Topic 7 of 99: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (21:34) |
Marcia (MarciaH)
What they are, where they are and can you add them to your collection.
378 responses total.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 1 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Jul 17, 1999 (20:48) * 8 lines
This is one of my favorite Geology subjects - an opinion not shared by my son. He hated it. But, I think he has the family fossils. For the record, a fossil is the remains of a formerly living organism in which each and every organic part has been replaced with rock (silica, usually) down to the minutest detail. Petrified wood is a good example. You can count the tree rings, and the bark looks like you could peel it off, but it is solid rock.
For those not into the very old and a little strange collecting of dead animal remains and what they left behind when they were here, allow me to introduce you to a few.
*Gastroliths* - these are the stomach stones from the belly of a dinosaur. You can tell that is what they are by their rounded appearance and the fact that they are found in bunches among the bones of the animal about where the midgut would have been. Technically, not a fossil, but I want one anyway!
*Coprolites* - This is something you likely would not want for an engagement ring, but it does get the most amazing reaction when you tell someone handling your specimen that it is fossilized dung left behind by those Jurrasic Parkers. If you find several and the teacher gets to have one, You will be treated very well, indeed!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 2 of 378: Annette Mercer (laughingsky) * Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (20:27) * 4 lines
I'll keep my eyes peeled for those, Marcia! (*grin)
Paleontology is one of my favorite subjects, too, Marcia! Not many folks around this area to talk to about it, though, so, I usually just read up. I've loved dinosaurs since I was a very small child, and, used to read the "Childcraft" books and World Book articles and stories about them. I'm minus satellite tv, right now, which means that I am missing all of those good shows on Discovery channel! Yikes! I frequently check out library books on paleontology, standing in line behind kids with history books a
d women with the romances. I get strange looks...then, again, I get those, anyway...:)
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 3 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (01:10) * 2 lines
*lol* Annette, you are my kind of lady. People have long since given up on my being conventional. Check out Jurassic Park which is linked to Wolfie's and my SpringArk (really her idea, though!) It is hard to know which category best fits the coprolite. Precious or semi-precious stones...so I put them in Paleo.
I am jumping up and down Happy that you are here and also into this most esoteric branches of Geology. If ya find some, Talk to me...I have some pieces of the mantle which are all peridotite and look like finely ground peridots which is what it is!!!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 4 of 378: Annette Mercer (laughingsky) * Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (16:13) * 3 lines
Happy to be here and discussing a most interesting subject, indeed!
Have you ever gotten your hands on the PIT (Passport in Time) magazine? I used to get one, every late winter, with all of the archaeology digs, etc. going on around the country that allowed "amateurs" to assist. Many interesting goings-ons! But, I moved, and, evidently, they don't forward, and, now, I can't find the address. I'll keep digging!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 5 of 378: Annette Mercer (laughingsky) * Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (16:14) * 1 lines
"Digging"...hmmm...no pun intended, really...! ;)
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 6 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (18:09) * 2 lines
Please keep digging. I currently subscribe to snailmail Archaeology, Odyssey, and Biblical Archaeology Review (Old Testament era archaeology)na dkeep up with my original love, British Archaeology on the net. Each spring the magazines publish digs which accept volunteers and how to get in touch and all that.
One of the most difficult things I ever did was to tear myself away from a huge pit in the middle of London which begged for volunteers to excavate finds before being covered by a skyscraper. Arrrrrgh!!!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 7 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (18:11) * 3 lines
uh...I dig your digging...*grin*
Never heard of that magazine but am most curious...
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 8 of 378: Annette Mercer (laughingsky) * Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (19:22) * 1 lines
I'll go a'searchin', then.....:)
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 9 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (15:25) * 50 lines
The T-Rex Fossil
The fossil, currently owned by Detrich fossils, a
Kansas-based paleontological group, contains the
most perfect skull and largest teeth (some measuring
13 inches) ever discovered.
The fossil is nicknamed Mr. Z-Rex in honor of the
owners of the private property where the fossil was
discovered.
Bids for the T-Rex are beginning at $5.8 million. Appraisers believe a T-Rex fossil of this quality can
bring an additional $40 million in permanent, annual revenue to the museum that acquires it.
Mr. Z-Rex was discovered on October 6, 1992 by paleontologists Alan & Robert Detrich while
exploring fossil deposits on a private cattle ranch in northwestern South Dakota. The skull was found
in a sand formation. It is thought that the T-Rex died on the sandy shoreline of a prehistoric river, sea
or lake.
Mr. Z-Rex has the best skull with the largest teeth I have seen. The fossil is absolutely
breath-taking. This truly is the King of T-Rex's - a paleontologist's dream come true.
