tetrapodzoology | September 17, 2009You may recall that we had a bit of an Andrewsarchus thing going on here back in August. As you'll know if you followed the articles in question, there is now some suggestion that Andrewsarchus was not the megawolf mesonychian once imagined, but instead a weird relative of those entelodont giant killer pigs from hell. Inspired by this suggestion, a few artists have started to re-imagineer the animal. The other day I was very happy to see the following brand-new piece of art, produced by Tet Zoo regular Jaime Chirinos of Zooartistica (image © Jaime Chirinos, used with permission)...
Jaime's…
tetrapodzoology | September 16, 2009
Once again I'm going to recycle an old book review, sorry about that. Have had no internet access at home for the last few days, so things have been difficult here, to say the least (like so many people, I now rely on constant daily internet access for work). Anyway, find below my review of Tidwell & Carpenter's Thunder-Lizards book. The review was published in 2006 so is now rather dated. I haven't changed the text, but please note the following; a full technical paper addressing the neck posture stuff discussed below has since been published (Taylor et al. 2009); titanosaurs no longer…
tetrapodzoology | September 12, 2009
Those of us who publish technical research papers like to see our work cited by our colleagues. Indeed, it's integral to one's success as a researcher (whatever 'success' means) that others cite your work, in whatever context. You might not like to see the publication of a stinging attack that demolishes your cherished hypothesis and shows how your approach and data analysis (and maybe overall philosophy, intellect and ability to write) are flawed, but the fact is that someone has at least read, and is citing, your work... and that's still a sort of success. These days - sad to say - the '…
tetrapodzoology | September 10, 2009What's going on in these pictures?
You might already know. If you do, feel free to spread the news.
tetrapodzoology | September 9, 2009
If you're a long-time reader of Tet Zoo you'll be familiar with the remarkable fact that Greater noctules Nyctalus lasiopterus predate on nocturnally migrating passerine birds (this was discussed in a ver 1 article that I'll update and recycle for ver 2 at some stage). Various predatory microbats around the world predate on small birds, but it was a bit of a surprise to learn that this behaviour occurred in western Europe. Of course, bats don't have it all their own way: it's well known that bats are heavily predated upon by raptors and owls. As revealed today by Péter Estók and colleagues…
tetrapodzoology | September 8, 2009I'm somewhat pushed for time at the moment (massive, massive understatement), so nothing new here, sorry. Too busy with book jobs, SVP preparation, demolition work, baby care and other stuff. So here's some nonsense: if you've been with me from the start you'll remember this captivating image from January 2006. To the rest of you it might be new. Believe it or don't it's Fig. 2 in the Tet Zoo book (currently nearing completion, after a hiatus of more than a year).
In other news: the thing everyone's talking about today is the launch of the Open Dinosaur Project. This ambitious project aims,…
tetrapodzoology | September 6, 2009In 1997, Polish palaeontologist Gerard GierliÅski worked together with artist Marta Szubert to create the amazing furry green(ish), life-sized Dilophosaurus model you see here (and below), nicknamed Dyzio. It was displayed at the Polish Geological Institute's Geological Museum at Warsaw and, while much discussed in the Polish media, is poorly known internationally.
Yes, there are a few inaccuracies (the hands are palms-down, rather than shown with the inwards-facing palms that are more correct), but overall it's a pretty neat looking model, and it's also bold and daring. What led Dr…
tetrapodzoology | September 6, 2009Yes, yes there are.
Stay tuned, all will be revealed. And if you know what this is all about, and where it went and how it ended up and so on, please don't spoil it for everyone else. Yet.
tetrapodzoology | September 3, 2009Purely because it's semi-topical - well, it was jokingly alluded to in the brief tapir article from the other day - here's a little bit of information about the world's biggest ever tapir, Tapirus augustus Matthew & Granger, 1923, the Pleistocene Asian species formerly known as Megatapirus (it's best known from southern China, but has also been reported from Java and Vietnam. Incidentally, some authors say that it survived into the Holocene). Some people estimate that this tapir was about 3.5 m long, and 1.5 m tall at the shoulder. Wow!
Now, I bet you're thinking... what, you mean…
tetrapodzoology | September 2, 2009So I recently recycled the Madagascar pochard article from Tet Zoo ver 1, first published in 2006. As you might have realised if you read the 2006 article (and if your memory is exceptionally good), I made one major change for the 2009 re-posting: I chopped out the bit about the Pink-headed duck. Why? Because this species is interesting enough to deserve a bit of attention all its own. Here we go...
Once upon a time the remarkable Pink-headed duck Rhodonessa caryophyllacea* - in my opinion easily one of the weirdest ducks of them all - was abundant throughout the floodplains and swamps of…
tetrapodzoology | September 1, 2009Dave Hone (of Archosaur Musings) kindly provided the following photo, taken in Seoul Zoo. It features a South tropical American tapir - but which one? Test your skills...
