water, and it rarely, if ever, ventures into rivers or estuaries. The marine otter is the second smallest otter (the only smaller otter being the Asian small-clawed otter), and, like the neotropical otter, not a lot is known about it.
Finally, we have the southern river otter, another otter about which not a great deal is know. Although called a river otter, the southern river otter spends a great deal of time in both fresh and salt water. Some people believe the southern river otter simply to be a sub-species of the North American river otter.
This was the birthday post of Julie Neher! Happy birthday, Julie! Want to see some cute (or ugly) baby animals featured here on your birthday? Well, if you have a birthday coming up, just email me the date at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com with the date and your favorite animal, and I will do my best to get a post in! And if you like what you are reading, please feel free to follow us here or via Facebook!
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Stegosaurus at the Morrison Natural History Museum (Stegosaurus Week)
So as you probably know (at least if you've been following us here for Stegosaurus Week), the whole point of the special week was to celebrate Stegosaurus Day at the Morrison Natural History Museum in Morrison, Colorado! But what Stegosaurus-related exhibits does the Morrison Natural History Museum even have? Well. I am so glad you asked. Let's dive on in!
Next, we have a VERY interesting block of fossil-containing rock!
It all started when the block was brought into the museum because of the dinosaur bones, like the rib bone you can see below from an unidentified dinosaur....
The other tracks on the slab are by and large considered to be much more interesting. What you are looking at below are some more baby Stegosaurus footprints! Remember the baby Stegosaurus footprint that we discussed below, and remember the model of the animal that was thought to have made it? The model is about the size of the animal that is thought to have made the little tracks on the left in the picture below! What's particularly interesting about these footprints, however, is that they show the footprints of at least two individual Stegosaurus, each probably just a few months old, superimposed on each other! This seems like pretty good evidence that these guys were also moving in groups, just like the other slab of Stegosaurus footprints shows us with older individuals! The smaller footprint on the right (again, around the size of a domestic cat's footprint) is from a much smaller individual, probably just a hatchling! It is also possible that this hatchling was moving with the other juveniles, as well!
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
How Would Stegosaurus Have Sex? [FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY] (Stegosaurus Week)
In the newest episode of "Animal Explorations With Zack Neher," we investigate (with Hugh Hefner) a very interesting dilemma that has puzzled paleontologists for a plethora of years: how would Stegosaurus and its relatives have had sex?
After I posted this video, Matthew Mossbrucker, the director of the Morrison Natural History Museum, commented on the post, with some very important and interesting information! Here is what Mr. Mossbrucker had to say:
"Quite a few folks have pondered this through the years - myself included. Allow me to put on my Dr. Ruth field hat for a moment. Heinrich Mallison's concept of the African stegosaur Kentrosaurus mating seems plausible to me. I've assumed this myself as a default mating position for these animals. My read of the tail base in Stegosaurus is a bit different than Brian Switek's analysis. While it is true that our North American stegosaurs had limited up-down motion at the base of the tail, stegosaurs do something for ornithischian dinosaurs: they have the ability to twist their tails in a corkscrew-like fashion. I can envision a standing female Stegosaurus twisting her tail to one side and therefore removing obstacles for her mate. Unlike the boated models in your photo, a living Stegosaurus would have been able to stand and even walk on its hind-limbs with grace. So, therefore I see no barrier putting a male into mating position. So, there you have it."
"Quite a few folks have pondered this through the years - myself included. Allow me to put on my Dr. Ruth field hat for a moment. Heinrich Mallison's concept of the African stegosaur Kentrosaurus mating seems plausible to me. I've assumed this myself as a default mating position for these animals. My read of the tail base in Stegosaurus is a bit different than Brian Switek's analysis. While it is true that our North American stegosaurs had limited up-down motion at the base of the tail, stegosaurs do something for ornithischian dinosaurs: they have the ability to twist their tails in a corkscrew-like fashion. I can envision a standing female Stegosaurus twisting her tail to one side and therefore removing obstacles for her mate. Unlike the boated models in your photo, a living Stegosaurus would have been able to stand and even walk on its hind-limbs with grace. So, therefore I see no barrier putting a male into mating position. So, there you have it."