-Alan Deitrich
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The specimen was excavated according to professional standards and transported without damage.
Skeletal elements have been exposed by partial preparation from the original undersurface of three
major blocks. These blocks contain, respectively, the skull, the presacral vertebrae, and elements of
the hind limbs and anterior portion of the tail. Great care was taken to collect all fragments of bone
from from the locality, which may permit the reassemblage of several bones which would otherwise
have been lost. Stabilization of the skeletal parts will present no unusual problems, and the
extraction of the bones from the sediment in which they are preserved will vary from relatively easy
to requiring considerable skill.
Details
Length of skull 1370 mm
Length of tooth row, left maxilla 560 mm (approximately)
Length of tooth row, left dentary 530 mm
Length of articulated cervicals from the anterior zygapophysis of C4 to the
posterior zygapophysis of C10 985 mm
Length of dorsal 4-6 taken at base of transverse processes 393 mm
Length of posterior dorsal vertebra 140 mm
Height of posterior dorsal vertebra 653 mm
Length of 13 articulated caudal vertebrae 2780 mm
Length of centra of two isolated caudals 152 and 132 mm
Length of femur 1330 mm Circumference of femur 588 mm (indicating a
weight of 5.5 metric tonnes)
Length of fibula 965 mm (approximately)
Length of metatarsal II 620 mm
Length of metatarsal III 750 mm
Length of metatarsal IV 640, 655 mm
Length of phalanx r-1 120 mm
The total length of the reconstructed skeleton is estimated to be
approximately 10.8 m (35 feet). The total reconstructed height at the hips is estimated to be
approximately 3.45 m (11.35 feet).
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 10 of 378: Annette Mercer (laughingsky) * Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (08:04) * 5 lines
What a find! Think about a thirteen inch tooth...!
T-Rex...hunter or scavenger?
Opinions...???
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 11 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (12:32) * 1 lines
He was the ultimate killing machine with powerful hind legs which allowed him to run down anything on earth. Nothing has even come clost to the T_Rex is the power concentrated in the enormous hind legs and the razor-sharp teeth.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 12 of 378: Annette Mercer (laughingsky) * Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (20:31) * 1 lines
Definitely! I believe that T.Rex did whatever was necessary to survive, hunting or taking food away from others, having evolved into the "killing machine"!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 13 of 378: Lucille Oftedahl (alyeska) * Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (23:46) * 1 lines
The news today showed a huge dinasaur egg in South Korea, at least twice as large as any other ever unearthed. Weird shape though, very long and narrow.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 14 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Jan 26, 2000 (00:00) * 2 lines
All the ones I have ever seen were long and narrow with blunt ends. I wonder what huge dinosaur was gonna hatch from that one. I am sure they will xray it.
Let me know if you hear anymore about it! Thanks Lucie!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 15 of 378: Annette Mercer (Laughingsky) * Tue, Feb 1, 2000 (14:23) * 24 lines
Monstrous Dinosaur Found In Texas
Jan. 7, 2000 -- Texas paleontologists have discovered a hulking giant of a dinosaur with a neck more than 30 feet long and a vertebra weighing up to 1,200 pounds. The researchers say the fossil is probably by far the largest dinosaur ever found in the Lone Star State.
"This thing is just bloody enormous," says Homer Montgomery, a paleontologist at the University of Texas at Dallas, who along with his students found the creature in a wilderness area of South Texas’ Big Bend National Park last fall.
Montgomery and his team were able to haul out the two smallest cervical, or neck, vertebrae -- one weighing 367 pounds and the other 470 pounds -- by hand before leaving the dig for the winter.
Most of the creature remains in the ground near an established bone bed full of juvenile Alamosaurus remains dating to the Late Cretaceous, only a few million years before dinosaurs died out.
Alamosaurus, part of a dinosaur family known as titanosaurs, was the last of the long-necked dinosaurs called sauropods to roam North America, but is so far known only from scattered and broken remains. The 23-foot length of the new dinosaur’s neck may represent the largest intact section of the largest Alamosaurus ever found.
But its monstrous dimensions also suggest that it could be an entirely new species that exceeds the accepted 70-foot length of Alamosaurus adults by some 30 feet, Montgomery says.
"We know so little about this dinosaur that any find is important and something this large is doubly so," says Tony Fiorillo, a paleontologist at the Dallas Museum of Natural History who has also worked in Big Bend.
Montgomery plans to return to the remote desert site in February to remove more of the 10 vertebrae his team has already exposed and to excavate ribs and other bones protruding from the ground.
