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."

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:]

Are you diggin' the songs?  Well, then check out our playlist below!

CLICK HERE TO BE DIRECTED TO A FUN-FILLED PLAYLIST OF AMAZING SONGS.

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!

The Morrison Biota

Stegosaurus lived in western North America during the Late Jurassic Period, about 150 million years ago (MYA). Today, we find its remains in the Morrison Formation, named after the tiny town of Morrison in Colorado. What was going on in Colorado at that time? What was the depositional environment like, the environment that laid down the sediment that would one day become the famed Morrison Formation?

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!  

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!

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!

CLICK HERE TO BE DIRECTED TO A FUN-FILLED PLAYLIST OF AMAZING SONGS.

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

17 Truths Episode 1: The Cheetah

If you haven't seen the "True Facts" video series, then you are missing out.  Assuming, of course, that you have a good but slightly inappropriate and sarcastic sense of humor, and are not young enough that your parents will become angry with me if they find out where you found out about them.  That is why I am not providing a link to them here.  Anyways, I find them absolutely hysterical, and was quite eager to try my own hand at one!  One of my favorite animals is the cheetah (which is pretty obvious for people who are regular readers of my blog), a sentiment which is shared by people all across the world.  There are many interesting things about the cheetah, and many questions that people have about this fantastic and acrobatic feline.  So I thought that, for the first True Facts-esque video, I could make it about the cheetah!  It didn't hurt that I had a bunch of pictures of it, as well as a video!  However, I did use a few photos from some friends of mine, so I am going to give photo credit to Grace Albers and Shira Wood-Isenberg!  I would also like to give Joseph M. Roessler credit for the fantastic music that I used in the video!  It was both composed and performed by him!  HERE is a link to the song (called Dream Waltz), HERE is a link to some more of his music, and HERE is a link to his SoundCloud!  Enjoy!  And, of course, we have to have a link to the video!

And here we have some of the pictures featured in the video!  Enjoy!

This is the birthday post of Govind Kudva!  Happy birthday, Govind!  If you like what you are reading, please feel free to follow us here or via Facebook!  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!

Zoo Babies: Bison

Today, in honor of the birthday of Kevyn Llewellyn, we are going to be looking at a few photos of a baby bison born about this time last year at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, Illinois.  Although frequently incorrectly referred to as buffalo, they are simply different animals, despite the outward similarities between the two groups.  If you see something that looks like it could be either a buffalo or a bison, there is a very, very good bet that you are looking at a bison.  Unless something very strange has happened, and in that case, you will be excused for looking foolish when it comes to your knowledge of the bovids.

Anyways, the bison, despite their once immense numbers (numbering in the tens of millions), were hunted almost to extinction in the 1800s, but have made a stunning comeback, with about 20,000 living in protected areas such as National Parks, and a further 500,000 living on tribal lands and ranches.  Nevertheless, their range is vastly reduced from what it once was.  Many people have come to the aid of the bison over the years, including Theodore Roosevelt and a man named William Hornaday, who together co-founded the American Bison Society at the Bronx Zoo in New York in 1905 in order to help protect these wild creatures. Today, they are labeled as "Near Threatened" by the IUCN due to these conservation efforts. 

Today, the bison is the largest North American mammal, but it wasn't always this way.  In fact, it wasn't always even the largest member of the genus Bison in North America!  Ancient ancestors of the North American bison have been traced by paleontologists to southern Asia to about 400,000 years ago, during the Pliocene Epoch.  Once the bison managed to make it across the land bridge into North America, it diversified and evolved.  One species, Bison latifrons, had a horn-span of a whopping nine feet!  Another species, Bison occidentalis (of which I have a scapula!) is thought to be the direct descendant of the modern bison, and evolved sometime during the late Pleistocene Epoch.

While talking bison with Dr. Robert Bakker and Matt Mossbrucker at the Morrison Natural History Museum, I learned that if you are looking at postcranial elements of a fossil bison (that is fossilized bones from behind the head), they are almost impossible to differentiate from each other.  Not only that, but they are extraordinarily difficult to differentiate from cows, too!  As a matter of fact, the species barrier is quite tentative between the bison and domestic cattle, resulting in the domestication of some bison, as well as hybrids, such as beefalo and cattalo.

Photo credit for all of the photos used in this post goes to the website for ZooBorns.  If you like what you are reading, please feel free to follow us here or via Facebook!  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!

Animals of Yosemite National Park

As I talked about IN A PREVIOUS POST, the trip that my family and I took to Yosemite was simply fantastic.  Yosemite was just magical!  However, in the last post, you might have noticed that, with the exception of the odd, Snoopy-looking rock, I neglected to talk about any animals that we saw in Yosemite.  And, if you know anything about my family and this blog, then you know that we saw some animals!  So here are some of those animals that we saw! First off, a mule deer that I believe we saw on our hike up to Sentinel Dome.

Next, we have a scarlet kingsnake that my father and I saw when we walked over to the base of El Capitan.

 

We also saw this lizard at the base of El Capitan.  It looks to me like it might be a skink, but I really have no idea.  If you know what it is, make sure to shoot me an email!

We also saw a large Yosemite toad!  It was just kind of chilling in the middle of a pond, but then something startled it, and it lept into the water!

 

 

 

 

 

We also, of course, saw some bears, which were really super exciting!  Here are some pictures of some of the bears that we saw!

 

 

 

 

The Majesty of Yosemite

I think one of the most majestic places that I have ever visited was easily Yosemite.  It was simply fantastic!  Here are a lot of really good pictures of places within the valley.  Keep in mind that the photos simply don't do justice to the place!  First off, we have a picture of the valley!

Next, we have a few pictures of El Capitan, taken from the base!  In some of the pictures, you can actually see some crazy climbers slowly but surely making their way up the side of the mountain!  Apparently, it takes them THREE WHOLE DAYS to make the ascent!  And they have to sleep  in their harness and do their business in the harness and everything!  Even if I wasn't afraid of heights, those both would be deal breakers for me!

At the time of year that we went, the rivers were absolutely swollen with water.  Actually, I believe we were there on the day with the highest amount of water running through the rivers! 

 

 

 

 

Here is a picture of Sentinel Dome, where my parents got married!

This, I believe, was the view of Half Dome from Sentinel Dome.

Here is a picture of an odd-looking rock formation.  I still think it looks exactly like Snoopy, the World War I flying ace. 

Now for some pictures of the amazing and gorgeous waterfalls!

 Here is a picture of El Capitan off to the left, and then a waterfall on the right.  Gorgeous!

Mammoth Lakes on Dwellable

The Magic of Mariposa Grove

One of the coolest places that we went while in California was the Mariposa Grove, home to the Giant Sequoias, just a short drive outside of Yosemite.  It was absolutely incredible!  These trees were just simply massive, you couldn't even begin to get over their enormous size!  Here are some pictures of it, with myself, my sister, my father, my mother, and some other random people randomly in there for a size comparison!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also saw these really cool and weird looking red flowers all over the place!  These flowers belong to a plant called the "snow plant," and belong to the genus Sarcodes.  Related to the heaths (i.e. rhododendrons, blueberries  and cranberries), the snow plant is an interesting parasitic plant.  Instead of living off of dead plant and animal material, they infect fungi.  However, they don't kill the fungi once its been infected.  Instead, the fungi and the flower help each other out in a classic case of mutualism!

Finally, I was really excited by this burnt log that, in my opinion, greatly resembled the devil.  Other members of my family thought it resembled a bison more, but clearly they are insane.

 The photo credit for all of the photos in this post go to Julie Neher.

Mariposa on Dwellable