Previous post by SamHexum: Green Eggs and Velociraptor?

[+ jeezopete]

1 hour ago, samhexum said:

Um...  In the last pic, to the right of the 6th track behind where the guy is holding that pole, do you see Puff the Magic Dragon?

LOL, yep there he is. His face is perfectly preserved.

[samhexum]

On 12/12/2017 at 7:56 AM, sync said:

If you were a small-to-medium-sized creature during the ancient Jurassic or Cretaceous periods, you definitely wouldn’t have wanted the shadow of a pterosaur to appear on the ground beneath you. With wingspans reaching as large as 36 feet, the high-flying dinosaurs ruled the skies and could make short work of ground-dwelling prey.

Dinosaur fossils are found throughout the world, but an "exceptionally rare" discovery sheds light on what type of animals a dinosaur fed on – mammals.

In the early 2000s, the fossil of a Microraptor zhaoianus – a feathered dinosaur the size of a crow that lived about 120 million years ago – was found in northeast China. Although it was observed shortly after its discovery, Hans Larsson, a professor at McGill University in Canada, recently noticed animal remains were inside the dinosaur's fossil.

A team of international researchers then researched the remains to confirm they belonged to the foot of a mammal. The findings were published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Dinosaur and other ancient animal meals have been observed before, but only about 20 times, according to a press release from McGill University. The new discovery also is the first proof that dinosaurs fed on mammals.

"It’s so rare to find examples of food inside dinosaurs so every example is really important as it gives direct evidence of what they were eating," David Hone, professor at Queen Mary University of London, said in a statement.

 

 

Artistic rendition of Microraptor zhaoianus.

Researchers found that the foot belonged to an animal about the size of a mouse. Analysis of the bones suggested it was a ground animal that wasn't good at climbing, which made it an interesting choice of food for the Microraptor, because it spent most of its life gliding from tree to tree. The dinosaur is from the early Cretaceous Period, when present-day China was covered with forests.

Previous research found the species ate fish, birds and lizards, so researchers were unsure whether it preyed on the mammal or scavenged a dead mammal. Larsson said the findings suggested the dinosaur was not a picky eater and could be evidence of a general dinosaur carnivore.

But one thing researchers could confirm: The mammal wasn't related to humans.

"While this mammal would absolutely not have been a human ancestor, we can look back at some of our ancient relatives being a meal for hungry dinosaurs," Hone said. "This study paints a picture of a fascinating moment in time – one of the first record of a dinosaur eating a mammal – even if it isn’t quite as frightening as anything in Jurassic Park."

[samhexum]

On 11/27/2020 at 6:16 PM, samhexum said:

Megalodons, the apex predator of the seas, may have gone extinct more than 3.5 million years ago, but experts may have discovered nurseries of the massive shark all around the world, according to a new study.

Scientists are taking “The Meg” down a peg.

An international review of the megalodon, a giant shark that went extinct 3.6 million years ago, has suggested that it was much slimmer than researchers previously thought.

The mammoth ocean predator became the stuff of literary and cinematic legend, most recently with the 2018 sci-fi thriller “The Meg,” which portrayed the super-sized shark opposite action star Jason Statham.

A lack of fossil evidence led paleontologists to assume the megalodon would have a robust and stocky body like the great white, and measure up to 65 feet.

Now, University of California researchers, alongside a team of marine experts from around the world, believe the killer shark was leaner and potentially even longer. They compared its build to that of a mako shark.

 

“The remarkably simple evidence that [Otodus megalodon] had a more slender body than the great white shark was hidden in plain sight,” said Professor Kenshu Shimada, whose new report was published in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica

A “eureka moment” came when they compared the teeth and spine of a living great white shark with megalodon teeth fossils and a reconstruction of its vertebral column.

Said study author Phillip Sternes, “It was still a giant, predatory shark. But the results strongly suggest that the megalodon was not merely a larger version of the modern great white shark.”

Their findings also suggest the megalodon maintained a different diety and lifestyle than assumed with a more massive shark. The longer body required a longer digestive canal, so the formidable creature would have needed more time between feedings to process meals and eat less frequently than the more truncated depiction.

“With increased ability to digest its food, it could have gone for longer without needing to hunt. This means less predation pressure on other marine creatures,” Sternes explained, adding a hypothetical: “If I only have to eat one whale every so often, whale populations would remain more stable over time.”

The results of the study could also change the story of the megalodon’s extinction. It was previously assumed that the ancient species died out due to naturally dwindling prey in their environment.

“I believe there were a combination of factors that led to the extinction, but one of them may have been the emergence of the great white shark, which was possibly more agile, making it an even better predator than the megalodon,” Sternes speculated. “That competition for food may have been a major factor in its demise.”

Researchers say this “major scientific advancement” could be just a small piece of prehistory in need of rewriting.

Added Shimada, “The continued mystery like this makes paleontology, the study of prehistoric life, a fascinating and exciting scientific field.”

https://nypost.com/2024/01/21/lifestyle/megalodon-not-quite-as-mega-as-scientists-and-the-meg-filmmakers-thought-new-study/