As the largest of the vertebrae measures more than five feet across and weighs about 1,200 pounds, a helicopter may eventually have to airlift the ancient creature out of the wilderness, says National Park Service geologist Don Corrick.
By Michael Milstein, Discovery News Brief
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 16 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Tue, Feb 1, 2000 (15:19) * 3 lines
Wow! Annette - didya see my wallpaper? It's back! Now I gotta go into the deep stuff and change the addresses for the other graphics...sigh...Maybe I better copy the information to file just in case. I'd hate to lose the entire conference in the configuring tweaking...!
Why am I not surprised that the mystery dinosaur was found in Texas?! It has to be the biggest baddest dino ever! Thanks for posting that.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 17 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Tue, Feb 1, 2000 (15:22) * 1 lines
Guess we gotta "remember the Alamosaurus," now?!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 18 of 378: Annette Mercer (Laughingsky) * Wed, Feb 2, 2000 (09:21) * 3 lines
LOL, an Alamosaurus, indeed! ;-)
Wallpaper looks great - definitely save those files! Those are good conversations, as well as good reference material! :)
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 19 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Feb 2, 2000 (13:05) * 1 lines
I save files of all topics which amuse and/or interest me...including your and my Screwed topics!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 20 of 378: Annette Mercer (Laughingsky) * Thu, Feb 3, 2000 (09:31) * 1 lines
THOSE files could actually be used as "evidence"...! (*snickering)
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 21 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Feb 3, 2000 (13:47) * 1 lines
Uhoh! shall I eat them? Hide them? hmmm... surely not as evidence of higher intelligence on Earth...*lol*
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 22 of 378: Annette Mercer (Laughingsky) * Fri, Feb 4, 2000 (13:48) * 5 lines
(I thought we vowed not to tell THEM about that.....)
(*looking cautiously over each shoulder)
;-)
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 23 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Feb 4, 2000 (18:41) * 1 lines
....Sshhhhhhhh..... GULP! All gone!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 24 of 378: Annette Mercer (Laughingsky) * Fri, Feb 4, 2000 (20:04) * 3 lines
Whew....!
I can breathe, again...
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 25 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Feb 4, 2000 (21:55) * 1 lines
Those coprolite-flavored files were a little hard (*grin*) to swallow! Let's try a different flavor next time...!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 26 of 378: Annette Mercer (Laughingsky) * Sat, Feb 5, 2000 (03:53) * 1 lines
LOL...ooooh, you're a reeeaal tough one, indeed!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 27 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Feb 5, 2000 (11:50) * 80 lines
Thanks, Annette, for sending this to me (via a different link, but this one posts better *grin*)
State Fossils
1. Alabama - archaeocete whale, Basilosaurus cetoides, Eocene
2. Alaska - woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, Pleistocene
3. Arkansas - none
4. Arizona - petrified wood, Araucarioxylon arizonicum, Triassic
5. California - sabertooth cat, Smilodon fatalis, Pleistocene
6. Colorado - dinosaur, Stegosaurus stenops, Jurassic
7. Connecticut - gigantic, three-toed dinosaur track,
Eubrontes giganteus, Triassic
8. Delaware - belemnite (cephalopod), Belemnite americana,
Cretaceous
9. Florida - sea urchin, Eupatagus antillarum, Eocene
(State Stone - agatized coral)
10. Georgia - shark's tooth, genus and species unspecified, Tertiary
11. Hawaii - none
12. Kansas - none
13. Idaho - Hagerman Horse Fossil, Equus simplicidens
(originally described as Plesippus shoshonensis), Pliocene
14. Illinois - Tully Monster, Tullimonstrum gregarium, Carboniferous
15. Indiana - none (crinoid did not survive legislative review)
16. Iowa - crinoid, genus, species unspecified, Upper Paleozoic
17. Kentucky - brachiopod, genus and species unspecified, Paleozoic
18. Louisiana - petrified palmwood, Palmoxylon sp., Oligocene
19. Maine - early vascular land plant, Pertica quadrifaria, Devonian
20. Maryland - gastropod, Ecphora gardnerae gardnerae, Miocene
21. Massachusetts - dinosaur tracks, genus and species unspecified,
Triassic
22. Michigan (State Stone) - Petoskey Stone, Hexagonaria
percarinata, Devonian
23. Minnesota - none
24. Mississippi - archaeocete whale, Zygorhiza kochii, Eocene
25. Missouri - crinoid, Delocrinus missouriensis, Carboniferous
26. Montana - duck-billed dinosaur, Maiasaura peeblesorum,
Cretaceous
27. Nebraska - mammoth, Mammuthus imperator mailbeni, Pleistocene
28. Nevada - ichthyosaur, Shonisaurus popularis, Triassic
29. New Hampshire - none
30. New Jersey - dinosaur (Hadrosaur), Hadrosaurus foulki,
Cretaceous
31. New Mexico - dinosaur, Coelophysis sp., Triassic
32. New York - eurypterid, Eurypterus remipes, Silurian
33. North Carolina - none
34. North Dakota - Teredo Petrified Wood, Paleocene
35. Ohio - trilobite, Isotelus sp., Ordovician
36. Oklahoma - none
37. Oregon - none
38. Pennsylvania - trilobite, Phacops rana, Devonian
39. Rhode Island - none
40. South Carolina - none
41. South Dakota - dinosaur, Triceratops prorosus, Cretaceous
NOTE: back in 1988 the state fossil was the cycad, Cycadopsida.
