There Be Dragons

I think when it comes to reptiles, easily the most interesting are the monitor lizards and their relatives.  The monitor lizards are scientifically known as the members of the genus Varanus within the family Varanidae (which, in turn, is a family within the superfamily Varanoidea), and are widely considered to be the lizards with the most intelligence.  The largest extant (still living, opposite of extinct) lizard today, the Komodo dragon, is a member of this family, as is Megalania (often referred to as Varanus prisca), the largest known lizard ever to have existed.  Let's learn a bit more about these interesting reptiles!

According to a paper by American biologist Eric Pianka (link included in References section), the monitor lizards as a group are thought to have evolved on the continent of Laurasia (see map below) earlier than 65 million years ago (MYA), before even the dinosaurs died out.  After evolving in Laurasia, they then dispersed into the continents of Africa and Australia.  As of the writing of his paper, 44 species of monitor lizard are around today, with around 27 of these native to Australia, where the highest species density of monitor lizards are.  In the tropics of northern Australia, up to ten species of Varanus can reside together!

There are numerous families related to the monitor lizards within the superfamily Varanoidea, both living and dead, such as the earless monitor lizard, the sole member of the family Lanthanotidae.  The other extant family within the superfamily Varanoidea is the family Helodermatidae, which includes the beaded lizards and the Gila monster from southwestern North America, Mexico, and Guatemala.  However, in my opinion, it is the extinct family Mosasauridae that is the most interesting of the monitor lizard relatives.

The mosasaurs were the dominant marine predators throughout the Late Cretaceous Period, and were wiped out by the traumatic K/T Extinction Event, just like the dinosaurs.  Some of these mosasaurs could grow to enormous lengths, such as Tylosaurus, the apex predator of the Western Interior Seaway of North America during the Cretaceous Period.  Tylosaurus could grow to an enormous 50 or so feet long, and fossil discoveries of the stomach of this creature indicate that it fed on pretty much everything that swam in the sea: the remains of sharks, the flightless diving bird Hesperornis, fish, plesiosaurs, and even smaller mosasaurs have been found in the stomachs of Tylosaurus fossils!

The mosasaurs share something else in common with the monitor lizards: they both have a third eye on top of their head.  It's not the same as the eyes we have on our head, or even the eyes that the mosasaurs and monitor lizards have on their heads, either. A good comparison is if you close your eyes and look at a light source, and then move your hand back and forth in front of your face.  You can see something moving , right?  Just a shadow, but you can still tell that something is there.  That's kind of what the third eye of the monitor lizards and the mosasaurs is like.  If you are a baby Tylosaurus swimming in the sea and you see something pass overhead, you are going to swim to safety as fast as you possibly can: there are a lot of things in this sea that would barely noticed they swallowed you.  However, if you are a 50-foot long adult Tylosaurus and you see a shadow swim above your head, you are almost certainly going to go investigate.  Whatever it is, it's probably edible!

Another interesting thing that the mosasaurs most likely shared with the monitor lizards is their forked tongue, similar to that of snakes.  But what purpose does this forked tongue served?  Well, when the animal sticks the tongue out of its mouth, it is smelling the air.  As it draws the tongue back in, scent particles are pulled in as well.  The fork-tongued creature is able to determine which side of the forked-tongue has more scent particles on it.  If the animal was attempting to locate a dead animal or something like that, and its head was facing directly towards where the dead animal scent particles were floating from, the reptile would know that it was on the right track.  If, however, the fork-tonguer was facing due north, and the dead animal was due west of its position, when the tongue is drawn into the mouth, its owner can tell that there are more dead animal scent particles on the left side of the tongue, as opposed to the right, and now knows which way it must go to find its meal.  Pretty neat!

Can't get enough of the monitor lizards?  Well, below I have links to five videos featuring some monitor lizards (one spiny-tailed monitor, four Komodo dragon)!  Enjoy!