I love tapirs. But they're not always nice. In 1998 a Malayan tapir Tapirus indicus at Oklahoma Zoo bit a keeper's arm clean off, and also caused facial injuries and a punctured lung to the woman during the attack. The tapir had a two-month-old baby, and this presumably explained its aggressive behaviour. Also worth noting is that Haddad et al. (2005) described a fatal attack by a tapir on a man, though in this case the…
tetrapodzoology | August 30, 2009The recent article about Meller's duck Anas melleri inspired me to recycle my ver 1 article about another of Madagascar's endemic ducks, the Madagascar pochard Aythya innotata [male shown below]. Meller's duck is endangered, with a global population of between 3000 and 5000, but the Madagascar pochard is in an even worse position: in fact, it was regarded as extinct until 2006, when a small group of less than 20 was discovered (read on).
In fact, just last month a joint group representing the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, The Peregrine Fund, and…
tetrapodzoology | August 28, 2009
If you follow the comments here at Tet Zoo you'll already have seen the thread that's been developing on the 'Giant killers: macropredation in lions' article (originally posted back in February, and itself a re-post of a ver 1 article from November 2006). If you don't follow the comments, the following will be new to you. It seems that philosopher David Pearce is honestly proposing that we should feel ethically compelled to eradicate all suffering and cruelty from the natural world in order to create a sort of global vegan paradise where predators don't exist. Pearce terms this the…
tetrapodzoology | August 26, 2009
If you said that the mystery duck from yesterday was a mallard, a weird mallard hybrid, a shoveler of some sort, or blah blah blah, then shame shame shame on you: you are a loser. If, however, you said it was a Meller's duck Anas melleri, then well done, you are some kind of freakin' duck genius, champion of your peers, wunderkid, and all round sterling human being. Yes, it was Meller's duck, an endemic Madagascan species that inhabits the lakes, rivers, streams, ponds and wetlands of the eastern side of the central plateau, being associated in particular with Lac Alaotra (Madagascar's…
tetrapodzoology | August 25, 2009Some days ago I went to the Isle of Wight Tiger and Lemur Sanctuary (which is where I saw all those big cats). And while there, one of the undoubted highlights was this amazing beast...
What is it, and what can you tell us about it? You get points for being clever, not for trying to be funny :)
tetrapodzoology | August 23, 2009
Time to finish with the mesonychians. Previous articles have looked at Andrewsarchus and the triisodontids, the mesonychids, and the hapalodectids. That's essentially it... though - as mentioned a few times now - Andrewsarchus doesn't seem to be a mesonychian after all. However, there are a number of other obscure Paleogene mammal groups that have been considered to be allied to (or part of) Mesonychia by some authors, and in the interests of completeness I want to look at them here.
We start with the didymoconids. This is a peculiar group of Asian mammals known from the Paleocene, Eocene…
tetrapodzoology | August 22, 2009If you've been enjoying the series on mesonychians you'll be pleased to hear that it's not completely over. There are a few groups yet to come (though, as we'll see, whether they really are mesonychians or not is controversial. 1000 Tet Zoo dollars* to whomever guesses the names of the groups I'm talking about). Anyway: you can't think awesome extinct Cenozoic mammals and not think Carl Buell. They're kind of synonymous. And, whaddayaknow, here's something incredible...
Yes, Carl has done an Andrewsarchus. Sincere thanks to Carl for allowing me to use it; I won't say much as the picture…
tetrapodzoology | August 20, 2009No time for anything substantive, but here's a montage featuring some of the stuff we've been looking at while on holiday. Some of the cats here are rather unusual: the tiger in the middle of the top row was a Siberian x Chinese hybrid.
Getting good photos of the jaguars proved not so easy (see bottom right).
tetrapodzoology | August 19, 2009Yeah, what the hell, what have I got to lose, what's the worse that could happen, and other such platitudes... I finally decided, after an annoying number of prompts and requests and so on, to join the time-sucking black hole of frivolity that is Facebook. Thus far I've used it to piss around and post pictures like those below - but isn't that what it's for?
Apparently it can serve some of useful purpose, but I'm sure I'll get to that eventually. If I slowly start to lose interest in the blogosphere, you'll know why. And if you want to know who to blame: Max Blake, j'accuse.
tetrapodzoology | August 18, 2009First of all, I've been away (speaking about fossil cats again), though - as previously - you might not have known this given that a list of posts were scheduled to appear in my absence. Is there more on mesonychians to come? There might be, but I haven't yet had the time to finish it. Meanwhile....
For months and months now my esteemed colleague and coauthor Mark Witton has been working on a secret project. It's pretty incredible and the temptation to blab about it and post some of the neat photos I have has been overwhelming (one of the photos is shown below: it was taken back in May).…