42. Tennessee - pelecypod, Pterotrigonia (Scabrotrigonia) thoracica, Cretaceous
43. Texas (State Stone) - petrified palmwood, Palmoxylon sp., Oligocene
State Dinosaur - Brachiosaur Sauropod, Pleurocoelus sp., Cretaceous.
44. Utah - dinosaur, Allosaurus fragilis, Jurassic
45. Vermont - Charlotte, The Vermont Whale (beluga whale),
Delphinapterus leucas, Pleistocene
46. Virginia - pelecypod, Chesapecten jeffersonius, Pliocene
47. Washington - Columbian Mammoth, Mammuthus columbi, Pleistocene
(State Gem - petrified wood, genus and species unspecified, Tertiary)
48. West Virginia (State Gem) - rugose coral, Lithostrotionella sp.,
Mississippian
49. Wisconsin - trilobite, Calymene celebra, Silurian
50. Wyoming -
State Fossil - fresh-water herring, Knightia sp., Eocene
State Dinosaur - dinosaur, Triceratops, Cretaceous
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 28 of 378: Annette Mercer (Laughingsky) * Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (08:15) * 2 lines
Well, Marcia...remember my telling you about that dinosaur dig a few years in possibly (?) the Gobi where they discovered the remains of a "nameforgotten" with the crocodilish-type head and body similar to T-Rex? Just to let you know, it's driving me craaaazy until I find it! LOL, I am still tearing through boxes in the garage, knowing that I would have never thrown anything like that away!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 29 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (13:22) * 2 lines
I am hanging on your every word and sending happy hunting vibes. Indeed, I remember your crocodile-headed wonder. Geez, I though I was the only one with boxes of that stuff I just could never imagine throwing away. If I can ever clear this house of the junk the resident male has stashed, I'm gonna got hrough them and put the articles in marked boxes in categories. and use the former office as my library!!!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 30 of 378: Annette Mercer (laughingsky) * Sun, Feb 13, 2000 (10:45) * 1 lines
LOL, I know the feeling! My resident male used to do the flea-market circuit, so, you can only imagine what the garage looks like!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 31 of 378: World Builder (MarciaH) * Sun, Feb 13, 2000 (14:55) * 1 lines
Gadzooks! Not another flea market male?! Mine closed in my double garage and stacked it to the ceiling with metal shelves. We cannot even move in there, so he built a carport. Same! Built another carport. Alost same but our new car is sharing it...but truck was getting wet so built another separate garage. I said ENOUGH!!! Can't move in there, either, but that will have to do. We also have two vans parked on the lawn...and I do not drive! (Please, I know what I should have done years ago...!)
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 32 of 378: Annette Mercer (laughingsky) * Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (10:36) * 1 lines
Aaaaah, yes - another! I know all about the metals shelves, plus, stacks of LPs, antiques, collectible cards, furniture, old dishes, etc.,etc...heck, there may be a few fossils lying around out there - I just haven't found them, yet! :)
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 33 of 378: World Builder (MarciaH) * Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (13:14) * 1 lines
Might those fossils be old lovers best forgotten? We can make up a good story and pass it off like they did the Piltdown man...*lol*
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 34 of 378: Annette Mercer (laughingsky) * Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (05:14) * 1 lines
Ah, yes - it could work...for a while! There's gotta be a skeleton or petrified something-or-another out there...! Must dig around some more... ;)
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 35 of 378: Gi (patas) * Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (08:13) * 3 lines
Annette and Marcia, you do seem to have a hardtime with your RMs!