Spiny-Tailed Monitor Attempted Feeding

Komodo Dragon Moving Around at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Komodo Dragon Relaxin' to the Maxin'

Up Close and Personal With The Komodo Dragon at the Cheyenney Mountain Zoo

Komodo Dragon Close Up at the Denver Zoo


And now, for some pictures of various monitor lizards I have taken over the years! First off is Herkemer, the resident Dumeril's Monitor Lizard at the Morrison Natural History Museum!

Next, we have a few photos that I took of one of the Komodo dragons at the Denver Zoo.

After that, we have a few Komodo dragon pics that I took at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo!

Finally, we have a trio of pictures that I took of some tree monitors at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, as well!

And now, last but certainly not least, we have some pictures of some baby Komodo dragons at the Phoenix Zoo in Arizona!  They are pretty darn cute!
This was the birthday post of Gookhyun Jeong, happy birthday big guy!  And remember, 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! 

References:

http://www.conservation.org/FMG/Articles/Pages/gila_monsters_human_health_mexico.aspx

http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~varanus/varanus.html

The Story of the Kremmling Ammonite Site and a Painting by Wayne Itano, Guest Blogger

Today, we have a very exciting post for you: a guest post from paleo-enthusiast Wayne Itano!  Here is a bit of background on Mr. Itano:  

Wayne Itano is a physicist at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Boulder, CO.  He has a hobby interest in paleontology and is also a curator adjoint at the Natural History Museum of the University of Colorado.

Today, Mr. Itano is going to tell us about the Kremmling Ammonite Site.  Join me in giving him a warm welcome!  Let's get started!

The Kremmling Cretaceous Ammonite Locality lies on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land to the north of the little town of Kremmling, in Grand County, Colorado.  It was first noticed for the very high concentration of very large ammonites(ammonites are extinct relatives of the modern chambered nautilus and were probably more closely related to octopi and squids).  It has been protected since the 1980s.  It was written up in the book “Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway” by the paleontologist Kirk Johnson and the artist Ray Troll.

Dr. Kirk Johnson, formerly of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, is now head of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

Ray Troll is an artist with a special interest in natural history and ancient life.  Here is his painting “Night of the Ammonites” inspired by a visit to the Kremmling Ammonite Locality.

Artist Ray Troll’s picture of the Kremmling area, about 73 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period, when most of Colorado was beneath the sea.  Picture Credit: Ray Troll

The large disk-shelled creatures are ammonites called Placenticeras.  The ones with narrow, straight, tapered shells are another kind of ammonite, called Baculites. The sharp-toothed swimming reptiles are called mosasaurs.  We have evidence from bite marks on ammonite shells that mosasaurs preyed on Placenticeras.  Over on the left are some strangely shaped small ammonites called Anaklinoceras.

The Kremmling site was featured by Earth Magazine, in a kind of online quiz called “Where on Earth.”  The page with the question and answer is HERE.

If you want to visit the Kremmling site, first pay a visit to the BLM office at 2103 E. Park Avenue, Kremmling.  They can advise you on road conditions.  At times it can be inaccessible, even for 4-wheel drive vehicles. Here is a sign at the site:

Warning sign at the Kremmling Ammonite protected area.  Photo Credit: Wayne Itano

Here is an informational sign.  Collecting is prohibited within the site, but there are nearby areas where collecting is allowed.  Inquire at the BLM office.

Explanatory sign at the Kremmling site.  Photo Credit: Wayne Itano

The area is littered with boulders containing the impressions of giant Placenticeras ammonites.  The fossils themselves have been collected, many to museums.  Intact boulders containing ammonites lie under the surface and could be studied in the future.

Boulders with impressions of Placentideras ammonites.  Photo Credit: Wayne Itano

Baculites (straight ammonites) are also rather common. 

A Placenticeras ammonite impression with a Baculites fossil (cylindrical object) on the same boulder.  Photo Credit: Wayne Itano

Large clams called Inoceramus are rather common.  Here are some examples.

