Top Ten Favorite Dinosaurs by Zack Neher (Part 5)

At long last, here we go: the final installment in my top ten list of favorite dinosaurs.  

1. Therizinosaurus

Therizinosaurus is the namesake of the odd group of herbivorous Theropod dinosaurs known collectively as the Therizinosaurs.  These guys are related to the Oviraptors, Ornithomimosaurs, and the Alvarezsaurs, all of which are thought to have a largely plant-based diet.  This seems odd when you first think about it: plant-eating meat-eating dinosaurs?  But similar things occur today.  For example, the order Carnivora today includes many meat-eating animals such as cats and dogs, but also includes the bears, where plants and berries factor into their diet a great deal.  For some, like the panda, they eat almost entirely plants.  The Therizinosaurs have been likened to the recently extinct giant ground sloths in the fact that they seemed to have pot bellies in which to ferment their food, as well as enormous claws that probably helped a great deal in protection, as these guys were most certainly not the swiftest of runners.  Therizinosaurus is just so bizarre and wacky, which is what makes it my most favorite dinosaur!

Top Ten Favorite Dinosaurs by Zack Neher (Part 4.5)

As some of you may know, right now, we are in the midst of a lis of my  top ten favorite dinosaurs.  However, on December 7th, a new dinosaur was announced, and it has immediately made my top ten list if it is, in fact, a dinosaur, which is currently being debated.  Therefore, I have decided to make this guy number 4.5 on my list, as if this creature is a dinosaur, it may very well be one of the most important finds in the history of dinosaur paleontology, as the find, named Nyasasaurus, may be the ancestor of all dinosaurs! Since this fossil dates to the Middle Triassic Period and is estimated to be about 10-15 million years older than the previously-oldest known dinosaurs like Eoraptor and Herrerasaurus, if this animal is not, in fact, a dinosaur, it resides very close to the base of the dinosaurian family tree!  People around the world eagerly await more remains of this animal from being discovered in Tanzania (where the original fossils were discovered in the 1930s) or somewhere else in the world, in the hopes that some more light can be shed upon this controversy.

 TO BE CONCLUDED IN PART 5

Invasion of the Great Horned Owls

Throughout my entire life, I had not seen more than a handful of owls in the wild, but in the last month (actually exactly a month ago today, on November 16th) I have seen owls on three different occasions, all three of which were great horned owls (Bubo virginianus), not to mention the two times that I saw the great horned owl parent and chicks at my grandparents house in the few months preceding that!  The largest owl of Central and South America and the second largest in North America (following the snowy owl), the great horned owl is actually closely related to the snowy owl, despite their very different outer appearances.  Despite its name, the "horns" on the head of the great horned owl are really just tufts of feathers.  The great horned owl is labeled as "Least Concern" by the IUCN. Also, this post is a birthday post for Joseph M. Roessler, happy birthday big guy!

One of the most notable features of the owls in general are their incredibly flexible necks.  Most birds of prey likes hawks, falcons, eagles, and vultures, have their eyes on opposite sides of their head.  Owls, however, like we humans, have binocular, or stereoscopic, vision.  This means that owls have to turn their heads a lot more than other birds of prey might in order to look all around.  In response to this, the owls have evolved the ability to turn their heads around 270 degrees, in either direction!

One of the great horned owls that my grandparents had in their backyard for a few months

Another interesting ability of the great horned owl, and owls in general, is their interesting method of digestion.  Birds nowadays don't have teeth, so they are unable to chew their food.  So most of the time, they (owls amongst them) swallow their food whole if they are unable to tear small chunks off of it.  This also means that the owl swallows the indigestible bits of its prey, such as the bones and the fur.  So after their meals, owls will regurgitate balls of the indigestible materials, colloquially referred to as "owl pellets!"

The great horned owl, more so than other owls, has an amazing crushing grip in its talons, around 300 pounds per square inch, which is more than the human hand is capable of!  There are also reports of cases in which the power exerted by the talons of the great horned owl matching those of much larger species of bird of prey, like the golden eagle.  The great horned owl is also capable of lifting prey that is several times heavier than they are.

What's on the menu for the great horned owl?  Where to begin!  Let's break it down by group, and give a few examples of each.  I am by no means including all of its prey items as that would take an immense amount of time. 

