tetrapodzoology | June 18, 2007
In an effort to get through all the blog posts I've started but have yet to finish, I thought I may as well start with this one on, of course, plethodontid salamanders (aka lungless salamanders). It started life as part of the same article as the ver 1 post here: this was essentially an introduction to plethodontid diversity and phylogeny. In particular I waxed lyrical about the huge number of new species that have been named since 1985 (many of which come from well-studied regions of North America), and I frothed at the mouth with excitement over the recently described Korean crevice…
tetrapodzoology | June 15, 2007
Among the most surreal snakes are (in my opinion) the turtle-headed sea snakes, or Aipysurus-group hydrophiids...
They are specialist predators of fish eggs: with their reduced compliment of stiffened labial scales, they scrape the eggs off rocks, and also use the spike on the snout tip to dig eggs out of the substrate. Their jaw musculature is unique (probably because they employ suction to get the eggs into the mouth), and they have a strongly reduced dentition. I published two articles on sea snakes on ver 1 here and here, and have yet to get round to publishing the promised third article…
tetrapodzoology | June 14, 2007
The gigantic mystery coelurosaur alluded to here in one of the ornithomimosaur articles - yes, you heard it here first - has at last been published, and it is an immense long-legged oviraptorosaur, as big as a tyrannosaur. But it is just one of three fantastic new discoveries from the world of dinosaurs that, sorry, I just had to cover...
Every now and again in the world of Mesozoic palaeontology a new discovery comes from left field and slams you in the ribs; something so surprising and counter-intuitive that it would have made a good April Fool's joke were it not actually real.…
tetrapodzoology | June 13, 2007
Regular visitors will no doubt have noticed the failure of my promise to post a picture a day. Well, alas, I'm going to have to take a much more relaxed approach, as it has proved impossible to find time even for that. So, I might post a new picture every day on the blog, and I might not. My weekend was taken up with various social events, and since then there just hasn't been the time to add new stuff... other than the sheep article of course. And what about my promise to, err, stick only to the things I've nearly finished writing but have yet to complete? Well, stuff that too. Today,…
tetrapodzoology | June 11, 2007
My plan at the moment (in terms of blog-related writing) is to do nothing other than complete all those nearly-finished articles that I've been promising to do over the last weeks... or months... We begin with the second post on sheep, thereby completing what I started in the first sheep post (the first post is required reading before you launch into this one). As discussed back then, sheep are generally divided into three genetic groups: the Asian argaliforms, the mouflon-like moufloniforms, and the mostly American pachyceriforms. I covered the argaliforms last time and, of the…
tetrapodzoology | June 8, 2007
Here is a cool photo, taken by either Steve Salisbury or Dino Frey, and previously published in a short article of mine on crocodilians. Initially I was going to use a really neat photo I have of a Cuban crocodile Crocodylus rhombifer leaping vertically from the water to grab a dead hutia, but then I became unsure about copyright and opted for something else. The photo featured here is of an Indopacific/Estuarine/Saltwater crocodile C. porosus. Unlike other Crocodylus, C. porosus possesses twin longitudinal ridges running along the length of the snout, and it lacks postoccipital scutes. It…
tetrapodzoology | June 7, 2007
Today's image shows the ever-interesting Maned wolf, the so-called 'fox on stilts' Chrysocyon brachyurus, kindly supplied by Anne-Marie of Pondering Pikaia. Anne-Marie studies these animals for her honors thesis. Maned wolves are well known for being predators of large rodents (like pacas) and similar-sized vertebrate prey, but they consume a surprising amount of plant material, and are particularly fond of the 'fruta da lobo' (hence its name). Often regarded as specialised for the Argentinean pampas, fossils show that they evolved in North America - they are just one of a whole bunch of…
tetrapodzoology | June 5, 2007
When most people (and that includes palaeontologists and dinosaur specialists) think of Brachiosaurus, they think of the east African taxon B. brancai, named by Werner Janensch in 1914. But they shouldn't: the 'real' Brachiosaurus is B. altithorax from the Morrison Formation of Colorado [later reported from Utah, Wyoming and Oklahoma], named by Elmer Riggs in 1903. The two species are actually quite different, leading Greg Paul to coin a new name - Giraffatitan - for the African taxon. This photo, kindly provided by Dr Matt Wedel (aka Dr Vector), shows the mounted B. altithorax skeleton that…
tetrapodzoology | June 5, 2007
Today, a new picture by my good friend Mark Witton, shamelessly stolen from his flickr site. And, yes, it shows the Campanian ceratopsid Styracosaurus albertensis eating a theropod carcass. If you think that the idea of a bristly omnivorous ceratopsid is odd and requires some justification, I will direct you to Mark's accompanying essay. As he admits, he has - for sure - used artistic license... however, both the presence of bristles in these animals, and the possibility of omnivory, do have some reasonable basis to them. I will say no more. Must do horned dinosaurs on the blog some time (…
tetrapodzoology | June 4, 2007
If you've read the series of posts on Marc van Roosmalen's new Amazonian mammals, you should, by now, be fairly open-minded to the possibility that large terrestrial mammals await discovery and description. And if you follow rumours about new mammal species, you'll have heard of the alleged new big cat species that ornithologist and missionary Peter Hocking (of the Natural History Museum in Lima, Peru) has reported from the Peruvian Amazon (Hocking 1992, 1996). Eleven years have passed, and where are those cats now?