A large Inoceramus clam fossil.  Photo Credit: Wayne Itano

A boulder with impressions of Inoceramus clams.  Photo Credit: Wayne Itano

Emmett Evanoff, a professor at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, has been studying the paleontology of this area.  One odd thing is that the great majority of the Placenticeras fossils are of females.  (The males are distinguished by being much smaller and having coarse ribs on their shells.) He thinks this might have been a nesting site.  The males would have fertilized the eggs and then left, leaving the females to guard the eggs.  Katie DeBell was a student of Emmett’s who mapped out the ammonites on the surface and seems to know them all by number.  She lives in Kremmling and often gives tours, especially to school groups.  Here she is, pointing out some features of one of the ammonites.

Katie DeBell explaining some features of an ammonite in 2011.  Photo Credit: Wayne Itano

I have a vacation house in the mountains not far from Kremmling.  I happen to know a painter who is also a fossil enthusiast, named Terry McKee.  I commissioned him to do a painting of the Kremmling site when it was an ammonite nesting ground.  I also asked Dr. Evanoff for advice, and the three of us met to plan the painting.  Here it is, and the original is now hanging in my mountain house.

Painting of the Kremmling Ammonite nesting site.  The large ammonites are guarding their eggs.  Baculites and various smaller ammonites, swim above.  The small round ammonite on the left, facing left, between two of the straight baculites, is a male Placenticeras.  A mosasaur lurks in the background.  Picture Credit: Terry McKee

- Wayne Itano

Thank you very much, Mr. Itano, for the post!  The post was really interesting, and I know I learned a lot!  I found the part about the nesting site particularly interesting!  I have no doubt that my readers, as well as myself, would love to hear from you in the future!  Thanks again! - Zack Neher

Bronze Tree on Dwellable

Animal of the Day: Coelophysis

Today's Animal of the Day is Coelophysis!  The picture of the cast you see off to the left (taken by me at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show a few months back) is from the AMNH (American Museum of Natural History) in New York.  I actually know a little bit more about this particular specimen of Coelophysis than I believe was labeled there, as I remembered seeing this specimen in my Dinosaur Atlas book from DK Publishers.  One of around 500 or so individual Coelophysis specimens discovered at a place called Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, this particular specimen was once thought to reveal something interesting about the species: Coelophysis was once thought to probably be a cannibal, as the remains of a baby Coelophysis were found in the area of the stomach!

Dinosaur cannibalism is not unheard of, and almost certainly occurred in the Late Cretaceous Abelisaur Majungasaurus from Madagascar.  However, this was disproven in 2002 by Rob Gay, when he showed that the baby Coelophysis were either crushed by the smaller ones, or that they weren't even baby Coelophysis!  Instead, many of them were found to be other, small reptiles, such as the archosaur Hesperosuchus, a member of the same group as the crocodilians, dinosaurs, and pterosaurs, amongst others.  So for now, it looks like Coelophysis was probably not a cannibal, but future discoveries may force us to change our minds once again!

Another picture of Coelophysis that I took, at the DMNS

Coelophysis is one of the oldest known dinosaurs, inhabiting North America around 220 million years ago (MYA), during the Late Triassic Period.  The site at Ghost Ranch is interesting, because there are just so many different specimens all clumped together.  Some paleontologists have suggested that a flash flood drowned a huge herd of these animals, or perhaps that they died while trying to cross a river.  We might never know what, exactly, killed these dinosaurs, or why so many of them died in such close proximity.  

Top 10 Favorite Dinosaurs by Zack Neher (Part 3)

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

3. Masiakasaurus

A fairly small dinosaur at only around six feet, Masakisaurus knopfleri, as discussed IN A PREVIOUS POST, was named for the famous musician Mark Knopfler.  The animal, found in Madagascar, was named in 2001 by Matthew Carrano, Catherine A. Forster, and Scott Sampson, the author of Dinosaur Odyssey and the dude from Dinosaur Train.  Living on what was still an island, the little dinosaur lived about 70 MYA during the  Late Cretaceous Period, and was a contemoporary of the abelisaur Majungasaurus, the bird-like Rahonavis, and the sauropod Rapetosaurus.  Although Masiakasaurus sounds pretty unremarkable thus far, a quick glance at the picture below (which many of you have no doubt already done) says otherwise: Masiakasaurus definitely had some funky teeth!  These teeth are clearly not suited tearing into food like the teeth of Allosaurus or Velociraptor would be, and many paleontologists (including myself, even though I am not really a paleontologist.  I guess it would be better to say "many paleontologists, paleontologists-in-training, and myself."  There, much better.) believe that these weird, pointy teeth are an evolutionary adaptation to a piscivorous (fish-based) diet.  A look at various marine reptiles such as the plesiosaurs (like Elasmosaurus) and Liopleurodon show a similar pattern of interlocking teeth that point outside of the mouth.  Excellent when it comes to catching fish, and not so excellent when it comes to most, if not all, other diets, be they meat- or plant-based.  