I hate clutter. When I moved into my appartment (wot! almost 4 years ago) I got rid of everything I did not truly like. Now I'm thinking I should move again ;-)
The US are so rich in fossils. We also have a couple or so dinossaurs around here, but I've never seen them, and don't even know what they are. One I think is just the footprints.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 36 of 378: World Builder (MarciaH) * Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (11:22) * 3 lines
Oh Gi, there is one little problem.. MY stuff is not the problem. It is House male's clutter! Absolutely! That is why I hole up in the computer corner of the bedroom for refuge!
I heard yesterday that one of the most famous footprints of dinosaurs was man made with a chain saw!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 37 of 378: Gi (patas) * Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (11:38) * 2 lines
Many interesting discoveries turn out to be frauds :-(
I had understood about the clutter being his... What I meant was, sometimes the only way to get rid of it is to move house!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 38 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (12:58) * 1 lines
...or move out the clutterer. I am considering it.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 39 of 378: Annette Mercer (laughingsky) * Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (05:16) * 2 lines
LOL, I'm just afraid of going out to the garage and becoming on of those lost fossils, myself!
("Last time we saw her, she was going out there to find a lost family member...")
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 40 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (12:05) * 1 lines
Yup! Know exactly what you mean. Even if I left a trail of bread crumbs, string or styrofoam packing thingies to help me find my way back, I am sure there is a monster living in there with the sole purpose of grabbing me and holding me inert for all time - sorta like Medusa.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 41 of 378: Cheryl (CherylB) * Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (17:39) * 1 lines
Marcia is your significant other the one who keeps everything in the garage but the car?
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 42 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (18:11) * 1 lines
YUP! Make that IO Insignificant Other, or OO Obsessive Other (the one I prefer as the O'O is an extinct Hawaiian bird - a striking similarity, actually!)
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 43 of 378: Wolf (wolf) * Fri, Mar 3, 2000 (20:01) * 1 lines
well, the AM in my lair likes to grab stuff off of garbage piles and fix them up. he's actually good at it except for a couple of barbecue grills out back. (he gives them away when he gets them running again-stuff like lawn mowers and weedeaters)....
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 44 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Mar 3, 2000 (20:24) * 1 lines
Gads, yes! But for every one he gives away there are 3 waiting for a part off another salvage one which never seems to appear. *sigh*
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 45 of 378: Wolf (wolf) * Fri, Mar 3, 2000 (20:32) * 1 lines
been there, done that, no t-shirt :(
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 46 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Mar 3, 2000 (20:38) * 1 lines
WAaaaaaaaaaa! Me too...=(
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 47 of 378: Wolf (wolf) * Fri, Mar 3, 2000 (21:07) * 9 lines
ok, i've got two fossils (or rocks with impressions on them):
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 48 of 378: Wolf (wolf) * Fri, Mar 3, 2000 (21:09) * 1 lines
i've got all sides of the cylindrical fossil....
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 49 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Mar 3, 2000 (21:18) * 1 lines
Thanks for the end-on shot of the columnar fossil. Too big for a crinoid...is it? It looks like a tiny palm tree truck the way the leaf scars appear in the top picture. Don't know...went to get my fossil book and found my Welsh Dictionary. *sigh* Do you have any idea what they are (were)? The on on the top right looks like a bivalve. A clam of some sort...
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 50 of 378: Wolf (wolf) * Fri, Mar 3, 2000 (21:21) * 1 lines
the column fossil looks like the inside of a mushroom (if you look inside it). and the measurements were in cm...don't know what a crinoid is!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 51 of 378: Wolf (wolf) * Fri, Mar 3, 2000 (21:42) * 3 lines
fossil collections:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/8147/
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 52 of 378: Wolf (wolf) * Fri, Mar 3, 2000 (21:47) * 1 lines
i dunno, marcia, the pictures at http://bcrc.bio.umass.edu/Crinoid/ don't look anything like the fossil i have.....
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 53 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Mar 3, 2000 (21:53) * 1 lines
These pictures are not very good about the crinoid stems - they are like sea anemones (animals) but are called sea lilies. The stems look like a stack of Smarties. All of their pictures show only head of the animal where the frond-like appendages wave in the water catching plancton for food.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 54 of 378: Wolf (wolf) * Fri, Mar 3, 2000 (21:55) * 1 lines
i know...the picture of the living ones looked like centipedes......
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 55 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Mar 3, 2000 (23:41) * 1 lines
Wow...that is a change. The ancient ones looked like tiny palm trees with a long stalk standing upright and feathery "arms" at the end collecting food by waving in the current like a tree in the breeze.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 56 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, May 12, 2000 (18:49) * 26 lines
Morocco finds 65-million-year-old reptile bones
RABAT, May 12 (Reuters) - Moroccan experts have discovered
remains of a 65-million-year-old reptile species about 200 kms
(125 miles) south of Rabat, an official said on Friday.
