23-Fact Tuesdays: Polar Bear Celebrations, Eccentric Artists, and Unicorn Horns!

Welcome to our third "23-Fact Tuesday" which are never on Tuesdays.  I believe that this one is actually closer to a Tuesday than we ever have been before, however, so that's got to count for something!  I'd also like to thank Mona Kamath for her help on this post!  Enjoy!

1.  Despite the fact that polar bears are generally solitary, they gather annually in places like the city of Churchill in Manitoba, Canada, where they congregate together prior to the freezing of the sea ice.  When they gather in groups like this, the group is called a "Celebration." 

2.  The eccentric and incredibly odd (though undeniably gifted) artist Salvador Dalí had a pet ocelot named Babou.  He also had a pretty righteous mustache, if I do say so myself.

3.  In 1663, the German scientist Otto von Guericke "reconstructed" the mythical unicorn using the fossilized bones of a mammoth, a woolly rhinoceros, and the horn of a narwhal.  This reconstruction managed to legitimately fool some people, including Gottfriend Wilhelm Leibniz, the famous German philosopher and mathematician, who reportedly was dubious about the existence of the unicorn prior to this "reconstruction," but was convinced by Guericke's "fossil."  

4.  From wing tip to wing tip, Hatzegopteryx measured an astonishing 46 feet!

5.  Gasosaurus, a dinosaur that was described in the year 1985, was named "Gas-Lizard" because it was discovered by a Chinese gas-mining company.

6.  In order to hover and move in any direction, the hummingbird, often nick-named "nature's helicopter" moves its wings in a figure-eight pattern, as opposed to the up-and-down motion typical of other birds.

7.  Cotylorhynchus, one of the largest pelycosaurs, is quite possibly the funniest-looking extinct animal I have ever, ever seen.  It was also discovered by my 9th grade Language Arts teacher's great great uncle, J. Willis Stovall, a famous paleontologist. 

8.  One of the elephants at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is named Kimba, which means "Poop" (I used the nicer term for what the word actually means there) or "Corpse" in Swahili.

9.  Speaking of poop, fossil poop is known as a "coprolite."

10.  The acrobatic margay can rotate its ankles 180 degrees, which allows it to descend tree trunks head-first and hold on to branches with either their front or back paws.

11.  The white-tailed deer is named for the white patch on its rump and tail, while the mule deer is named for the fact that its face resembles that of a mules.

12.  About a third of the extant mammalian species are rodents.

13.  Hopping, the method of locomotion preferred by the kangaroos, is actually much more efficient than walking.  Of course, this is only the case if you have evolved in that fashion.  It wouldn't just be more energy efficient if we started hopping around everywhere.  

14.  Although you often hear people mention the "saber-toothed tigers," this is actually a bit of a misnomer, due to the fact that the saber-toothed cats to which they are referring to are not actually tigers, and are simply just cats.  

15.  The sweat of the Hippopotamus, is red or pink, leading people to aptly refer to it as "blood-sweat."

16.  Despite the fact that the polar bear has white fur, the color of its skin is the complete opposite: jet-black.  Talk about Yin/Yang right there.

17.  Island dwarfism is suspected to have occurred in one of our human relatives, Homo floresiensis, who inhabited the island of Flores in Indonesia up until around 12,000 years ago.  The nick-name for this ancient human is "The Hobbit." 

18.  The word "Mona" means "monkey" in Spanish.  Sure would suck if that was your name now wouldn't it!

19.  In Hindu culture, owls are a sign of bad luck.  That double sucks if you are Hindi and terrified of birds.

20.  Speaking of owls, due to the fact that they have binocular, or stereoscopic, vision (unlike other birds of prey, who have an eye on each side of its head), they have evolved the ability to turn their heads around 270 degrees in either direction.  Must be tough for them to crack their necks.

21.  Despite the fact that the creature in the picture below looks like a raccoon, it is not: that, my friends, is the raccoon dog!

22.  The tusks of the elephants are actually greatly elongated incisor teeth.  For reference, tap your front two teeth on the top or bottom of your mouth, it doesn't matter which, they are the same.  Those are your incisor teeth, you have two on each side of your mouth, eight all together.  

23.  In the narwhal, however, the tusk is their canine teeth, which (at least in our mouths) are the teeth right next to our incisors, towards the outside of our mouths. 