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 4

Proterosuchus....or Should I Say "Broterosuchus?"

Before we learn about Proterosuchus, it will be helpful to discuss where this creature comes from.  Proterosuchus is an archosaur, and to understand what an archosaur is, we must first travel back 320 million years into Earth's history: back....to the middle of the Carboniferous Period.  To travel back to that period of Earth's history, click HERE TO SEE A POST I JUST MADE ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF THE ANIMALS THAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW.  Unless, of course, you are fine with just accepting the idea that the archosaurs are relatives of the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and crocodilians, in which case you can just skip that post.  I think it's interesting, though, so it might be worth checking out!

Well, that was confusing.  So how does all of this evolutionary rig-a-ma-roll pertain to Proterosuchus?  Well, in his excellent book entitled "Gorgon," paleontologist Peter D. Ward actually talks about that.  Here is that passage from his book:

"During the Triassic a whole new suite of vertebrates populated the land.  The oldest true "ruling reptiles," the stock that would ultimately give rise to the dinosaurs, are found in the oldest rocks of the Triassic.  The most ancient of these is Proterosuchus.  Yet within several million years, there was a variety of these predinosaurs, belonging to a group known as the archosaurs.  From these ancestral stocks the successful lines of crocodiles and crocodile-like animals known as phytosaurs evolved.  From other members of this group came lizards, snakes, and, by the middle of the Triassic, the first true dinosaurs."  

Well, that certainly sums it up quite nicely, don't you think!  Anyways, Proterosuchus was around the size of the extant Komodo dragon, and was one of the largest reptiles alive during its time, in the Early Triassic Period.  Similar in appearance to the modern day crocodiles, it has been theorized that this animal would lie in wait much like the crocodilians, ambushing its prey when it came down to bodies of water to drink.  One bit of evidence that causes some scientists to believe that Proterosuchus hunted like the crocodilians was that the eyes of Proterosuchus were were located on top of its head, again like the crocodilians.

Remains of Proterosuchus are known from both China and South Africa, where it was first discovered by Robert Broom, a famous South African paleontologist, in 1903.  This specimen was discovered in the Karoo Basin, an enormous desert in South Africa where large numbers of fossils have been discovered. 

Fouriesburg on Dwellable

The Archosaurs: A Brief Summary of Reptilian Evolution

320 million years ago, during the Carboniferous Period, the flora and fauna looked quite different than it does today.  Oxygen levels in the atmosphere were much higher, allowing insects to grow to enormous sizes.  Centipedes were the size of snowboards; dragonflies were the size of hawks; and spiders were the size of dinner plates.  There were also no mammals.  Not only that, but there were no reptiles, no dinosaurs, and no birds (which, of course, are dinosaurs).  There were, however, amphibians.  Amphibians, like frogs and salamanders, cannot lay their eggs on dry land, and instead must lay them in pools of water.  This is because the eggs that they lay, unlike those laid by dinosaurs, birds, reptiles, and monotremes (the two egg-laying mammals), have soft-shelled eggs, which allows water to move in and out of them.  They would simply dry up on land!

Around 320 MYA, however, something changed.  Some of these amphibians developed what is known as an "amniotic egg," the type of egg typified by the dinosaurs, birds, reptiles and monotremes.