There we have it indeed! I hope you find that enlightening, as well as the video! The dilemma definitely makes more sense after hearing what Mr. Mossbrucker has to say!
Want to learn more about Stegosaurus and it's relatives? Well, check out the Homebase for Stegosaurus Week HERE to partake in more of the festivities!
Bone Wars, Marsh and Cope: to the Tune of "Two Black Cadillacs" (Stegosaurus Week)
One of a pair of songs that I made especially for Stegosaurus Week! "Bone Wars, Marsh and Cope" to the tune of "Two Black Cadillacs" by Carrie Underwood. Below is the link to the song:
Here are the lyrics to the song:
Full Lyrics:
1800s, Morrison, a big find was made
"If Cope got a bone, Marsh lost," Dr. Bakker say
They devoted their life,
To get the most bones, each other they'd fight
Two rivals fighting over fossils in the dirt and grime
[Chorus:]
And the teacher, Lakes, he was a good man
And Marsh and Cope, they used to be friends
But then the two of them wanted the other to die
Bye, Bye bye, Bye
1,500 species they wrote down
Dug them all out of rock and from the deep ground
They both refused to work together on the same side
Bye bye, bye bye, bye bye
Bone Wars, Marsh and Cope
Eleven years ago researchers found some more fossil bone
123 years they'd been buried there for oh so long
Matthew Mossbrucker, from the Morrison Natural History Museum
The site had been reburied, waiting for the right time, right time
[Chorus:]
Even now some of the fossils in rocks and time are still encased
Mystries and new species found in the Quarry
Learning new secrets from the grave
[Chorus:]
Want to learn more about Stegosaurus and it's relatives? Well, check out the Homebase for Stegosaurus Week HERE to partake in more of the festivities!
Here are the lyrics to the song:
Full Lyrics:
1800s, Morrison, a big find was made
"If Cope got a bone, Marsh lost," Dr. Bakker say
They devoted their life,
To get the most bones, each other they'd fight
Two rivals fighting over fossils in the dirt and grime
[Chorus:]
And the teacher, Lakes, he was a good man
And Marsh and Cope, they used to be friends
But then the two of them wanted the other to die
Bye, Bye bye, Bye
1,500 species they wrote down
Dug them all out of rock and from the deep ground
They both refused to work together on the same side
Bye bye, bye bye, bye bye
Bone Wars, Marsh and Cope
Eleven years ago researchers found some more fossil bone
123 years they'd been buried there for oh so long
Matthew Mossbrucker, from the Morrison Natural History Museum
The site had been reburied, waiting for the right time, right time
[Chorus:]
Even now some of the fossils in rocks and time are still encased
Mystries and new species found in the Quarry
Learning new secrets from the grave
[Chorus:]
Are you diggin' the songs? Well, then check out our playlist below!
Want to learn more about Stegosaurus and it's relatives? Well, check out the Homebase for Stegosaurus Week HERE to partake in more of the festivities!
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
The Morrison Biota
Well, according to paleontologist Dr. Robert Bakker in an article about the re-discovery in 2002 of some old paleontological quarries (CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE) in the Smithsonian Magazine, the environment was very much like the kind of environment seen in Uganda today: a “hot tropical woodland that was dry for most of the year.”
What about the animals, though? Dr. Bakker also said in the article that to “understand the Late Jurassic, you need to understand the common animals, which means Apatosaurus.” Most people are familiar with this massive animal: about 100 feet long (around the length of three school buses put end to end to end), and weighing around as much as eight African elephants, Apatosaurus was definitely a heavyweight of the Morrison biota!