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

Top 10 Favorite Dinosaurs by Zack Neher (Part 2)

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

6. Pachycephalosaurus

The largest of the pachycephalosaurs, the name Pachycephalosaurus translates to "thick-headed lizard."  A large orbital socket indicates good vision, and, according to my "Prehistoric Life" book, the small teeth in its mouth indicates either herbivory or omnivory.  I have never heard anyone ever say anything about the pachycephalosaurs being omnivorous, so I have doubts about the authenticity of the statement.  Jack Horner suggested that Pachycephalosaurus and the other two pachycephalosaurs that lived in North America at the same time, Dracorex and Stygimoloch, were actually the same dinosaur and just represented different ontogenetic stages in their growth development, but that hypothesis has been almost completely refuted.  Due to the extremely tough-looking and thick skull, many paleontologists also have suggested that the pachycephalosaurs would clash heads much like the extant bighorn sheep, but studies of the necks of these animals indicate that these animals were likely not able to do this without breaking their necks.  Needless to say, this behavior was probably not something that they would attempt to do more than once.  Remains of Pachycephalosaurus have been found in the United States in the states of Wyoming, South Dakota, and Montana.

5. Amargasaurus

A fairly small sauropod, Amargasaurus is certainly quite unusual, as you can see in the pictures below!  On each of its twelve neck, or cervical vertebrae, a pair of spikes project out.  The functions of these spikes are unknown, but many theories have been put forth, from defense, to a sail being attached between each of the spikes to make the animal look bigger, even for heat control.  If a sail was not attached to the spikes, it is likely that they were covered in a layer of horn.  Whatever was on those spikes, it doesn't look like Amargasaurus had a very wide range of vertical mobility in its neck, so it seems likely that the small sauropod would have been mostly a ground-level feeder.  Amargasaurus has been found in Argentina in South America.

4. Utahraptor

While making Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg decided that the real-life Velociraptor wasn't scary enough for his movie.  Not only was Velociraptor actually pretty small (see the size comparison chart below), it was feathered!  But while they were making the movie, remains of the creature that would one day be known as Utahraptor were uncovered, and Spielberg had his monster.  (If you want to read more about this interesting happenstance, check out the introduction to Robert T. Bakker's FANTASTIC novel, Raptor Red, one of my top five favorite books of all time).  Utahraptor remains have been discovered in (can you guess?  I hope you can!) Utah. 

TO BE CONCLUDED IN PART 2

Top 10 Favorite Dinosaurs by Zack Neher (Part 1)

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

10. Argentinosaurus

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

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

Another shot of the Argentinosaurus at Fernbank

9. Allosaurus

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

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

8. Spinosaurus

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

 7. Parasaurolophus

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

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2

Cal Orck'o: Not A Place for the Acrophobic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An iguanodont, a type of herbivorous dinosaur like Iguanodon.

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

An ankylosaur, a type of dinosaur like Ankylosaurus.

A titanosaur, a type of sauropod dinosaur like Saltasaurus.

A dromaeosaur, a type of carnivorous dinosaur like Velociraptor.

A ceratosaur, a type of carnivorous dinosaur like Ceratosaurus.

A hadrosaur, a type of herbivorous dinosaur like Parasaurolophus.

A tyrannosaur, a type of carnivorous dinosaur like Tyrannosaurus.

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

Cochabamba on Dwellable

Upcoming Lecture: Animal Adventures With Zack Neher Part 1

Hey everyone!  So I just wanted to let you know that I am going to be having a trio of lectures next calendar year, and the first one is rapidly approaching!  It is on Thursday, January 10th from 4:00 PM to around 5:15 PM.  It will be held in the main auditorium at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado, and the address is 1515 Greenbriar Boulevard.  Admission will be free, but 90% of the proceeds will be going towards the Morrison Natural History Museum where I volunteer, while the other 10% will be going towards funding the Fairview Knowledge Bowl Team.  HERE IS THE LINK TO THE ZACK NEHER'S LECTURES PAGE ON FACEBOOK, WHICH YOU ALL SHOULD LIKE!

What will be at the lecture?  Well, just like last time, we will have a fossil table down in front, with tons of fossils, ranging from whale and bison bones to spiders preserved in amber, red fox skulls to mosasaur jaws, and much, much more! 

And, most importantly, what will we be talking about at the lecture?  Well, I am just so glad you asked!  This lecture is going to be covering a very wide variety of seemingly-unrelated topics.  But never fear, for I have artfully woven them into an intricate tapestry of fun.  Here are some of the topics and animals that we will be learning about!