Around 5 million years after that, around 315 MYA, another major split occurred, this time between the amniotes.  This split resulted in two lineages, the first of which, the synapsids, would one day become the mammals.  The second of these two lineages was the sauropsids.   Within the sauropsids was the group known as the archosaurs.  The archosaurs, in turn, suffered two major splits.  The first split was the crocodiles, alligators and their kin.  They joined with the rest of the reptiles contained within the sauropsids.  The second large split within the archosaurs was another large group, off of which the pterosaurs broke off, before the rest of the group became dinosaurs (and, in turn, birds).  If you look at the family tree below, you can see that the group known collectively as the "reptiles" is what is referred to as a "paraphyletic group."  Put simply, that means that a paraphyletic group consists of "all the descendants of the last common ancestor of the group's members minus a small number of monophyletic groups of descendants, typically just one or two such groups." So for reptiles, that means that the group consists of the last common ancestor of all reptiles (which includes both extant reptiles and the extinct mammal-like reptiles, the precursors of the mammals), including all of the descendants of that ancestor....EXCEPT for the mammals and the birds, which are defined separately.  I feel like I have confused you enough, so I am not even going to get into the whole dinosaur debate.

Antlers Vs. Horns, Part 2: Horns

A horn, unlike an antler, is attached to an animal.  It consists of a bony core, a projection of the bone of an animal, and is covered by a layer of keratin (your fingernails are composed of keratin).  Also unlike an antler, that falls off easily and annually, a horn, if it is broken off, will never grow back the same way.  That is why poachers have to kill rhinos (who have horns) to actually take their horns, as opposed to just letting them fall off.

Many different types of animals have horns.  Let's take a look at a few of these creatures.

The members of the family "Giraffidae," which includes the giraffe and the okapi, both have horn-like things on their heads, called "ossicones."

The members of the family "Rhinocerotidae," or the rhinos, have horns that are composed solely of keratin, and do not have the bone core typical of many horns.  The horns of the rhinos also grow continuously.

Some of the members of the family "Chamaeleonidae," or the chameleons, often have horns projecting out of their skulls, which are covered in a layer of keratin.

And, of course, the members of the family "Ceratopsidae," a group of marginocephalian dinosaurs, have horns projecting out of their skulls. 
Below is a short list of some of the more famous Ceratopsian dinosaurs.

Famous examples of Ceratopsian Dinosaurs (or "Ceratopsians That I Have Heard Of):

1. Triceratops - (Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming, U.S.; Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada)
2. Arrhincoceratops - (Alberta, Canada)
3. Torosaurus - (Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming, U.S.; Saskatchewan, Canada)
   
4. Monoclonius - (Montana, U.S.; Alberta, Canada)
5. Chasmosaurus - (Alberta, Canada)
   
6. Centrosaurus - (Alberta, Canada)
7. Styracosaurus - (Montana, U.S.; Alberta, Canada)
   
8. Achelousaurus - (Montana, U.S.)
9. Pentaceratops - (New Mexico, U.S.)
10. Vagaceratops - (Alberta, Canada)
    
11. Diabloceratops - (Utah, U.S.)
12. Albertaceratops - (Montana, U.S.; Alberta, Canada)
13. Einiosaurus - (Montana, U.S.)
14. Anchiceratops - (Alberta, Canada)
15. Mojoceratops - (Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada)
16. Pachyrhinosaurus - (Alaska, U.S.; Alberta, Canada)
17. Kosmoceratops - (Utah, U.S.)
18. Medusaceratops (Montana, U.S.)
19. Utahceratops - (Utah, U.S.)

Keep in mind that the tusks seen in elephants, mammoths, walruses, and hippos, despite being superficially similar to horns, are actually greatly enlarged teeth!

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Adventures and Island Lecture Thank You

First off, I would like to thank everyone who was able to come out for my "Island Living" lecture last Friday!  It was a ton of fun, and we were able to raise a significant amount of money for the Madagascar Ankizy Fund!  We put the "Fun" in "Fund."  Nothing like a terrible pun.

