What Is It? The Weekly Challenge #4 Answer

This weeks challenge was to figure out which, in the picture below, was a mammoth, and which was a mastodon. This weeks challenge was correctly guessed by two people, both Ilyssa A. and Masaki K., who both said mammoth on the left and mastodon on the right.  However, how can you differentiate between the two?  Obvious, we have two super-sleuth paleontologists on our hands who can differentiate, but I'm guessing that the vast majority of you might have trouble.  So here is a quick Mammoth Vs. Mastodon Guide, with just a few helpful ways to differentiate between the two.

A size comparison of a mammoth and a human, myself, at the excellent zoo called The Living Desert in California.  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

Check in a few hours for this weeks challenge!

What Is It? The Weekly Challenge #3 Answer

Today's animal was easier for many of you, and we had a number of good guesses!  We had a few close guesses (like the American Kestrel, another North American bird of prey, but we had one totally right answer.  This weeks winner is Julie N., who guessed the Peregrine Falcon!

Peregrine Falcon

 The Peregrine Falcon is one of my favorite birds, mainly because of how it hunts.  It dives at medium-sized birds from up to 3,000 feet in the air, and often dives towards the birds with the sun at its back; that way, its prey has a difficult time of seeing them through the sun's glare.  In its dive, speeds of 175 - 200 mph have been recorded, placing it at the terminal velocity able to be achieved by the bird.  Some people have reported that the peregrine can exceed terminal velocity but, despite being taken in by this theory for a time, I believe that this not, in fact, true.  (I am not that into the math or physics, but I believe it might even be impossible, but I'm sure some of you know that better than me!)  Click on the link below to learn a little more, and to see the bird in action!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKqt05iR9WI&feature=player_embedded#!

Although their population numbers suffered tremendous, pesticide-induced blows during the 20th century, they have made quite a comeback throughout the United States.  However, it was a close call.  Use of pesticides like DDT (commonly known as DEET, used to be common in mosquito repellent before its negative impacts on the environment became fully known) caused the Peregrine Falcon's eggshells to become weak, and they were easily broken.  The result of this was very few baby falcons surviving to breed themselves.  In fact, at one point it got so bad that the Peregrine Falcon was listed as "Endangered" by the IUCN in the 1950's through the 1970's.  It became extirpated, or locally extinct, in both Belgium and the eastern United States.  However, now it is labeled as "Least Concern;" an amazing comeback, for an amazing bird.

This picture of the Peregrine Falcon was taken by me, last week at the Reptile Day at Dinosaur Ridge, near Golden.  My friend Masaki Kleinkopf and I went and were able to see a few pretty cool things, the Peregrine Falcon being just one of them.  I highly recommend going to check out the Ridge, as well as the museum they have there, it is really quire interesting!

Don't forget to check in later in the day for this week's challenge!

What Is It? The Weekly Challenge #2 Answer

 Hello again!  Thank you to our guessers for this week: surprisingly, one of you got it exactly right!  Congratulations to Kristie C., who guessed this weeks mystery animal 100% correct!  The correct animal was Pakicetus, an ancient ancestor of the cetaceans, or the whales, dolphins and porpoises.  Around 53 MYA, Pakicetus lived in a world that was gradually becoming what we see today.  At this time, what we now know as India was its own special island continent, moving steadily northwards until, eventually, India crashed into Asia.  This crash resulted in the largest mountains we have today, the Himalayas. 

However, 53 MYA, during the Eocene Epoch, India hadn't quite reached Asia, a small sea separating the two, the remains of the vast Tethys Ocean.  The Tethys Sea was high in saline, which is incredibly good for life.  Microscopic organisms like plankton flourished, sending reverberations up the food chain, all of the way to the fish, which exploded in numbers as well.  And on the shore of this Tethys Sea, in what today is Pakistan, stood Pakicetus. 

As Pakicetus watched the gread abundnace of fish in the waters, he began to take short fishing trips into the water.  Over millennia, as Pakicetus took more and more fishing trips, of longer and longer duration, adaptations that proved beneficial for hunting fish in the water occurred, like a more streamlined shape, most likely webbed feet, and nostrils placed further back on the head.  Over a few million years, Pakicetus evolved into another ancient whale, called Ambulocetus.

Check back in a few hours for your next "What Is It?" challenge?  I promise you, after the last two, this one should seem like a piece of cake!  See you all then!

What Is It? The Weekly Challenge #1 Answer

Well, it's that time of the week again!  We only had a few guesses this week, and no one got it exactly right, but there were some close guesses!  The two closest were Kristie C., who guessed an Adélie Penguin, and Masaki K. who guessed Cormorant.  Well, the correct answer to last weeks challenge is Waimanu.  Waimanu is the scientific name of the oldest known fossil penguin.  Two species are known, and both of them were found on the South Island of New Zealand.  One of the species, Waimanu manneringi, lived during the Paleocene, around 61.6 MYA; that means that the oldest known penguin was swimming the oceans only a few million years after the death of the dinosaurs!  Although Waimanu manneringi is the oldest KNOWN fossil penguin, it by no means is the oldest penguin.  In fact, it is quite likely that, were scientists to uncover a fossil that shows when penguins split off from the other orders of birds, we would not even recognize it as a penguin.  Waimanu had undoubtedly already adapted to a fully non-aerial lifestyle, and almost certainly behaved much like modern penguins do when it comes to breeding on land, near the ocean.


Works Cited:

Waimanu, the first penguin. (2010, January 30). Retrieved July 11, 2012, from https://fossilpenguins.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/waimanu-the-first-penguin/