• Mammals
• Porcupines
• Skunk
• Domestic Cats
• Small or young domestic dogs
• Rabbits and hares
• Muskrat
• Squirrels
• Weasels and martens
• Shrews
• Lemmings
• Voles
• Bats
• Armadillos
• Mice
• Flying Squirrels
• Rats
• Marmots
• Birds: 
• Turkey
• Great blue heron and other herons
• Woodpecker
• Crows
• Pigeons
• Quail
• Gulls
• Ducks
• Other birds of prey, such as red-tailed hawks, snowy owls, and other great horned owls
• Misc.
• Young alligators
•  Amphibians
• Scorpions
• Worms
• Insects
• Crustaceans
• Centipedes
• Roadkill

Where did I see the owls?  The first one was exactly a month ago when my friend Masaki Kleinkopf and I were heading back from seeing the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, which was really really good (but not as good, in my opinion, as The Hobbit, which we saw last night and which was fantastic).  We decided to take the back way, the bird of prey route between Boulder and Superior where one can frequently see red-tailed hawks, kestrels, turkey vultures, and golden eagles.  Instead, we saw a great horned owl!

A picture of one of the red-tailed hawks that I took yesterday on the Bird of Prey Route.  Not only is it an amazing bird in its own right, but it is also potential prey for the great horned owl.

The next two sightings were actually yesterday and the day before.  The first one was when my other friend Mona Kamath and I were driving along West 120th Ave., and we saw a great horned owl perched in a tree!  Yesterday, on my way home from the Morrison Museum, I took a brief detour to see if the owl was still there, and he was!  Not in the same tree, but in another tree that was quite close by!  How exciting!  Enjoy the pictures! 

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!  And remember, if you like what you're reading, make sure you LIKE US ON FACEBOOK, follow us (if you have a google or gmail account), or hit the subscribe button off to the right if you don't!

Zoo Babies: Lion Cubs at the Denver Zoo

On Saturday, my family and I went to the Denver Zoo.  We saw many awesome animals, but probably my favorite animals that we saw were the three new baby lion cubs!  Born in June of 2012, the cubs were sent to the zoo from Qatar, and will likely be shipped somewhere else once any long-term plans have been established regarding where they will stay.  For now, though, we get to enjoy the pleasure of these cubs, and now you can too!  Enjoy the pictures!

Hello there!

King of Pride Rock

The cubs look up as a HUGE flock of geese flies by overhead!  Nice timing, mother!  (That sounds like I'm being sarcastic but I actually am not.)

Ready to pounce!

Right before the goose flyover!

Master of all he surveys

More Squirrel Prints, Plus Some Bird Ones, Too!

As I MENTIONED YESTERDAY, we got our first real snow yesterday, and there were some squirrel footprints in our driveway.  After I made the post, when I got home, my father pointed out some bird footprints on the back porch, and this morning I saw some more, better squirrel prints on our back stoop.  I decided to share these cool prints with you as well, since squirrels and birds are quite rare in North America!  (Sarcasm).  The first two picture are of the bird tracks, and then all of the rest are from the eastern fox squirrel.

Bird tracks

I forgot the flash for this one, but I thought that the bird footprints still looked pretty cool with the green light coming from our back-porch light!

Your Dog May Be Dumb, But It's Brain Has More Folds Than a Cat's

When it comes to the anatomy of the brain, the more folds it has, the better.  This is because the folds create more surface area on the brain, which in turn creates more area for neurons to be, which in turn allows for more storing of information.  A month or two ago in my Psychology class, we briefly touched upon the brains of other animals.  I particularly remember the brains of the domestic dog and the domestic cat.  Even though it often seems, especially in my house, that my cat is a whole lot smarter than my dog, a quick look at the brains of both pets indicates otherwise.  The cats brain is pretty smooth in comparison to the brain of the dog.  If you think about the major differences between these two carnivores, one obvious difference sticks out like a football player in a group of people going to see the Hobbit premiere this weekend who are fully decked out in Lord of the Rings gear and are all Hobbit-sized: dogs are social creatures, while cats have a much more limited social capacity.  This probably helps to explain why your cat will suddenly and randomly bite you after you have been so lovingly petting her in your lap while she is purring.  They just don't know how to handle that much attention!  They also don't have any built-in social protocol.  Think about a socially awkward child: the situation is similar, except for the child it is simply that they had a different upbringing and not usually a matter of brain size.  Or maybe cats are just insane.

Anyways, as you can see by comparing the brains of the cat (above) and the dog (below), the dog has many more folds in its brain.  This makes sense, because the social interaction component would need more brain area to successfully function.

REAL FAST:  BELOW IS A HUMAN BRAIN FOR COMPARISON.