Anyways, if you missed it, here is the link to the youtube video.  Not the best quality, but still fairly interesting!  If you are interested in a specific section of the presentation, I have where each part starts and stops down below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-VkcirjWfU

Intro:  00:00-02:27
The Galápagos:  02:27-05:21
Penguins:  05:21-15:07
Flightless Birds:  15:07-20:30

NOTE:  SOMEWHERE WITHIN THE FLIGHTLESS BIRDS SECTION, MY MICROPHONE WENT OUT.  YOU CAN STILL HEAR ME TALKING, BUT YOU JUST HAVE TO TURN THE VOLUME UP REALLY LOUD.  IT IS NOT YOUR COMPUTER, IT IS THE MIKE RUNNING OUT OF BATTERIES.

Wallace's Line:  20:30-22:11
The Monotremes:  22:11-25:43
Herbivorous Australian Marsupials:  25:43-35:54
Carnivorous Australian Marsupials:  35:54-41:53
The Komodo Dragon and Other Insular Reptilian Megafauna:  41:53-45:59
The Dwarf Dinosaurs of Hațeg Island:  45:59-51:54
Island Dwarfism and the Origins of the Cyclops, Mermaid, Griffin, and Bigfoot:  51:54-59:37
The Aye-aye, Outro and Questions, and Two Funny Penguin Videos:  59:37-End 

Secondly, I would like to bring to your attention a few other youtube videos that I uploaded a month or so back.  A few months ago, my father, sister and I went to visit my grandparents in Colorado Springs, and, like we always do, we went up to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  They had given me their camera the night before, so I took many pictures, but I also took a few videos.  We can talk about the pictures some other time, but the videos I wanted to bring to your attention, as I will probably be making a few more this weekend, as my father and I, along with my friend Masaki Kleinkopf, are going down to visit.  This time, my grandparents have gotten a few behind the scenes experiences in store for us, but I'm not going to spoil the surprise!  

The videos are in the playlist labeled "Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Adventures With Zack Neher."  There are only four videos so far, but they are all pretty exciting, if I do say so myself.

Mountain lion feeding and training at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

The first two clips are easily the most interesting.  They both document part of a mountain lion feeding and training thing.  It is really interesting!  At the beginning of the ten or fifteen minute long demonstration, the puma in question seemed to not really know what to do at all.  However, at the end, it seemed quite familiar with the routine; attack the tire swing thingy, and then you get food!  I believe that a one paw attack received less of a food reward than a double-pronged attack, but I am not certain.   Anyways, so I have one really super cool clip of the training, as well as another cougar-themed clip.  In the second one, you get to see a mountain lion quickly clamber up a steep slope.  Before you watch the video, though, make sure you read the description!

Clip One: Mountain Lion Feeding Demonstration

Clip 2: Humor and Mountain Lions

Mountain lion feeding and training at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

The third clip is a short little video that I got of the Siamang gibbons vocalizing.  They are quite interesting creatures, in that they expand this large pouch underneath their throat when making some noise.  Watch for that in the video clip!

Siamangs Make Some Noise

The last clip was recorded shortly after the last one.  After looking at the Siamangs, we mosied on over to the orangutan enclosure, which is a very short distance away.  We, and you as well, can still hear the Siamangs vocalizing in the video.  The video starts off with a very cute baby orangutan playing with a large piece of cardboard.  After watching the baby for a little bit, it shows the mother orangutan climbing for a few seconds.  Then, I go back over to the Siamangs, as they are continuing to make a lot of noise.

Baby Orangutan and Siamang Song

The mother orangutan at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

The baby orangutan playing at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

An interesting feeding technique employed by one of the orangutans at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

The Denver Gem and Mineral Show Part 1: Giant Ammonites, Burrowing Amphibians and Leaping Lizards

On Sunday, the 16th, my friend Masaki Kleinkopf and I visited the Denver Gem and Mineral Show at the Denver Merchandise Mart.  It was a ton of fun!  They had booths from all over the place, like the Morrison Natural History Museum and the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center, an excellent dinosaur museum up in Woodland Park near Colorado Springs!  One of the most exciting things by far was when a pair of women came up to us, and asked if they could film us just going about our business.  They were part of a group making a movie under the working title "Quarry."  It's apparently going to be about American Paleontology, and it looks like Masaki and I may have made the part about why Americans love paleontology, and especially dinosaurs, so much!