"On May 5 (they) found three skeletons of what was identified as
the mesosaurus species in the phosphates-rich area of
Khouribga," the mines ministry official told Reuters.
Ministry experts were alerted by local farmers in the village of
Oulad Bouali, near Khouribga, who reported having unearthed
"strange skeletons", he said.
"It is apparently the first time that this kind of species has been
found in Morocco. According to the first estimate, these
skeletons date back around 65 million years ... A scientific
analysis and assessment of this discovery will be announced
later this year."
The authoritative newspaper Liberation said a group of French
experts had joined the Moroccan researchers to help pin down
"the age and nature of these species".
Mesosaurus were early reptiles dating back up to 250 million
years. An slim, aquatic animal about one metre (3.3 feet) long, it
lived in freshwater lakes and ponds.
Khouribga is located in a basin that millions of years ago was
covered by Atlantic Ocean waters, which created a fertile
environment for such reptile species, experts said.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 57 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Mon, May 15, 2000 (13:02) * 10 lines
Hominids in Europe - Pre-humans go out of Africa.
Three skull dug from under a medieval town in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia and dating back 1.7 million years may represent the first pre-humans who migrated out of Africa and into Europe, researchers said on Thursday.The skulls look like those of early humans who lived in East Africa at the same time, and a wealth of tools found at the site look like tools made by the African pre-humans.
Previously Thought Too Primitive This is surprising because archaeologists had
believed the species of hominid, called Homo ergaster, was too primitive to have made the long and difficult journey from African savanna to the challenging terrain of Europe. “These constitute the first well-documented humans that came out of Africa,” Reid Ferring, a geologist and archaeologist at the University of
North Texas at Denton who worked on the study, said in a telephone interview. “We suggest that these hominids may represent the same species that initially dispersed from Africa and from which the Asian branch of H. erectus was derived,” the team of U.S., Georgian, French and German scientists wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.
The rest of the story is available at
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/hominid_caucasus000512.html
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 58 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, May 24, 2000 (23:36) * 59 lines
Hunting Prehistoric Hurricanes
Storm-tossed sand offers a record of ancient cyclones
By J. Travis
to better look forward, investigators have decided to look
further back in time. As part of a fledgling discipline called
paleotempestology, they've begun to search for signs of
hurricanes that predate recorded history.
At the forefront of this effort is Kam-biu Liu of Louisiana State
University in Baton Rouge. By unearthing sand layers
deposited by massive hurricanes in coastal lakes and
marshes, his research group has identified storms that have
struck the U.S. coast over the past 5,000 years. In February,
Liu described his results at the annual meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in
Washington, D.C.
"It's the first time we've been able to peer back before the
historical record to see how hurricanes vary in time," says
Kerry A. Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, who would like to use such data to test whether
the anticipated global warming will increase the number of
severe hurricanes.
Scientists aren't alone in taking an interest in
paleotempestology. Most of the field's funding comes from the
Risk Prediction Initiative, an effort bankrolled by insurance
companies in need of better data with which to predict the
odds of a severe hurricane landfall in a specific region.
Considering that category 4 and 5 hurricanes can cause
billions of dollars in damage, the future of these insurance
companies may rest on the accuracy of their estimates.
Paleotempestology "is a nice scientific challenge, but it's
[also] got a very practical outcome," notes Thompson Webb III
of Brown University in Providence, R.I., who has conducted
work similar to Liu's.
When the category 4 hurricane ripped through Galveston in
1900, wind and rain alone produced significant damage and
some loss of life. But as in many such tempests, the real killer
was the flooding by the storm surge. Hurricane winds blowing
over shallows near a coastline can raise up a dome of salt
water 50 to 100 miles across. This storm surge can send up
to 25 feet of water into the region where a hurricane makes
landfall.
If a lake or marsh sits not far from the coast, the storm surge
may also leave an enduring imprint of the hurricane. Sand
from the ocean floor or beach can be thrown inland with the
water, eventually settling to the bottom of the lakes or marshes
in a discernible sediment layer that records the storm's
impact.
More of the story at http://www.sciencenews.org/20000520/bob2.asp
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 59 of 378: anne hale (ommin) * Thu, May 25, 2000 (07:09) * 1 lines
okay which is you Marcia?
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 60 of 378: anne hale (ommin) * Thu, May 25, 2000 (07:09) * 1 lines
okay which is you Marcia?