So with this in mind, it would make sense that the brain of the lion would be larger than, say, the brain of the leopard, now, wouldn't it?  Since the lion is a social animal, you would definitely think that.  This doesn't seem to be the case, however.  I did a little digging and couldn't really come up with much, but if I had to hazard a guess I would say its because the lion has the pride to fall back upon, so they don't necessarily need to be smart ALL of the time.  Also, leopards are extremely acrobatic, and spend a lot of time in the trees.  I suspect that this might also affect things, but I guess I don't know!  When I attempted to research it, literally all I could find was a bunch of Internet people comparing operating systems (?) called "Lion" and "Snow Leopard." 

Next we are going to compare the brains of the wolf and the red fox.  As you can see below, here our "Social Interaction=Big Brain" hypothesis is sound.  Not only does the wolf have a lot more folds in its brain, you can also see that the canyons created by the folds themselves are much, much deeper, which creates more surface area. 

Finally, let us compare the brains of the polar bear and the black bear.  HOLY.  COW.  As you can quite clearly see in the pictures below, the polar bear has MUCH more surface area on its brain than the black bear.  Now if you think about it, the environment that the polar bear is forced to survive in is much harsher than that of the black bear.  IN OUR POST ABOUT THE POLAR BEAR, we featured a video IN WHICH THE POLAR BEARS ARE PLAYING WITH SPY CAMERAS.  As the narrator points out, the curiosity of the polar bears is their "best hope for the future."  In their ever-changing world of ice and snow, which is now unfortunately melting, this curiosity is often what helps them survive the long, lean summers after the melting of the pack-ice, as well as the long, dark and cold winters.  Hopefully this brain power will be enough to sustain their populations in the future!

Top Ten Favorite Dinosaurs by Zack Neher (Part 4)

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

2. Struthiosaurus

Just like Masiakasaurus, Struthiosaurus also lived during the Late Cretaceous Period.  Also like Masiakasaurus, Struthiosaurus was small.  But Struthiosaurus was small in a very different way than Masiakasaurus.  Remember when we talked about island/insular dwarfism in the context of the Channel Island fox?  Well, island dwarfism is back, in all of its glory!  A brief refresher, island dwarfism is what sometimes happens to animals that have become trapped on islands.  Over many generations, they shrink in order to match the limited food supply.  If there is a limited supply of food, then the smallest of your species, not the largest, are much more likely to survive.  Another factor that often helps island dwarfs is that predation is typically not as intense on islands as compared to mainlands, but that is not always the case.  Anyways, around 75 MYA, global sea levels were much higher.  In North America, we had the Western Interior Seaway dividing the continent, while Europe was simply reduced to a number of individual islands, one of which is now known as Hațeg Island.  And, if you are any good at guessing how stories end, you can probably see where this is going.  Yes, Struthiosaurus was an island-dwarf!  He is also really cool because he is an ankylosaur, a group of dinosaurs that are incredibly interesting!  Another thing that I absolutely have to mention here pertains to the picture of Struthiosaurus that we have below.  This picture was drawn by an incredibly talented young artist named Sam Lippincott.  Only in eighth grade, he is well on his way to achieving artistic greatness!  Below are some more pictures of his, all of them absolutely fantastic!  He made these pictures for my last lecture and I have the Struthiosaurus and Magyarosaurus pictures framed on my wall, I love them so much!  Let's all give Sam a round of applause! 

Struthiosaurus, an ankylosaur, by Sam Lippincott

Telmatosaurus, a hadrosaur, by Sam Lippincott

Magyarosaurus, a sauropod, by Sam Lippincott

Hatzegopteryx, a pterosaur, by Sam Lippincott

Europasaurus, another dwarf sauropod dinosaur, but from an island other than Hațeg Island

TO BE CONCLUDED IN PART 5

Squirrel Footprints on Our Doorstep!

This morning we woke up to a fresh blanket of snow, the first (real) snow of the year for us!  Naturally this means that I must do all of my first snow traditions, including watching the Battle of Hoth scene from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and wearing my Mammoth and Mastodon Madness t-shirt from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  Anyways, on my way over to school, I saw a few footprints.  I took a few pictures on my phone so they aren't very good looking, but I believe them to be from the eastern fox squirrel, the type of squirrel that is just so common around here in Boulder, Colorado!  If anyone knows otherwise please let me know, but I am 99.99% sure that this is what we are looking at!  The first two pictures are the ones that I took with my phone.  The first picture has an impression of my right index finger in the snow next to the footprints for scale.  The third picture is a picture that someone else took of some eastern fox squirrel footprints in the snow too!

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!

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