What other animals were running around though? There are a great many dinosaurs, as well as many other animals, that were living in this area at that time, but in this post we are only going to look at one more: Camptosaurus and Allosaurus. All right, I lied. We’ll look at two more.
First off, we have Camptosaurus. To be honest, Camptosaurus doesn’t really look all that special. A small- to mid-sized ornithopod, Camptosaurus was only about fifteen feet long, and didn’t really appear to have any obvious defenses. However, discoveries of articulated Camptosaurus skeletons (indicating that the bones were fossilized were they were deposited, i.e. where the animal died, and weren’t washed together in a big mumble-jumble like at Dinosaur National Monument) in close conjunction with articulated Stegosaurus skeletons seems to indicate that these two herbivores liked to hang out together. But why? Why would they open themselves up to competition and potential conflict like that? Well, analysis of the brains and skulls of these two animals suggests that perhaps by hanging out together, the dinosaurian duo could avoid much deadlier conflict. Studies have shown that the sensory organs of Camptosaurus and Stegosaurus would have differed in very critical ways. The sense of Stegosaurus would have been akin to a rhinoceros, or perhaps myself as well (at least without my contacts), in that it would have had a pretty good sense of smell, but not very good vision. Camptosaurus, on the other hand, appears to have had quite acute vision, which has led to an interesting proposition by researchers: that Camptosaurus acted as a lookout for herds of Camptosaurus and Stegosaurus. If a predator was spotted (say, an Allosaurus or a Ceratosaurus), then Camptosaurus would have been able to alert the herd, and Stegosaurus would have been able to move to the forefront to defend them all against attack.
The last dinosaur that we are going to look at today is Allosaurus, a large, meat-eating theropod dinosaur. It occurs to me as I type this that I have done a very thorough job on Allosaurus before, so instead of typing this all again, I am going to be lazy and redirect you to another post that I did awhile back, entitled “23-Fact Tueday: Allosaurus.” Hidden within the post (but not too hard to find) are 23 Facts about Allosaurus. Yeah. Pretty much says it in the title. Anyways, check out that post to learn more about Allosaurus, as well as the rest of the Morrison ecosystem! And make sure to check back tomorrow, as we learn about stegosaurs from the rest of the world!
Want to learn more about Stegosaurus? Well, check out the Homebase for Stegosaurus Week HERE to partake in more of the festivities!
Friday, April 26, 2013
Baby Stegos Galore (Stegosaurus Week)
In 2002, paleontologists from the Morrison Natural History Museum rediscovered an old paleontological dig site that had been missing since the late 1800s. One of many highly-contested sites of the so-called “Bone Wars” (a paleontological competition between rival paleontologists Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope), this dig site, dubbed Quarry 10, has been the site of many very interesting discoveries, as has another Quarry nearby, Quarry 5.
Quarry 10 had long thought to have been destroyed. Fossil hunter Arthur Lakes had reportedly dynamited the dig site on Marsh’s orders, to prevent Cope from getting any fossil bones out of it. However, it looks like Arthur Lakes was a very good man, and did not actually dynamite the dig site. According to the MNHM paleontologists, it looks like Lakes, not wanting to destroy something that was potentially very valuable, decided to merely cover up the site with some rocks in order to prevent other people from coming across it.
Further excavations at the Quarrys have yielded a number of VERY interesting fossils, including, amongst others, some baby Stegosaurus footprints! Multiple blocks have been uncovered with the footprints of Stegosaurus at all different stages of development, everything from infants to adults. On some of the blocks, multiple age groups are found in close conjunction to each other, and sometimes are found going the same way. This seems to indicate that Stegosaurus would move in groups consisting on members of multiple ages, a very interesting discovery indeed!
Want to learn more about Stegosaurus? Well, check out the Homebase for Stegosaurus Week HERE to partake in more of the festivities! You can also check out a song that I wrote to the tune of Carrie Underwood's "Two Black Cadillacs" to learn more about the Bone Wars, below!
