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

So why did I split this post up into five parts?  Well, originally it was all just one big post, but it was simply too big, like so often happens.  So I will just post the rest of the parts throughout the next few days.  So here is part number two!

3.  Liopleurodon - A member of the short-necked Plesiosaurs, or Pliosaurs, Liopleurodon was the top predator of the Middle and Late Jurassic shallow seas that covered Europe at that time.  Fossils of Liopleurodon have been found in England, France, Germany, and Russia. 

4.  Shonisaurus - Shonisaurus is a fascinating example of convergent evolution.  When similar environmental and ecological pressures went to work on the ancestors of Shonisaurus, and the rest of the ichthyosaurs, as well as the ancestors of the dolphins and porpoises, they produced very similar results in very different kind of animals.  Shonisaurus and the rest of the ichthyosaurs are marine reptiles, while the dolphins and porpoises are both mammals.  Shonisaurus lived during the Late Triassic Period, right around when the dinosaurs were first making their debut.  At least thirty-seven skeletons of this giant have been discovered in Nevada. In fact, Nevada is still a fantastic place to see some of these creatures, especially Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park in Berlin, a few hours outside of Reno (pictured below)!  This is where the first bones belonging to Shonisaurus were actually discovered!  Definitely high on the list of places that I want to go!

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

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

Top Ten: Extinct Sea Monsters (Part 1 of 5)

Since ya'll kinda get gypped on Wednesdays with the "What Is It?" challenge, I decided that, when I do do the challenge, I will also include a "Top Ten" list.  I mean, come on now, who doesn't like lists?  I know some of my friends would be absolutely and completely lost without them!  So for today's "Top Ten," we are going to take a look at some of the world's most amazing, extinct sea monsters.  This is also up for debate, so if you disagree, just give me a holler!  Also, they are not in any particular order, I just kind of threw them all in there!  So without further ado, here we go, with our "Top Ten:  Extinct Sea Monsters!"

1.  Megalodon - This gigantic relative of the extant great white shark was thought to be simply massive: perhaps even sixty feet in length!  Living the world over, Megalodon stalked the seas during the Miocene and Pliocene Epochs, and only died out during the current Pleistocene Epoch, around two million years ago.  It is thought that Megalodon evolved to such gigantic proportions in order to be able to attack the massive whales that had started to evolve in the cooler seas of the Miocene and Pliocene.  Remember now: if it's a shark, then it's a fish!

A tooth fragment from Megalodon at this excellent restaurant called The Crab Shack on Tybee Island off of the coast of Savannah, Georgia. 

2.  Basilosaurus - A massive, predatory whale (and, therefore, a mammal) that cruised the seas in the Late Eocene Epoch, 40 to 34 MYA, fossil discoveries of this massive animal were reportedly so common in the southern United States during the early 19th century, that bones of Basilosaurus would be used as furniture!  It was first discovered in Louisiana, and is the state fossil of both Mississippi and Alabama.  Basilosaurus has also been found in Egypt and Pakistan.  At around sixty feet in length, the same estimated length of Megalodon, Basilosaurus is thought to have been the biggest creature alive at the time.

COMING UP:

3.  Liopleurodon
4.  Shonisaurus
5. Elasmosaurus
6.  Dunkleosteus
7.  Archelon
8.  Leedsichthys
9.  Tanystropheus
10. Tylosaurus

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

Animal Spotlight: The Red Panda

So for today's "Animal Spotlight," we are going to be taking a look at a very interesting creature: the red panda.  But how did I know this?  If you were an expert in logic and detective work, you might have already come to that conclusion, however, given the fact that not only did I post the title in the last "A Look Ahead," as well as by looking at the title of this post.  However, what you probably failed to take into account was that I, Zack Neher, and I alone, am the creator of this blog.  Therefore all executive decisions (i.e. what today's post is about) are made by me and my sole business partner, Chessney Von Pawncheck. 

OK, that is quite enough.  All long-winded explanations put aside, today's "Animal Spotlight" is, indeed the red panda.  The red panda is something of a misnomer.  Its scientific name, Ailurus fulgens, translates to "Shining Cat"; but the red panda is no cat.  Neither is the red panda a panda, as its name might imply.  Previously classified with the bears, and at another time with the raccoons (neither of which is the red panda), scientists now believe that the red panda deserves its own, special family, Ailuridae, within the superfamily of Musteloidea.  Within Musteloidea, besides the red panda, reside the weasels and kin, skunks and kin, and the raccoon, coati (the subject of this Friday's "Animal Spotlight") and kin.