• Creatures of Madagascar, including lemurs, chameleons, moths, and the fossa
• Animal names in Harry Potter
• Triceratops and its relatives
• Showy and beautiful birds, including hummingbirds and birds of paradise
• Gigantic carnivorous dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Acrocanthosaurus, Spinosaurus, and Giganotosaurus
• Bird mimics, including the lyrebird, myna bird, mockingbird and catbird
• Even-Toed Ungulates (Artiodactyls), including entelodonts, camels, hippos, pronghorn, and cows
• Odd-Toed Ungulates (Perissodactyls), including horses, tapirs, and rhinos
• Why Does My Cat Do That?
• Intelligence in birds, including the African gray parrot, shrike, and crows
• And much, much more!

I guarantee that it will be a fun-filled and entertaining evening chock-full of awesome animals, amazing video, and more than a fair share of Psych references!  So please, join us if you can!  Hope to see you all there!

And please, if you like what you're reading, make sure you click the subscribe button off to the right!  

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!

The Denver Gem and Mineral Show Part 2: The Piscivores (Excepting Penguins)

As we started talking about a few weeks ago, my friend Masaki Kleinkopf and I were able to visit the Denver Gem and Mineral Show at the Denver Merchandise Mart.  Last time, we talked about the giant ammonites, the baby eryops that Dr. Robert Bakker was working on, the gliding Indonesian lizards of the genus Draco and the pterosaurs that evolved from creatures purportedly much like this millions of years ago.  Today, we are going to talk about all of the piscivorous animals that we saw there, except for the fossil penguin that I saw there.  Knowing me, that would easily take up one whole post of its own there.  Keep in mind throughout this post that I'm not certain for all of these animals that they actually eat fish, I just know that the large groups that they belong to often eat fish.  Today, we are going to be looking at the mosasaurs, crocodilians, pterosaurs, sea lions, other fish, sharks, and the dreaded piscivorous dinosaur Spinosaurus.  

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.

Myself next to a gigantic mosasaur skull

I am pretty sure that this is the skull of a mosasaur , anyway.....it looks more like a mosasaur skull than the skull of a crocodilian, if you ask me

A mosasaur jaw, from Morocco by the looks of it

A mosasaur skull (Platecarpus, if memory serves, but it is entirely possible that I am wildly off) in front of a fossil ray

Another huge mosasaur skull

We also got to see the teeth of a piscivorous pterosaur.  The teeth of a piscivore are usually different from those of other carnivorous animals due to their conical shape.  The teeth of the fish eaters, like those of crocodilians and dolphins, are usually conical in shape, to prevent prey from struggling out of their grasp.

The teeth of a piscivorous pterosaurs

Below are the skulls of various crocodilians.

 

 

The skulls of these dudes seem like they should be out of a cartoon or something, they are so weird and comic looking!

Here are a pair of photos of fossilized sea lion teeth, both from the extinct sea lion Imagotaria sp., from the Miocene to Pliocene in the Atacama region of Chile.

Imagotaria sp., from the Miocene to Pliocene in the Atacama region of Chile

Imagotaria sp., from the Miocene to Pliocene in the Atacama region of Chile

Next, a picture of a pair of fossil jellyfish!

Fossil jellyfish!

Next are the teeth of the gigantic, fifty to sixty foot long carnivorous (or actually, piscivorous) dinosaur: Spinosaurus.  Also in the picture are the teeth of another enormous carnivorous dinosaur that lived in the same area of Northern Africa as Spinosaurus at this time of the Cretaceous Period: Carcharodontosaurus, who was not a piscivore, at least not primarily a piscivore, like a penguin, or as Spinosaurus is purported to
be.  (Did you see that alliteration?  My language arts teacher would be most impressed).  I discuss both Spinosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus in two previous posts, which you can look at HERE FOR SPINOSAURUS and HERE FOR SPINOSAURUS AND CARCHARODONTOSAURUS.

The teeth of Spinosaurus.  Actually in this shot, it looks as if most or all of these teeth belong to Spinosaurus.

And now for some pictures of the teeth of Megalodon, the largest shark that is ever known to have lived!  I have talked about Megalodon in the past, click HERE to learn more.

 

Now for some random ones.

It's a fish eat fish world out there

A pair of shark jaws.  I am not certain as I don't remember at all and they are unlabeled, but I believe them to be jaws of sand tiger sharks.  Again, I could be totally off on this!

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