Quarry 10 had long thought to have been destroyed. Fossil hunter Arthur Lakes had reportedly dynamited the dig site on Marsh’s orders, to prevent Cope from getting any fossil bones out of it. However, it looks like Arthur Lakes was a very good man, and did not actually dynamite the dig site. According to the MNHM paleontologists, it looks like Lakes, not wanting to destroy something that was potentially very valuable, decided to merely cover up the site with some rocks in order to prevent other people from coming across it.
Further excavations at the Quarrys have yielded a number of VERY interesting fossils, including, amongst others, some baby Stegosaurus footprints! Multiple blocks have been uncovered with the footprints of Stegosaurus at all different stages of development, everything from infants to adults. On some of the blocks, multiple age groups are found in close conjunction to each other, and sometimes are found going the same way. This seems to indicate that Stegosaurus would move in groups consisting on members of multiple ages, a very interesting discovery indeed!
Want to learn more about Stegosaurus? Well, check out the Homebase for Stegosaurus Week HERE to partake in more of the festivities! You can also check out a song that I wrote to the tune of Carrie Underwood's "Two Black Cadillacs" to learn more about the Bone Wars, below!
Monday, April 22, 2013
The Genus Stegosaurus Through Time (Stegosaurus Week)
This Saturday at the Morrison Natural History Museum in Morrison, Colorado, we will be celebrating Stegosaurus Day, in honor of Colorado's state fossil! (To learn more, click HERE to
be redirected to the Facebook page of the Morrison Natural History
Museum!) So, in honor of Stegosaurus Day, The Natural World is going to
have ourselves a little Stegosaurus Week! Each day, we are going to be looking at a different aspect of Stegosaurus, and tonight, we are going to be looking at the genus Stegosaurus as a whole, and how our concept of Stegosaurus has changed over time! Let's dive on in!
Stegosaurus was first discovered by famous paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh during the Bone Wars (a paleontological competition from Marsh and rival paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope) in the late 1800s, and was first described by him in 1877. When Stegosaurus was first described by Marsh, he wasn't really sure what it was: he actually thought that it might be a turtle-like creature, as you can see in his illustration from above! This reconstruction explains why Stegosaurus has its name: covered, shingled, or roofed reptile. It wasn't until Marsh and his crew found other, more complete specimens of Stegosaurus that he was able to figure out what the animal looked like with a greater degree of accuracy, which you can see in the reconstruction below.
The reconstruction above, while much closer to what we think Stegosaurus looks like today than the first reconstruction, nevertheless has several key differences from today's reconstructions. One of the main issues that paleontologists face when reconstructing Stegosaurus and its relatives from fossils is that the plates aren't attached to any bones. The plates are modified osteoderms, used in many different animals to protect themselves from attack (a more extreme example of which can be seen in the close relatives of stegosaurs, the ankylosaurs). Like the osteoderms in other animals, such as the ankylosaurs, the osteoderms would sort of "float" in the skin, only attaching to the rest of the skeleton by means of softer tissues, softer tissues that don't typically fossilize. What paleontologists really needed was an articulated specimen of Stegosaurus.
Well, that's exactly what paleontologist Ken Carpenter got in the 1990s! Using this very complete and articulated specimen, Carpenter and his colleagues were able to solve a number of Stegosaurus mysteries. For example: the exact placement of the plates. In Marsh's 1890s reconstruction above, you can see that he had positioned the plates in a single row running down the back. Later reconstructions by other scientists had been created with a double row of plates, which was proven to be correct by Carpenter's specimen. It was also shown that the plates alternated down the back, as opposed to the side-by-side reconstructions sometimes seen.