MESSAGE FROM ZACK FROM THE FUTURE:  Hello, everyone.  This is Zack Neher.  I have travelled to this post from the future.  I wanted to give you a link to the Homebase for these posts.  I am like Rose Tyler, leaving clues in the form of Bad Wolf.  Except this is not quite like that at all really.  Anyways.  The Homebase for the series is HERE.

Creeper shot of the film crew following us, with a large iridescent ammonite in the foreground.  Notice the distinct chambers.  How magnificent.

We also saw Dr. Robert Bakker there.  After I said hello, he waved me over and said "You're a smart kid.  Can you tell me where the nostrils are on this thing?"  The "thing" that he was referring to was a baby Eryops skeleton that he has been working on, a Permian amphibian that lived in the south eastern United States.  Remains have been discovered in both Texas and New Mexico, and it was a contemporary of Dimetrodon, who most likely preyed upon it.  Upon my examination, I promptly tried to prove his assessment of my intelligence wrong, as I pointed all over the skull in my attempts to locate the nostrils.  Turns out, the nostrils were right where they should be.  They were just confusing because in life, the animal would have been able to cover the nostrils with little flaps of bone, sealing off the nostrils from dirt and such while it was burrowing.  Pretty interesting stuff!

Dr. Bakker's baby Eryops.  The snout is facing the pen in the left of the image, and the two holes that you can see are the orbitals, or the eye sockets.  The googly eyes are explained below.

Another picture from a few weeks ago.  This was taken at the Morrison Museum when my friend Kristie Chua came up to visit.  Dr. Bakker, when asked "Why the googly eyes?"  replied "I put the googly eyes on because I like it." 

We also saw a number of giant ammonites.  Below are a few pictures of the better ones, probably the largest I have ever seen!  The only other possible contender that I can think of was one that I saw at the Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country in (you guessed it!) Texas.  That one was a huge, probably five or six feet wide, imprint of an ammonite, right outside the entrance to the museum.  This was the same place that I have talked about before, in my Acrocanthosaurus on the Prowl post.  Great place!  I definitely recommend checking it out if you are ever in the Canyon Lake/San Antonio area of Texas!

The Heritage Museum ammonite.  Perhaps my memory is a bit off.  But I still remember it being incredibly, enormously large.  Perhaps the picture makes it looks smaller?  A mystery.  I suppose I will have to check it next time we go back there now won't I.

The ammonites, in order of amazingness.  Probably about a two, two and a half foot diameter.

Although its size was less impressive, perhaps only a foot or two wide at the most, it was most amazingly iridescent.  There were a large number of them here, but somehow I succeeded in capturing zero great pictures.  Go figure. 

Same story as above.  Not as impressive in size, but amazing in preservation quality.  Check out those septum!

Masaki next to one big ass ammonite! 

And Masaki with another big ass one!  This one a bigger ass!  Bigger ass one?  Bigger one.  A bigger one.

The third really cool thing that we saw there (that I am going to include in this post, at least) were these preserved lizards.  These lizards are from the genus Draco, and are found exclusively in Indonesia.  These lizards are remarkable as they can glide from tree to tree.  Many paleontologists and biologists speculate that this is what the earliest Pterosaurs would have looked like.  For those of you who don't know, Pterosaurs are the flying reptiles that were contemporaneous with the dinosaurs.  Often confused with the dinosaurs themselves, the Pterosaurs were distinct in that they were truly flying reptiles, and not a distinct grouping.  Calling Pterosaurs dinosaurs would be akin to calling a tiger salamander a mammal, on the sole observation that the tiger salamander is a contemporary of a squirrel.  Not so.

One specimen of the Draco lizards....

....and another!

Famous examples of Pterosaurs include (or "Pterosaurs That I Have Heard Of):

1. Anurognathus
2. Darwinopterus
3. Dimorphodon
4. Dsungaripterus
5. Eopteranodon
6. Eudimorphodon
7. Hatzegopteryx
8. Ornithocheirus
9. Peteinosaurus
10. Pteranodon
11. Pterodactylus
12. Pterodaustro
13. Quetzalcoatlus
14. Rhamphorhynchus
15. Sordes
16. Tapejara
17. Tropeognathus

You probably also know the Pterosaurs as the "Pterodactyls."  Probably should have prefaced with that.