A picture of the giant panda that my mother took at the San Diego Zoo

As you probably know, the Himalayas can get quite chilly at times.  To protect itself from the cold, the red panda has thick fur, as well as fur on the soles of its feet, which serves the double purpose of keeping its feet warm, but also helps to provide a bit of traction on ice.  When the snow melts, the hair-created traction also assists the red panda in obtaining a grip on the wet, slippery branches of its forest home. 

Although mostly a vegetarian, the red panda is certainly not above scavenging eggs from a birds nest.  They consume a great deal of bamboo, just as their namesake does. 

Listed as "Vulnerable" by the IUCN, the red panda lives in the Himalayan temperate forests of Nepal, China, Tibet, India, Bhutan, and Burma, as you can see in the map.
 But for those of you who want a bit more happiness when it comes to the red panda, simply click on the amusing video link below!

Red Panda Vs. Pumpkin

The Making of Planet Earth: The Snow Leopard

It was obviously not an easy feat for BBC to get all of the footage that they needed for their fantastic television series "Planet Earth," narrated by the equally fantastic David Attenborough.  Clearly, some segments would be easier to film than others.  One of the goals of "Planet Earth" was to get as much unique, never-before-filmed events and creatures, which would clearly make things a bit more difficult.  Below are listed some of the scenes that had apparently never been seen before on television.

1. The oceanic whitetip shark.
2. A piranha feeding frenzy, being filmed while the cameraman was actually in the water.
3. Arctic wolf hunt filmed from a helicopter.
4. Starving lions attacking and killing an elephant in the dead of night.
5.  Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico, U.S.
6. Amur leopard mother and cub in the Primorye region of Russia.
7. Bactrian camels in the Gobi desert in Mongolia eating snow to keep from getting dehydrated.
8. "The highest-ever aerial footage of Mount Everest and the Karakoram."
9. African wild dog hunt filmed from a helicopter.

And, finally, the subject of today's post:

    10. A snow leopard hunting a markhor in Pakistan.

The snow leopards are another one of my favorite animals, but due to their elusive nature, they are very difficult to capture on film.  Much more difficult than they are for poachers to capture them, anyhow.  Hunting in large part for their fur has greatly reduced the wild population, forcing the IUCN to list them as "Endangered."

Due to their elusive nature, and their difficulty to film, the "Story of the Snow Leopard," if you will, proved to be a most excellent candidate for the "Planet Earth Diaries" (which I generally refer to on this blog as "The Making of Planet Earth."  For the DVD release, a ten minute or so long "making of" feature was included, highlighting the difficulties of each shoot.  Below is the list of the episodes of Planet Earth, and what their respective "Making Of" featurettes talk about.

The chart.  The Shallow Seas episode, with the
Planet Earth Diaries about the great white shark hunts, is filmed by Big Car Diary co-host Simon King.

When it came to filming the snow leopard, the makers of "Planet Earth" first turned to veteran cameraman Doug Allan, the same man who filmed the polar bears.  But after a few months of fruitless searching (in Nepal, I believe), all he had to show for his work were a few long distance shots, too far away to be of much use.  There were plenty of signs of the snow leopard being around, however.  One of my favorite things to hear from the entire "Planet Earth" series came from this predicament.  The film crew would track the snow leopard by following its footprints in the snow, in the hopes of getting close enough to learn more, or to even film it.  However, they would follow the tracks in a large circle, until they were seeing signs of human footprints too: their own.  The snow leopards were following them!

"Planet Earth" then decided to film along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, but were not allowed to, as the search for Al-Qaeda was taking place there, and only news crews were allowed in.  One year later, however, the "Planet Earth" crew were granted access, in December of 2004.  Below is a link to part two of the "Planet Earth Diaries" about the snow leopard.  The first part was unfortunately taken off of youtube, but anyways, here is the second part.

Planet Earth Diaries: Snow Leopard Quest Part 2

Below is another fascinating video of the snow leopard: the first ever snow leopard/markhor hunt recorded on film.  SPOILER ALERT: and don't you worry you animal lovers out there; the video has a happy ending for the markhor, but not so for the snow leopard.

First Ever Snow Leopard/Markhor Hunt

Redington Beach on Dwellable

Animal Spotlight: The Okapi

For years, Europeans who traveled to Africa heard tell of a mysterious rainforest animal that they came to refer to as the "African Unicorn."  Apparently, Sir Harry Johnston, the British governor of Uganda, rescued a small group of the native inhabitants, often called the pygmies, from a foreign show person, who, sadly, was most likely going to use his abductees for a circus or freak show.  Upon their rescue at Johnston's hand, they repaid him by giving him information about the animal.

