Top Ten: Extinct Sea Monsters (Part 2 of 5)

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!

Coming Up:
5.  Elasmosaurus
6.  Dunkleosteus
7.  Archelon
8.  Leedsichthys
9.  Tanystropheus
10. Tylosaurus

This post is part of the "Top Ten: Extinct Sea Monsters" series.  For the rest of the posts in this series, click HERE.  

Animals of South Dakota: Part 1

Hypothetically, let's say that you are taking a trip up to South Dakota from where I live in Boulder, Colorado, much like my family did nine years ago, in 2003.  You might be thinking "Ew, South Dakota?  What's there to do there?"  Well, although much of the driving might be boring, there are most definitely a few cool places to stop, as well as cool animals to watch for on the way!  Let's start with the sites.

1. The Mammoth Site - This is one of my all time favorite Ice Age sites, about 40 minutes south of Custer.  According to their website, "To date 60 mammoths (57 Columbian and 3 woolly) have been discovered as well as 85 other species of animals, plants, and several unidentified insects."  This place is very interesting, and not just to those of my ilk.  Most recently, they have added a replica of the frozen baby mammoth discovered in Siberia named "Lyuba." - http://www.mammothsite.com/
   

   

   My sister and I standing next to a Columbian Mammoth cutout at The Mammoth Site

Part of The Mammoth Site

2.  Badlands Petrified Garden - I do not remember if we went to this place, but it definitely looks cool.  It is right around the Badlands National Park.  - http://www.badlandspetrifiedgardens.com/

3.  Reptile Gardens - On the way to the Badlands National Park in Rapid City, we have the awesome Reptile Gardens, which I know for a fact that I have been to as we have pictures of my sister and I next to a couple of massive tortoises.  However, our scanner stopped working, so all I have is this picture of a guy pulling a Steve Irwin-like stunt.  Definitely worth the admission price. - http://www.reptilegardens.com/

4.  Bear Country USA - Also on the way to the Badlands National Park, and just a bit farther than the Reptile Gardens, and also in Rapid City, is Bear Country USA.  I have not been there, but my parents have in I believe 1991.  They said that it is a really cool place, where (surprise surprise) you get to see a bunch of bears.  So that should be exciting! - http://www.bearcountryusa.com/

Custer on Dwellable

The Komodo Dragon: Deadly Drooler or Poisonous Predator?

The Komodo dragon (labeled "Vulnerable" by the IUCN) has long had the title of "World's Deadliest Drooler."  Native only to the Komodo Islands in Indonesia, The story went that the Komodo would bite its prey and let it slowly die, eaten away from the inside out by all of the deadly bacteria that fermented in its mouth.  It ends up that this story, as that is all it is, a story, originated from just one or two accounts of the creature almost a century or so ago, and that they were based almost entirely upon observation.  After these accounts were made public, more and more researchers and scientists tagged on to this idea until, eventually, it was a scientifically accepted fact.

Further support for this hypothesis was observations of Komodos biting buffalo, a main food source, and simply hanging around for days, weeks, and (I believe) on at least one occasion, a month.  Scientists believed that the animals would slowly succumb to the copious amounts of bacteria that were at home in the mouth of the worlds largest extant lizard. 

While it is true that the mouth of the Komodo dragon was, in fact, home to a number of very virulent strains of bacteria, it seems that there are other players at work.  A group of scientists noticed that the Komodo dragon, and other closely related monitor lizards, all had interesting bulges in the sides of their mouths.  These bulges they thought resembled those seen in the Gila monster, one of just two lizards that were previously known to have venom, the other being Mexico's beaded lizard.  Komodo skulls are hard to get a hold of, however, and it wasn't until 2009 that the team of researchers were finally able to get ahold of a Komodo dragon skull to put through an MRI machine.  The MRI scan showed that the Komodo did indeed have venom glands.  Although the venom appeared not to be deadly, it was potent enough to act as a sedative.  This, the team concluded, was how the Komodo would kill its victims: sedate them with its mildly potent venom, and then finish them off when they were slow and torporous. 

This didn't explain why it sometimes took weeks for Komodos to finish off a buffalo.  Kurt Schwenk believes it is because the Komodos often don't want to risk life and limb.  So what they do is they bite their victims, and let a combination of shock and bloodloss do the trick.  As the prey slowly starves, being surrounded by Komodo dragons and unable to retreat anywhere, more and more Komodos congregate in preparation of the coming feast.  And given their slow metabolic rates, they can afford to wait, too: unlike a lion or a cheetah, they are in no hurry to finish off their prey, and see no reason to take unnecessary risks to finish off the prey.

