"It is - still - the best zoological blog out there, period"
With six years of phd work on theropod dinosaurs behind him, Darren Naish mostly spends long hours in the library, hunched over his laptop. But he gets out sometimes, and picks up litter and pursues exotic lizards across the British countryside, aiming all the while to publish his technical work on obscure Cretaceous dinosaurs. He also messes around with pterosaurs, swimming giraffes, British big cats and stuff like that. He has given up on the stupid idea of being a dedicated academic and ekes out a living as a technical consultant, editor and author. He can be contacted intermittently at eotyrannus (at) gmail dot com. For more biographical info go here.
You've read the blog, now buy the books....
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Category: picture of the day
Posted on: June 26, 2008 11:44 AM, by Darren Naish
There's a big crossover, sure, but I often wonder if everyone who visits Tet Zoo also visits SV-POW! Today is the day we put that to the test. To find out more about this image....
.... you must, by law, go here.
Next: oh no, it's the giant killer opossums!
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Comments
> oh no, it's the giant killer opossums!
Stagodontids (giants at least by mesozoic mammalian standards, but not even marsupials sensu stricto, leave alone opossums)? Sparassodonts?
Posted by: johannes | June 26, 2008 12:04 PM
Cool!
Posted by: ctenotrish | June 26, 2008 12:34 PM
Thylacoleo?
There was a short reference to thylacoleo in TetZoo back in April, but you really can't have too much thylacoleo.
Posted by: Stevo Darkly | June 26, 2008 1:35 PM
Totally off topic, there's an interesting bit of frog news on Science Daily.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080623125003.htm
Posted by: Graeme Elliott | June 26, 2008 1:37 PM
"Thylacoleo?"
That's not a giant killer opossum, more like a giant killer koala or wombat.
Posted by: Lars Dietz | June 26, 2008 2:23 PM
Now, then ***I*** was a child I was taught that "opossum," spelled with an "o," was for the American species (criters like the famous cartoon character Pogo the Possum). And that "possum," without the "o," means either the Australian kind or that the speaker is an illiterate redneck. So if you asked me to guess, I'd guess that Darren's next (or next but n-th) post will be about some American type or types, not about a derived Australidelphian like Thylacoleo. But WHICHEVER he writes about I expect to be delighted and educated by it!
Posted by: Allen Hazen | June 26, 2008 3:34 PM
Nice some one should do this for real - in the middle of London...
Posted by: neil | June 26, 2008 3:35 PM
It's like a flying battleship!
Posted by: Nathan Myers | June 26, 2008 3:50 PM
It's like a flying battleship!
That is exactly what it's like, and I salute you for just putting it out there so boldly.
Posted by: Matt Wedel | June 26, 2008 5:33 PM
"Thylacoleo?"
That's not a giant killer opossum, more like a giant killer koala or wombat.
Wait, I thought Thylacoleo was a member of the phalanger family -- aren't those Australian possums? Or did he get reclassified?
Posted by: Stevo Darkly | June 27, 2008 1:24 AM
I once saw a book titled "Possums and Opossums" in a bookstore. It was from the late eighties or early nineties. It dealt with all kinds of extinct and recent metatherians (all called marsupials in the book), not just phalangers and American opossums. There were colour plates depicting reconstructions of *Wakaleo* and other thylacoleonids in the book.
If I remember right, there was a microbiothere depicted on the cover.
Posted by: johannes | June 27, 2008 5:13 AM
Killer opossums must be the borhyenids... In Brazil there's a lot of names for the opossums (Didelphis): gamb�, sarigu�, timbu, mucura, etc...
Posted by: J.S. Lopes | June 27, 2008 12:25 PM
Is the size of the Quetzalcoatlus correct?
Posted by: J.S. Lopes | June 27, 2008 12:26 PM
Shh - you'll spoil it for everyone else! :)
Posted by: Darren Naish | June 27, 2008 12:27 PM
"Wait, I thought Thylacoleo was a member of the phalanger family -- aren't those Australian possums? Or did he get reclassified?"
At least it was a diprotodont, like Australian possums, kangaroos, wombats, and koalas. According to Mikko Haaramo's site recent diprotodonts fall into the Vombatiformes (wombats, koalas, diprotondontids) and the Phalangeriformes (phalangers, kangaroos). Thylacoleonidae aren't part of any of these groups. But of course Aus. possums aren't opossums, and don't really have that much in common with them. So it might have been a killer possum, but certainly not a killer *o*possum.
I hope I didn't spoil anything here.
Posted by: Lars Dietz | June 27, 2008 1:05 PM
J. S. Lopes: the azhdarchid in question isn't Quetzalcoatlus but it's bigger, tougher brother from Transylvania, Hatzegopteryx. There's not many fossils to work with, but wingspan estimates of this critter are in the region of 12 m: this gives it a standing shoulder height of 3 m and a similar neck length. What's more, the fragmentary skull remains hint at a skull half-a-metre wide and 2.5 m long. Yowee.
It would be shameless of me to exploit Darren's blog to link to this page for more information, so I won't.
Hold on a second...
Posted by: Mark Witton | June 27, 2008 1:28 PM
That brachiosaurus skeleton came from the outside of the Field Museum in Chicago, as did the elephant. The azdarchid is from one of your earlier blog. I don't know anything about the background picture or the whale skeleton.
Posted by: Gorgonop S. Ian | June 27, 2008 10:20 PM
Yeah guys, where did the blue whale skeleton come from?
Posted by: Jura | June 28, 2008 3:44 AM
Where is the whale skeleton/background image from? Go here and here.
Posted by: Darren Naish | June 28, 2008 4:43 AM
Neat image, and an amazing testament the power of modern
image technology...I'll try to visit SV-POW more often.
Mr. Meyers,Mr. Wedel-Nowhere near as big as battleship, and it isn't made of anti-matter either. ( Still pretty
damn impressive. Oddly, it makes me wonder if any smaller
pterosaurs occupied the Tickbird niche... )
Posted by: craig york | June 30, 2008 1:32 PM
Mr. York: Absolute size is hardly species-diagnostic, much less so subatomic constitution. Be aware that you are also arguing with no less a figure than Richard Hing, who will not be pleased at your skepticism. I give thanks that I have not (yet!) suffered his wrath.
Larger pterosaurs occupying the Tickbird niche would need impressively large ticks. One might wonder, parenthetically, if supersonic sauropod tail lashings could be aimed precisely enough to dislodge or discomfit troublesome kopidodons and other vermin.
Posted by: Nathan Myers | July 3, 2008 10:11 PM
Would require a time machine. Kopidodon is middle Eocene in age.
Posted by: David Marjanović | July 5, 2008 5:30 AM