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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.
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The Great Dinosaur Discoveries (US edition)
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Walking With Dinosaurs: The Evidence
Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight
« Tet Zoo The Movie | Main | To the Sahara in quest of dinosaurs (living and extinct) »
Posted on: December 17, 2008 7:29 PM, by Darren Naish
Since getting back from Morocco I've had no time to do anything for the blog, dammit. Too much to catch up on. But stuff is coming. Meanwhile, here are some interesting pictures. They depict the same sort of creature, but what is it?
I know, I know: easy.
Next: to the Sahara and back! Camels, sauropods, larks, owls! Azure-winged magpies! Exclamation marks!
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Comments
Looks like a solenodon but... no tail...
Is it a tenrec?
Posted by: Blue Frackle | December 17, 2008 8:09 PM
Not apropos this post (WTF is that thing?), but your North African expedition made 'Daily Planet', Canada's Discovery Channel's newsmagazine show. Not much detail, but a couple of photos and the illustration of the sauropod and theropods that was in the NatGeo article.
Posted by: Mike from Ottawa | December 17, 2008 8:10 PM
Looks like Tenrec of somekind.
Tailless Tenrec (Tenrec ecaudatus)?
Posted by: Ville Sinkkonen | December 17, 2008 8:14 PM
Humm... at first I also thought of Solenodon but then I noticed the distema, the larger saggital crest, and the teeth are different. The dentition does looks like the afrotherian Tenrec ecaudatus.
Posted by: Jorge Velez-Juarbe | December 17, 2008 9:27 PM
The incomplete zygomatic arch again supports a tenrec. Tailless tenrec.
Congrats on your successful Morocco field trip -- going by the news article you seem have found some interesting stuff.
Posted by: Rajita | December 17, 2008 9:58 PM
Actually, I think it's at least an elevenrec. Maybe even a twelverec.
Posted by: Stevo Darkly | December 17, 2008 10:45 PM
Where...where do the eyes go on the skull?!
Posted by: Zach Miller | December 18, 2008 2:11 AM
That's a pretty cool critter. Reminds me of modern rodents.
Posted by: Alison | December 18, 2008 2:46 AM
Nah, it's only a ninerec, and on the cusp with an eightrec.
Posted by: Alan Kellogg | December 18, 2008 3:27 AM
That, sir, is a Rodent of Unusual Size. Native to the fire swamp, I believe.
Posted by: Dr Vector | December 18, 2008 3:32 AM
Tenrec ecaudatus.
Posted by: Dartian | December 18, 2008 3:59 AM
The stuffed animal is the dwarf, extant gorgonopsian Pseudomegabrat hyponip, recently described from Belgium.
Posted by: Jo Waltham | December 18, 2008 5:15 AM
Flightless Ropen?
Posted by: Dave Godfrey | December 18, 2008 6:15 AM
This here is a normal mammalimorph, not a euprimate. That means that there is no postorbital bar: orbit and temporal fenestra are confluent. (Plus, as a specialty of tenrecs or afrosoricidans or something, the temporal bar = zygomatic arch is gone, too.) So, the eye goes above the second-to-last lower molar.
Posted by: David Marjanovi?, OM | December 18, 2008 9:11 AM
What you have there is the Placental Bandicoot (or Madagascan Bandicoot), a.k.a. common or tailless Tenrec (T. ecaudatus as mentioned above). 'S only fair, if we Down Under have to put up with marsupial lions, tigers, cats and mice.
So, get any snakes in the Kem Kem?
Posted by: John Scanlon FCD | December 18, 2008 9:18 PM
Sorry, John, but the placental bandicoot is a species of rat found in India. In fact, the Indian bandicoot has first dibs on the name - the Australian mammals were so called because they looked like bandicoots elsewhere.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor | December 18, 2008 9:50 PM
Yeah Chris, I knew that too. But the tenrec is much more perameloidish (especially the skull) than any rodent, a case of convergence that should be cited in textbooks along with thylacine/wolf, penguin/auk, dolphin/ichthyosaur etc.
Posted by: John Scanlon FCD | December 18, 2008 10:47 PM
Sorry John - no snake material at all, not even one palaeophid vertebra (and we did discuss the possibility of finding snakes all the time). We also had no luck in seeing live snakes dammit. The only fossil (possible) squamate bits we found were fragments of maxilla, but I didn't examine these closely (Nizar found them) and they could well be something else.
Congrats to all on identifying tenrecs correctly. I included the picture of the stuffed specimen - provided by Markus Bühler (thanks Markus) - because it looks so un-charismatic (I have lots of other photos of dead tenrecs: Mary Blanchard photographed people eating them in Madagascar). As for the skeleton (photographed at the University of Glasgow, Scotland), check out the size of that sagittal crest!
Posted by: Darren Naish | December 19, 2008 4:15 AM
I not only have photographs of dead (and rather cute living) tenrecs, I did in fact try one. The tenrec was killed by a dog right next to camp and the guides cooked it - it is considered a tasty dish in Madagascar... I can only describe it as the most disgusting, vile, horrendous meat I have ever tasted.
Posted by: Mary Blanchard | December 19, 2008 5:53 AM
"This here is a normal mammalimorph, not a euprimate. That means that there is no postorbital bar: orbit and temporal fenestra are confluent."
Loads of animals outside of euprimates have postorbital bars, including numerous perissodactyls and ruminants. Even some members of the Desmostylia have a significant postorbital process. Chris Heesy, among others, have suggested there is a functional aspect to this that relates to stresses in the skull during mastication, which would explain why this little Tenrec has no need for one.
Thanks for a fun, stimulating post, Darren!
Posted by: Brian Beatty | December 19, 2008 2:09 PM
Mary, you had it with white wine, didn't you? Many people make the same mistake, but connoisseurs know that tailless tenrec is best served with a big hearty red.
Posted by: Angela | December 19, 2008 8:56 PM
neat - and weird. Any idea why such a huge sagittal crest? What does it eat and does it need heavy duty jaw muscles, or is the crest there for some other reason?
Posted by: Graham King | December 20, 2008 10:09 AM
Probably something seasonal. Is it a reindeer?
Posted by: Trin Tragula | December 24, 2008 12:09 PM
At first blurry-eyed glance, I thought javelina. Then tenrec. Half points.
Back to sleep now.
Zzz
Posted by: Noni Mausa | December 26, 2008 9:41 PM
Like this one:
Peccary skull
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2346/1502058138_5944813fa5_o.jpg
Zzz
Posted by: Noni Mausa | December 26, 2008 9:43 PM
hedgehog :)
Posted by: wheelsmith | January 13, 2009 5:46 AM