While all of this research is highly disputed, and subject to many different points of interpretation, it does seem like the idea of the Komodo killing by its toxic drool is indeed false, although only future research will decide all of this for certain.

The Fauna of South Carolina: Reptiles and Amphibians

First off, don't forget to look below to see the answer to last weeks mystery animal, and to see a couple of pictures of this weeks!

Recently, my family visited some good friends of ours in South Carolina for a few weeks.  Not only did we have a lot of fun visiting them, we saw a lot of cool plants and animals there that we simply don't have up north!  For some of you, many of these animals and plants will be routine and boring, but hopefully there will be something in here that you will find interesting!  I think I am going to split this post up into at least a few different segments, with tomorrows post devoted entirely to the Black Skimmer, a very interesting bird that I had the good fortune to see hunt!  So today I am going to talk about some of the interesting reptiles and amphibians we saw down there, and over the next few weeks we can take a look at some of the birds, fossils and other things we saw down there!

Due to the increased heat and humidity, coupled with less of a swing between the seasons (i.e. it rarely snows and drops below freezing), the south is an excellent place to see all sorts of reptiles and amphibians.  We saw a number of turtles and a frog/toad or two when we were in the south, but what interested me more were the lizards.

A Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis).  Despite its name, the Carolina anole is found in both South and North Carolina, as well as Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi.

A type of skink, but I have yet to ascertain its species, although I am almost certain its genus is that of Plestiodon

And then, of course, there's the gators.  The American Alligator lives in the same states as the Carolina anole, as well as Virginia, Arkansas and Oklahoma.  While we did see a few in the wild, all of these shots (except for that of the gator footprint) were taken at a place called Brookgreen Gardens, or at a restaurant called the Crab Shack.

This big gator we saw at Brookgreen Gardens

This is a picture of a gator footprint that I took.  You can see three of the toes very well, making it look a lot like a theropod dinosaur track, but you can see the other two toes as little holes in the ground.

This picture, and all the rest, were taken at an awesome (both food- and entertainment-wise) restaurant on Tybee Island in Georgia called The Crab Shack.

 

 

 

 

 

 This post is part of "The Fauna of South Carolina" series.  For the rest of the posts in this series, click HERE.

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We Interrupt Our Previously Scheduled Programming: RIP, Lonesome George

Well, we managed to get a whole day without me changing the programming!  I decided to let you all know about a saddening death that occurred a week ago today in the Ecuadorian-owned Galápagos Islands.

A picture of Lonesome George that my grandparents took several years ago on a visit to the Galápagos.  Apparently he was a little camera shy.  Photo Credit: Ted and Gail Neher

Lonesome George was the last survivng member of his supspecies. Ten of the fifteen known subspecies of the Galápagos Giant Tortoise survive in the wild. However, and eleventh subspecies survives in captivity, Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni. Consisting of a sole member, Lonesome George, it is easy to see where George got his name!

Researchers at the Charles Darwin Research Station, a biological research station in the Galápagos, have offered a $10,000 bounty on anyone who can find a suitable mate for Lonesome George. So far, all attempts at getting Lonesome George to breed with a member of another sub-species have been unsuccessful.

A herd of turtles (yes, Michael Scott, I'm looking at you).  These Galápagos turtles would belong to a different sub-species than Lonesome George.  Photo Credit: Ted and Gail Neher

Here is a brief snippet from a news cast regarding his death:

"Scientists had expected him to live another few decades at least.

Various mates had been provided for Lonesome George after he was found in 1972 in what proved unsuccessful attempts to keep his subspecies alive.

Attempts were initially made to mate Lonesome George with two female tortoises from Wolf Volcano. But the eggs they produced were infertile.

Two females from Spanish island's tortoise population, the species most closely related to Pinta tortoises, were placed with him last year."

The majestic hindquarters of Lonesome George.  Photo Credit: Ted and Gail Neher

Unfortunately, with his death, the world's most endangered animal has passed on the mantle to some other animal, unknown to me at this time, and perhaps even unknown to science.  Regardless, it is a sad day for people the world over with the loss of this titan; literally, as he was over 100 years in age, and was about 5 feet long and weighed 200 pounds!  He seemed to pass away from old age, though, so at least he went in a nice way.

And don't worry, we can get back to teeth and dental anatomy some time next week.  See you tomorrow.

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