Tetrapod Zoology
Archives for February, 2008
Ermentrude the liolaemine
Posted by Darren Naish on February 28, 2008 Thank you and well done to everyone who had a bash at identifying Ermentrude. For the most part, you were correct: Ermentrude was indeed an iguanian, and within Iguania a tropidurid… or tropidurine… I mean liolaemid… or liolaemine, or liolaemin.. and, within that group, a species of the large South American taxon Liolaemus. What species?…
The mystery of Ermentrude the lizard
Posted by Darren Naish on February 26, 2008 This is Ermentrude, or Ermie, the best lizard I ever kept. Despite his name he was a male (I think). He got used to being handled but didn’t like having his claws clipped. Strangely, he liked banana and once he ate a load of white butterfly chrysalises. Anyway… can you succeed where so many have…
Big cats in Britain: this time it’s personal
Posted by Darren Naish on February 25, 2008 The third Big Cats in Britain (BCiB) conference is almost upon us: it happens from 7th-9th March 2008 at Tropiquaria (Watchet, Somerset). This time round, I’m speaking, and most of my research time is currently being eaten up as I prepare for the meeting (I’m also speaking in the first week of March on ‘Britain’s…
Evolutionary intermediates among the girdled lizards
Posted by Darren Naish on February 19, 2008 Yet again I am going to have to go quiet-ish on Tet Zoo for a little while as I just cannot put the time into completing the many planned articles. Sigh. One thing approaching on the near horizon is eating up lots of my research time: the third Big Cats in Britain conference, happening in…
Axolotls on the EDGE!
Posted by Darren Naish on February 18, 2008 I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll be saying it again: as a life-long zoology nerd, one of my greatest frustrations has always been the fact that there are so many animals that get mentioned – only ever mentioned – but never elaborated upon. I’ve always liked Axolotls Ambystoma mexicanum, and among the world’s…
Ankylosaur week, day 7: Animantarx
Posted by Darren Naish on February 16, 2008 And so, here we are, at the end of it all. Ankylosaur week has come and gone, but oh what a week it was. As I said at the beginning, the whole aim was to save myself work and time by not producing anything new – and this worked, more or less. Did I clear…
Ankylosaur week, day 6: Silvisaurus
Posted by Darren Naish on February 15, 2008 Another day, another ankylosaur. This time: Silvisaurus condrayi. Known only from the Albian-Cenomanian Dakota Formation of Kansas and described by Theodore H. Eaton in 1960, Silvisaurus is a surprisingly well known, though enigmatic, nodosaurid. Because Eaton provided a life restoration in his paper (albeit it not a very good one – read on. It’s shown…
Ankylosaur week, day 5: Edmontonia
Posted by Darren Naish on February 14, 2008 Welcome to day 5 of ankylosaur week. This time, we look at Panoplosaurus‘ sister-taxon Edmontonia. Edmontonia was a large (6-7 m long) Campanian-Maastrichtian nodosaurid that lived right across North America…
Ankylosaur week, day 4: Panoplosaurus
Posted by Darren Naish on February 13, 2008 Panoplosaurus mirus was a large nodosaurid (reaching 6 m) and a particularly close relative of the even larger Edmontonia (for a quick intro to nodosaurids see the day 2 article). One of several Canadian dinosaurs from the Campanian Dinosaur Park Formation named by Lawrence Lambe, Panoplosaurus was described in 1919 for a skeleton collected by…
Ankylosaur week, day 3: Aletopelta
Posted by Darren Naish on February 12, 2008 Originally discovered in 1987 by Bradford Riney during a palaeontological surveying trip, the only known specimen of Aletopelta coombsi [shown here] is from an outcrop of the Campanian Point Loma Formation at Carlsbad, California. It’s one of several ankylosaur specimens whose remains come from marine sediments: an occurrence which has led several palaeontologists to suggest…