Another mystery that Carpenter's specimen was able to solve is the number and placement of the tail spikes. As you can see in Marsh's 1890s reconstruction above, he hypothesized that Stegosaurus had four pairs of spikes, and that they pointed upwards at around 10-15 degrees from the vertical. Carpenter's specimen, coupled with further research, has shown that, to the best of our knowledge, no species of Stegosaurus had that many tail spikes: in fact, from what we know, all species of Stegosaurus had two sets of tail spikes, for a grand total of four. We also now know that, instead of the spikes being about 10-15 degrees from the vertical, they were almost certainly horizontal to the ground! This hypothesis is backed up by investigations into the flexibility of Stegosaurus's tail: to successfully bring its tail spikes into play in the 10-15 degree arrangement, Stegosaurus would have had to have a tail much like a scorpion, and all research done up to this point indicates that Stegosaurus had nowhere near that much vertical flexibility in the tail. However, the horizontal reconstruction makes much more sense, as the tail seems like it would have had a great deal of side-to-side flexibility.
The final main difference between Marsh's 1890s reconstruction and our reconstructions of Stegosaurus today lies in the way it held its tail and its neck. Due to the Dinosaur Renaissance in the 1960s and 1970s led by John Ostrom and his pupil Robert Bakker, the perception of dinosaurs as lumbering failures changed dramatically to what it is today: not failures of evolution, but instead, a remarkable success that shaped the evolutionary course of the Earth for millions of years. This change in perception is reflected in how we think dinosaurs moved: we no longer think that they dragged their tails on the ground, barely able to keep their heads from dragging in the mud. Instead, we view them as much more nimble than we once thought. And while Stegosaurus may not have been the nimblest of them all, you can clearly see how our ideas of how we think this animal moved around have changed over the years.
Want to learn more about Stegosaurus and it's relatives? Well, check out the Homebase for Stegosaurus Week HERE to partake in more of the festivities!
Stegosaurus was first discovered by famous paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh during the Bone Wars (a paleontological competition from Marsh and rival paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope) in the late 1800s, and was first described by him in 1877. When Stegosaurus was first described by Marsh, he wasn't really sure what it was: he actually thought that it might be a turtle-like creature, as you can see in his illustration from above! This reconstruction explains why Stegosaurus has its name: covered, shingled, or roofed reptile. It wasn't until Marsh and his crew found other, more complete specimens of Stegosaurus that he was able to figure out what the animal looked like with a greater degree of accuracy, which you can see in the reconstruction below.
The reconstruction above, while much closer to what we think Stegosaurus looks like today than the first reconstruction, nevertheless has several key differences from today's reconstructions. One of the main issues that paleontologists face when reconstructing Stegosaurus and its relatives from fossils is that the plates aren't attached to any bones. The plates are modified osteoderms, used in many different animals to protect themselves from attack (a more extreme example of which can be seen in the close relatives of stegosaurs, the ankylosaurs). Like the osteoderms in other animals, such as the ankylosaurs, the osteoderms would sort of "float" in the skin, only attaching to the rest of the skeleton by means of softer tissues, softer tissues that don't typically fossilize. What paleontologists really needed was an articulated specimen of Stegosaurus.
Well, that's exactly what paleontologist Ken Carpenter got in the 1990s! Using this very complete and articulated specimen, Carpenter and his colleagues were able to solve a number of Stegosaurus mysteries. For example: the exact placement of the plates. In Marsh's 1890s reconstruction above, you can see that he had positioned the plates in a single row running down the back. Later reconstructions by other scientists had been created with a double row of plates, which was proven to be correct by Carpenter's specimen. It was also shown that the plates alternated down the back, as opposed to the side-by-side reconstructions sometimes seen.