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 61 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, May 25, 2000 (13:33) * 1 lines
The one in the white shirt.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 62 of 378: Maggie (sociolingo) * Sat, May 27, 2000 (05:17) * 1 lines
I think I must still be asleep - where's the pic marcia?
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 63 of 378: Maggie (sociolingo) * Sat, May 27, 2000 (05:18) * 1 lines
oops - is that the one you sent me?
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 64 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, May 27, 2000 (13:49) * 1 lines
Yup - but it is also in the Travel conference in the Hawaii topic...where you and Terry were wandering around Hilo. Wouldn't it be fun to bump into you on your perigrinations?! (Virtual bumping is not as satisfying, somehow...)
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 65 of 378: Maggie (sociolingo) * Sat, May 27, 2000 (15:31) * 1 lines
You never know ....
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 66 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, May 27, 2000 (16:58) * 1 lines
...this is true...and I might bump into someone who lives even closer - not at all out of the realm of possibility....
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 67 of 378: Maggie (sociolingo) * Sat, May 27, 2000 (17:21) * 1 lines
Hmmmm *severe look* *grin*
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 68 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, May 27, 2000 (18:30) * 1 lines
*laugh* He is still at his computer - rest easy. Did you check the most recent post in Geo 2. it is amamzing and terrifying at the same time!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 69 of 378: Maggie (sociolingo) * Sun, May 28, 2000 (06:56) * 1 lines
on my way ...
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 70 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (19:29) * 42 lines
Science News Online - Week of June 17, 2000; Vol. 157, No. 25
Neandertals' diet put meat in their bones
B. Bower
Neandertals' bones preserve a
story of their consuming passion
for flesh. Telltale chemicals in
two fossils now portray
Neandertals as avid meat eaters
who hunted often and skillfully.
Neandertals lived in Europe and
the Middle East from about
130,000 to 28,000 years ago.
The new information counters a
theory that they mainly
scavenged scraps of meat from
abandoned carcasses, says a
team led by archaeologist
Michael P. Richards of the
University of Oxford in England.
"Our findings provide conclusive proof that European
Neandertals were top-level carnivores who lived on a diet of
mainly hunted animal meat," contends team member Fred H.
Smith, an anthropologist at Northern Illinois University in
DeKalb.
Richards' group analyzed the proportions of stable forms of
carbon and nitrogen in bone samples from a Neandertal jaw
and skull fragment. A preponderance of carbon signals heavy
consumption of plants in the last few years of an organism's
life; nitrogen's dominance betrays intense meat eating. The
finds came from a 28,000-year-old Croatian cave (SN:
10/30/99, p. 277).
More...http://www.sciencenews.org/20000617/fob4.asp
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 71 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (20:40) * 69 lines
Fossil insects in rocks
By Xavier Martínez-Delclòs & Ed Jarzembowski
The fossil record of insects contrary to what we think, is abundant
and very diverse. If outcrops with fossil insects are rare compared
to those with other kinds of invertebrates, especially marine ones,
then they compensate by yielding large number of specimens and taxa.
The fossil insects are often well preserved and articulated, allowing
morphological comparisons with Recent forms, adoption of the same
systematic system, and inclusion in phylogenetic studies.
Fossil insects also occur as disarticulated remains, especially
wings, and various trace fossilsrecording ancient activity. In the
fossil record we have feeding traces (on leaves), colonial structures
such as termite nests and combs, galls, burrows etc. In the same
outcrops, insects can be found from different habitats, both aquatic
and terrestrial.
There is also evidence of palaeobiological associations such as
symbiosis, parasitism, commensalism, phoretic associations, and
examples of co-evolution.
The earliest reference to fossil insects is by Gaius Plinius Secundus
- Pliny the Elder (24-79 B.C.). In his work Naturalis Historia, he
described amber and the insect inclusions in it. In this period
another writer, Marcus Valerius Martalis (40-104 BC) poetically
described the occurrence of fossil insect inclusions.
HOW INSECTS FOSSILISE: factors which favour the preservation of
fossil insects.
Insects, because of their delicate exoskeleton, have usually been
considered by palaeontologist as soft bodied organisms! This is true
for example of some holometabolous larvae but it is not a good
description of the exoskeleton of common adult beetles (Coleoptera).
Nevertheless, if we compare insect preservation with invertebrates
possessing hard, mineralised exoskeletons, then insects need some
special conditions for fossilisation.
As always in the fossil record, the chances of preservation are
directly related to the degree of mineralization of the skeleton: in
insect, the sclerotisation or hardness of the exoskeleton is
significant. For this reason, we often find isolated parts such as
tegmina of cockroaches and elytra of beetles at outcrop. Chitin, one
of the principal compounds of the insect's cuticle, is one of the
most abundant biopolymers on Earth, it is more resistant to
degradation than protein, for example, but it is rarely preserved in
the fossil record. Usually, during diagenesis, chitin is transformed
to other organic compounds.