Now we know the animal as the okapi, or Okapia johnstoni, named in honor of Sir Harry Johnston.  Despite the zebra-like stripes on its tail, the okapi is not all that closely related to the zebra, and is actually a very close relative of the giraffe.  Although they may not look super similar, they both have ossicones on their head, similar to the base of DEER antlers.  Ossicones are not only possessed by both the okapi and the giraffe, but also by extinct relatives of both, such as Sivatherium and Climacoceras.

The okapi is listed as "NEAR THREATENED" by the IUCN.  Honestly, I was surprised that it wasn't at least listed as "VULNERABLE," and "ENDANGERED" or worse would not have surprised me at all, given its reclusive nature, its beautiful pelt, and the very fact that humans didn't have much proof of its existence until 1901, when Sir Henry Johnston sent back a carcass to England.  I suppose, however, that its reclusive nature likely helps it to evade human influences a great deal, coupled with the fact that the rainforest that it inhabits is not too heavily tread.  And I guess the fact that it was really made known to science only a little more than one hundred years ago couldn't have hurt either, as it would be soon entering into an age when nature was offered greater protection than in the 1800s. 

Like the COELACANTH and THE MOUNTAIN PYGMY POSSUM, the okapi is often referred to as a "LIVING FOSSIL."  Its habitat consists of montane rainforests in the Central African Republic (CAR) and the DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC).

Ginger Kathrens and the Morrison Museum

So last night my friend Masaki Kleinkopf and I were hoping to see Ginger Kathrens, a woman who is big on horses, and presented three fantastic episodes for the PBS show "Nature" about a specific horse named Cloud (as well as other wild horses in Montana), speak at the Colorado Horse Rescue.  However, despite the fact that we were told that it was going to be free, it was not.  There was a ten dollar entrance fee.  We decided not to go but, since, Ginger Kathrens lives and often works in Colorado, I will probably get another chance to meet her eventually. 

However, at my volunteer job thingy at the Morrison Natural History Museum, I got the opportunity to work with Dr. Robert Bakker again, as well as a few other really cool people, like Matt Mossbrucker, Guy, and John, as well as a few other volunteers.  I also had the pleasure of meeting a few really nice folks from Florida who come up to this area of Colorado for the summer.  All in all, it was a pretty fun day!

Both Bakker and the Florida Folks were able to confirm what I had as a porpoise rib.  I guess "confirm" is not really the right word, as I thought that it was a giant ground sloth tooth. 

OK, again, I would just like to point out how awesome it is that I get to work with Dr. Bakker.  Although by no means the only source, or the only place that would say this, but this list of the top ten most influential paleontologists lists Dr. Bakker as number two.  That's kind of a big deal!  Some very, very exciting stuff!

 http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/dinosaurdiscovery/tp/tenpaleontologists.htm
 
I am a little too tired to do an actual, legitimate post, but we will be back tomorrow with "ANIMAL SPOTLIGHT:  THE OKAPI."

Golden on Dwellable

A Look Ahead, Fun Fact 8/3/2012

First off, check out today's post about the tapir, down below!

Next, I decided to spice our "Looks Ahead" up a little, each week I would add in a fun fact or something similar, that I didn't think I would have enough information to devote an entire post to.  So here is your fun fact!

FUN FACT:  For the first season of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," the popular animated TV show in the same franchise of the classic movies, the producers decided to create a new planet for the premiere episode.  They settled on a small moon that was covered in coral, but no water; somehow, the moon had been drained of its oceans.  They decided to call the moon "Rugosa," after an extinct order of coral, commonly called "horn coral." 

This horn-shape, unique among coral, lived a long time ago, but not in a galaxy far, far away: before the dinosaurs, in fact!  They survived for an incredibly long amount of time, though, from the mid-Ordovician Period (~488 MYA) through to the Late Permian Period, thriving through the Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous Periods as well.  Although I couldn't find any official confirmation, I assume that the horn-coral went extinct because of the "Great Dying," or the mysterious Permian Extinction, but I am not positive, so don't quote me on that.


Now here's what we have in store for this week:
(4) Saturday:  Ginger Kathrens, Cloud, and the Wild Horses of the Montana Rockies
(5) Sunday:  Animal Spotlight:  The Okapi
(6) Monday:  The Making of Planet Earth:  The Snow Leopard
(7) Tuesday:  Animal Spotlight:  The Red Panda
(8) Wednesday: What Is It?
(9) Thursday:  Animal Spotlight:  The Coati
(10) Friday:  Forget Biker Gangs: The River Otters of India