Another mystery that Carpenter's specimen was able to solve is the number and placement of the tail spikes. As you can see in Marsh's 1890s reconstruction above, he hypothesized that Stegosaurus had four pairs of spikes, and that they pointed upwards at around 10-15 degrees from the vertical. Carpenter's specimen, coupled with further research, has shown that, to the best of our knowledge, no species of Stegosaurus had that many tail spikes: in fact, from what we know, all species of Stegosaurus had two sets of tail spikes, for a grand total of four. We also now know that, instead of the spikes being about 10-15 degrees from the vertical, they were almost certainly horizontal to the ground! This hypothesis is backed up by investigations into the flexibility of Stegosaurus's tail: to successfully bring its tail spikes into play in the 10-15 degree arrangement, Stegosaurus would have had to have a tail much like a scorpion, and all research done up to this point indicates that Stegosaurus had nowhere near that much vertical flexibility in the tail. However, the horizontal reconstruction makes much more sense, as the tail seems like it would have had a great deal of side-to-side flexibility.
The final main difference between Marsh's 1890s reconstruction and our reconstructions of Stegosaurus today lies in the way it held its tail and its neck. Due to the Dinosaur Renaissance in the 1960s and 1970s led by John Ostrom and his pupil Robert Bakker, the perception of dinosaurs as lumbering failures changed dramatically to what it is today: not failures of evolution, but instead, a remarkable success that shaped the evolutionary course of the Earth for millions of years. This change in perception is reflected in how we think dinosaurs moved: we no longer think that they dragged their tails on the ground, barely able to keep their heads from dragging in the mud. Instead, we view them as much more nimble than we once thought. And while Stegosaurus may not have been the nimblest of them all, you can clearly see how our ideas of how we think this animal moved around have changed over the years.
Want to learn more about Stegosaurus and it's relatives? Well, check out the Homebase for Stegosaurus Week HERE to partake in more of the festivities!
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Animal Questions #1: Jurassic Park Reality, Sea Otter Hand Holding, and the Great Auk Extinction
So I've started a new video series in which I answer questions about animals that you guys have. I finished Episode 1 today, and if you click on the link below you can watch it, too!
CLICK HERE TO LEARN THE ANSWERS.
I decided I would also write out the questions and answers here, just in case some of you would rather read the questions and answers, instead! So here they are, in all of their glory and splendor!
2. Why do sea otters hold hands while they’re sleeping?
Sea otters often do this to keep themselves from drifting apart from other sea otters. Although adult sea otters generally forage for food by themselves, they will often form large groups, called “rafts,” sometimes numbering as many as 2,000 individuals. When in these rafts, to avoid floating apart from each other, they will sometimes hold hands. They will also sometimes tie themselves to kelp when they are sleeping or feeding to keep from floating away, as well.
3. Why did the great auk go extinct?
If you have any questions yourself, ask me here at the blog, email me at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com, comment below the video, or tweet them at me @TNaturalWorld1. Thanks for watching/reading/whatever you did!
CLICK HERE TO LEARN THE ANSWERS.
I decided I would also write out the questions and answers here, just in case some of you would rather read the questions and answers, instead! So here they are, in all of their glory and splendor!
Ever since the fantastic book Jurassic Park came out in 1990, people started to wonder: could this actually happen? Could we actually bring dinosaurs to life via the miracle of cloning? Following the release of the movie in 1993, the idea was on the mind of even more people. Sadly, (or perhaps fortunately), from what we understand about DNA at this point, we simply cannot clone dinosaurs, not even by using mosquitos trapped in amber. DNA is a very fragile molecule, and does not take all that long to break down. Sure, mammoth mummies frozen in the permafrost in Siberia have successfully yielded DNA. Mammoths, however, only went extinct several thousand years ago. From a geological standpoint, mammoths, you and I lived practically at the same time as each other, when compared to how long ago the dinosaurs roamed the earth. Furthermore, the permafrost has acted as a freezer, helping to preserve the DNA in ideal conditions for scientists to extract it from the mammoth at a later date. So to sum up? To the best of our knowledge, Jurassic Park: not happening. However, Pleistocene or Ice Age Park may not be all that far off!
2. Why do sea otters hold hands while they’re sleeping?
Sea otters often do this to keep themselves from drifting apart from other sea otters. Although adult sea otters generally forage for food by themselves, they will often form large groups, called “rafts,” sometimes numbering as many as 2,000 individuals. When in these rafts, to avoid floating apart from each other, they will sometimes hold hands. They will also sometimes tie themselves to kelp when they are sleeping or feeding to keep from floating away, as well.