Peter Hocking was born in Peru to American missionary parents, studied at…
tetrapodzoology | June 3, 2007
A Chinese goose: the domesticated form of the Swan goose Anser cygnoides (that's right, more than one species of goose has been domesticated: this was always assumed based on morphological features, but was confirmed genetically in a 2006 study [abstract here]). The Swan goose is also the ancestor of the domesticated African goose. Wild swan geese are native to eastern Russia, China and Korea (they used to occur on Japan, but haven't been recorded there since the 1970s, except as rare winter visitors) and have declined severely since the 1950s due to loss of floodplain habitat and human…
tetrapodzoology | June 3, 2007
What the hell, thought I may as well do more books before getting back to animals. Here is part of the 'mostly mammals' section of the library. Dan will be pleased, as there is a Carrington and a Swinton in there. Also L. Harrison Matthews, Hans Hvass, Kingdon, Guggisberg, and C. J. Harris. Spot the Hellboy compilation, Macdonald's The Velvet Claw, Thorburn's Mammals, Alcock and (ahem) Bagemihl. And here is where I went today...
tetrapodzoology | June 2, 2007
Given that it seems to be such an oh-so-fashionable thing to do in the blogosphere, I thought I may as well join the party and post random photos of some of my bookshelves. This collection is in the unsorted/random section of the library... clearly. Note the run of Palaeontology journals, Cogger's Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, Weidensaul's The Ghost With Trembling Wings, Gans' Biomechanics (awesome for amphisbaenians) and Berta & Sumich's Marine Mammals. The tail-tip of our pet roboraptor peeps in at the bottom...
tetrapodzoology | June 1, 2007
Yet more on Marc van Roosmalen's new Amazonian mammals, first disclosed on his excellent website. Before proceeding, you will need to have read part I, part II and part III first. Here in part IV we get to the most important stuff and wrap things up. But before that, there are yet more new animals to look at. For me, they are the most exciting of these proposed new species: a new large anteater, and a new large cat...
Arboreal giant anteater
The new anteater is closely related to the strictly terrestrial Giant anteater Myrmecophaga tridactyla (this species reaches c. 3 m in total length and…
tetrapodzoology | June 1, 2007
Yet more on the multiple new Amazonian mammals that have been discovered or documented by Marc van Roosmalen. If you haven't already done so, please read part I and part II. Here in part III we're going to look at the monkeys, as Marc has continued to discover various forms that don't match any documented species...
They include a new grey saki (pictured at left: it is larger with longer fur and a less pronounced face than the only similar species, Pithecia irrorata), a new black saki (Chiropotes), and several new spider monkeys, including the Rio Purús black spider monkey, Silvery bellied…
tetrapodzoology | June 1, 2007
More on Marc van Roosmalen's new Amazonian mammals: in the previous post I introduced the new dwarf tapir, as well as the whole topic of Marc's discoveries and the coverage that they get on his new website. Part I is required reading. Here in part II we look at yet more of these animals: this time the deer, more peccaries, new small carnivores, and some big rodents...
We'll begin with the artiodactyls: in addition to the Giant peccary (see part I and the ver 1 post here), Marc has also encountered what appear to be two additional types of peccary. One of these [shown in image above] is most…
tetrapodzoology | June 1, 2007
Arguably the most exciting concept in the entire field of zoology is the thought that new large terrestrial tetrapod species await discovery. And despite statements from journalists and scientists, history demonstrates that the continued discovery of such animals is not an extraordinary or unexpected event. You will know this if you are familiar with such animals as the Saola Pseudoryx nghetinhensis (named in 1993), Giant muntjac Megamuntiacus vuquangensis (named in 1994), Truong Son muntjac Muntiacus truongsonensis (named in 1998), Leaf deer M. putaoensis (named in 1999), Dingiso…
tetrapodzoology | May 31, 2007
Yet another rhino - there is an inadvertent theme going here. This amazing fossil is an embryo of the diceratheriine Subhyracodon occidentalis from Upper Eocene-Lower Oligocene USA (Subhyracodon often went by the name Caenopus in the older rhino literature). Discovered in rocks of the Brule Formation in Wyoming, the baby was (reportedly) not recovered from the body of a mother, but found on its own. Its total length is 76 cm. As an adult, Subhyracodon was a big tridactyl rhino as much as 4 m long. It was hornless, but males possessed paired ridges on their nasal bones. Good news everyone:…
tetrapodzoology | May 31, 2007
It has always been rumoured that some snakes grow to sizes that exceed the 10 m record generally accepted as the authenticated maximum: this was for a Reticulated python Python reticulatus shot on Sulawesi in 1912. Numerous stories and anecdotes discuss Reticulated pythons and anacondas Eunectes murinus that far exceed this, with the most famous of these stories being Major Percy Fawcett's 19 m long anaconda that he claimed to have shot in the Brazilian Rio Abuna in 1907 [scene depicted in adjacent image]. Despite its immense length, Fawcett reported that this snake had a width of just 30 cm…
tetrapodzoology | May 30, 2007
The amazing skull of a giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis, courtesy of Mark Witton. This presumably wasn't an old individual (you can clearly see the sutures of most of its bones), nor does it have the enlarged ossicones and general gnarliness of mature males. The specimen also has a low median hump; in mature males this is generally taller and more like a short horn. Note how shockingly gracile and stretched the premaxillae and dentaries are. For a previous Tet Zoo post on giraffes go here. Proper post hopefully coming later today (though not on giraffes).