A skull of Darwinopterus from the show.  This guy was at the booth for the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center, or RMDRC for short, an awesome museum up in Woodland Park.  

The wing of a good sized Pterosaur.  You can see at the bottom of the picture a white round thingy.  That's the ammonite featured in the picture with Masaki, above.  That should help give you an idea of the scale of the wing.  Probably around ten feet or so.  And get this; that whole thing is one enormously elongated pinky!

A fossil pterosaur from the show

Another fossil pterosaur from the show

Anyways, in the Imax production "Flying Monsters" with David Attenborough (FAVORITE.  IMAX.  EVER.), they talk about how many scientists speculate that these lizards of the genus Draco greatly resemble the earliest ancestors of the Pterosaurs.  Initially gliding from tree to tree to snatch flying insects in the air, eventually these small lizards would have become capable of powered flight.  Then, they would have grown larger and larger, until they became the biggest animals to ever take to the skies.  Except for humans, but really.  We don't really count.

Woodland Park on Dwellable

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

Our final edition of "Top Ten:  Extinct Sea Monsters!

9.  Tanystropheus - Living during the Middle Triassic Period, Tanystropheus is somewhat of a misfit amongst this group, as he is not really a sea-monster, and was, at most, a semi-aquatic animal (think otters).  Purportedly piscivorous, Tanystropheus fossils are usually found in semi-aquatic sites.  Its neck has been likened to that of the Plesiosaurs, like Elasmosaurus.  They would all use their necks to surprise a group of fish, long before the fish would be able to see the body of the reptile. Remains have been discovered throughout France, Germany, and Italy, amongst other places. 

10.  Tylosaurus - Interestingly enough, the closest living relative of the extinct mosasaurs, of which Tylosaurus is a member, are the monitor lizards, like the Komodo dragon.  Both the monitor lizards and the mosasaurs have a third eye on the top of their heads, although it just looks like a little white dot on the top of the head of the monitor lizard.  It doesn't work in the same fashion as their other eyes, however.  Look towards a light (not the sun, because apparently that can actually be harmful) and close your eyes.  You can still still some light, right?  Now, move your hand back and forth in front of your face, between your eyes and the light.  Can you see how the light changes?  You can't see anything more distinct than the fact that something moved between you and that light.  That is what the third eye of monitor lizards and mosasaurs would have been like.  Tylosaurus also inhabited the Western Interior Seaway during the Late Cretaceous.  Remains, amongst other places, have been discovered in Alabama and Kansas, amongst other places.

So that concludes our "Top Ten:  Extinct Sea Monsters" edition!  Unfortunate that we had to break it up into five parts, to be sure, but hey, that's life!

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

Top Ten: Extinct Sea Monsters (Part 3 of 5)

 5.  Elasmosaurus - Next up on our trip across time is Elasmosaurus.  One of the largest of the Plesiosaurs ever discovered, Elasmosaurus grew up to 46 feet long, which was about half neck.  Equipped with a fairly small head, Elasmosaurus would have been incapable of going after large prey, so it would have mostly stuck with fish.  Elasmosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous, a time when much of North America was "Beneath the Waves," under something that we call the "Western Interior Seaway."   Remains of this animal were first uncovered in Kansas, but it almost certainly swam all over the seaway, including in Colorado.

6.  Dunkleosteus - Dunkleosteus, a creature we talked about a few weeks ago in our post about the Coelacanth, is another fascinating animal.  Almost thirty-five feet in length, Dunkleosteus was a member of the Placoderms, a group of armored fish that were only around for about 50 MYA.  A long time, to be sure, but not very long compared to the 400 million year reign of the sharks.  While the Placoderms themselves lived during the Silurian and Devonian Periods, they went extinct during the transition to the Carboniferous Period, at the end of the Devonian.  Dunkleosteus fossils have been discovered in North America, Poland, Belgium, and Morocco.

 COMING UP:

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.