3. Why did the great auk go extinct?
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the great auk (Pinguinus impennis), this penguin-like creature (a product of convergent evolution) inhabited the North Atlantic Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere, and became extinct mid-way through the 1800s. The great auk was intensely hunted by humans in European waters for their down feathers, (which were actually used in both pillows and hats), as well as for food. (Not the down feathers, mind you, but the meat of the bird and its eggs). It wasn't until 1553, around the time that the nesting sites of the great auk had been all but eliminated on the European side of the Atlantic, that the great auk first became officially protected. In 1775, people who had broken a law forbidding people from killing the great auk for its feathers were actually beaten publicly! Following the local extinction of the great auk in Greenland in 1815, the sole remaining breeding site of the great auk was a small, volcanic island. Off of the coast of Iceland, the island was dubbed "Geirfuglasker," after the Norse term for "great auk," "Geirfugl." In 1830, however, the great auk population on Geirfuglasker came under siege by two elemental forces that it had no hopes of combating: an underwater volcanic eruption and a subsequent earthquake, which combined to destroy the island, terminating most of the rest of the great auks. That’s not to say that the volcanic eruption and volcano are to blame: humanity definitely takes the bullet for that one.
If you have any questions yourself, ask me here at the blog, email me at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com, comment below the video, or tweet them at me @TNaturalWorld1. Thanks for watching/reading/whatever you did!
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Wolf, Jackal, Fox, and the Dingo (to the tune of "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go")
Song number nine in our "Animal Parodies" playlist! Here, I present "Wolf, Jackal, Fox, and the Dingo," to the tune of "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" by Wham! Below is the link to the song:
Here are the lyrics to the song:
Canidae x4
Hesperocyon at the start
Looked like a little fox, quite hard to tell apart
While other lineages begin to wane
The Canidae's numbers just continue to gain
Good hearing and smell, too,
And a strong bite
That's not to mention their great sense of sight
Big old brain up in their head
Some go solo but others live in packs instead
Wolf, jackal, fox, and the dingo
The true foxes don't include the culpeo
Wolf, jackal, fox, and the dingo
On the coast and on the mountains high
Wolf, jackal, fox, and the dingo
Some move in packs while others like it solo
Wolf, jackal, fox, and the dingo
Gray, black, red, golden, and white
You put the gray wolf out of the way
Still got foxes and coyotes in the USA
Down the land bridge they all came
South America would never be the same
They've got the bush dog and the dhole
And Darwin's fox, who's black as charcoal
Then the maned wolf, who despite
It's name eats a lot of fruits and veggies during the night
Wolf, jackal, fox, and the dingo
The true foxes don't include the culpeo
Wolf, jackal, fox, and the dingo
On the coast and on the mountains high
Wolf, jackal, fox, and the dingo
Some move in packs while others like it solo
Wolf, jackal, fox, and the dingo
Gray, black, red, golden, and white
Yeah, yeah, yeah, doggy
Canidae x2
Close in wild dog, prey's in sight
We're eating impala for sure tonight
More pack members means more mouths to be fed
But the benefits of teamwork, not enough can be said
Wolf, jackal, fox, and the dingo
The true foxes don't include the culpeo
Wolf, jackal, fox, and the dingo
On the coast and on the mountains high
Wolf, jackal, fox, and the dingo
Some move in packs while others like it solo
Wolf, jackal, fox, and the dingo
Gray, black, red, golden, and white
Are you diggin' the songs? Well, then check out our playlist below!
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Upcoming Lecture: Animal Adventures Part 2
So we have another lecture coming up, on March 14th! 4:00 PM at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado! Here we have a bunch of fliers that you can save, print, and hang up if you want to help me out and raise awareness! Thanks!
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