Another factor that favours the preservation of insect remains is
those individuals that lived in habitats close to or forming part of
the sedimentary palaeoenvironment such as lakes or lagoons; in the
case of amber, those insects living around resin-producing trees. It
is worth noting that, in terrestrial strata, the preservation of
chitin is more likely than in marine deposits (Stankiewicz et al.,
1998).
Insects are often found in rocks formed in lakes because they either
live in them, e.g. mayfly and dragonfly nymphs, adults of aquatic
heteropterans and coleopterans, or around the lake (terrestrial
insects) e.g. in the Lower Cretaceous of Montsec (Spain). Sometimes,
it is possible to find insects in lagoons or marine sediments, for
example in the Upper Jurassic of Solhnofen (Germany) where marine
animals such as the horseshoe crab (Limulus) and jellyfish occur with
terrestrial insects. In such cases, insects have been transported
into the depositional environment.
More at...http://www.ub.es/dpep/meganeura/52inrocks.htm
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 72 of 378: Ian Greenwood (judgedred) * Mon, Jul 31, 2000 (17:40) * 1 lines
A new convert to Geology, I have spent a weekend collecting fossil Trilobites, Graptolites and Tentaculites in Shropshire, England. They are all contained in mudstones which flake to dust as you touch them. Can anyone give me any ideas on how to preserve these fossils, is varnish a suitable coating?
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 73 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Tue, Aug 1, 2000 (00:12) * 2 lines
Let me check my sources and get back to you tomorrow (most of them are in the middle of the night at this hour in the US). I am delighted you found such lovely fossils. I am more than a little bit envious! Welcome to Paleo and Geo.
Aloha Ian!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 74 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Aug 2, 2000 (17:25) * 9 lines
Ian, here is what I found doing a http://www.google.com search for "preserving fossils"
http://www.museums.org.za/sam/resource/palaeo/cluver/collecti.htm
This site mentions fast-setting glues.
http://www.anatomy.usyd.edu.au/danny/anthropology/sci.anthropology.paleo/archive/september-1995/0166.html
This site contains a discussion with threads at the bottom you might wish to follow.
In a pinch, I'd suggest you try (on some isignificant one)placing the specimen on a coffee can lid or other heavy plastic from which you can peel the hardened fossil later, then pouring come colorless (clear) acryllic nail polish over the fossil. Do not try to brush it on. Let dry till thoroughly hardened. There are casting epoxies and acryllics available in hobby and craft stores. You might try there for suggestions. Let us know what works!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 75 of 378: Cocco (Coccosteus) * Sun, Aug 6, 2000 (14:21) * 5 lines
Hello there!
I'm looking for news about Suchomimus. I did read about it and it said that it looked like "a huge Baryonyx" anything new about?
I'd like to know too, about the true use of Smilodon fangs... tool or weapon?
One more thing: Were were the Sinopa fossiles found?
Thanx ;)
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 76 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sun, Aug 6, 2000 (17:38) * 1 lines
Thank you for posting such challenging questions. In the absence of anyone else looking into the answers, I shall now go hunting. My favorite thing to to (well, one of them, anyway!) Again, thank you for posting, Cocco, and Welcome to Geo!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 77 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sun, Aug 6, 2000 (17:57) * 18 lines
http://dinosaur.uchicago.edu/Suchomimus.html
The illustration of suchomimus on the left was drawn by Dr.
Sereno; dinosaur artist Micheal Skrepnik created the fleshed
out version on the right,
"Crocodile mimic from theTénéré"
Long, narrow snout for catching fish
Discovered in Niger
Fossils 100 million years old
36 feet long, 12 feet high
Predator
Was this what you were looking for???
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 78 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sun, Aug 6, 2000 (18:22) * 5 lines
The image on the right:
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 79 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sun, Aug 6, 2000 (19:11) * 1 lines
Still working on the Sinopa Fossils. A google search came up empty but I am determined. Interesting about the fangs...still workingon that too. *hugs*
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 80 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sun, Aug 6, 2000 (21:12) * 19 lines
More on your Alligator - saur (might we post one of your sketches of same here??)
http://www.prehistorics.com/suchomimus.htm
With a face like that, it would have to be a "crocodile mimic".
Suchomimus was discovered in the Tenere Desert of the west-central African country of Niger. Africa is a continent that is poorly understood in terms of dinosaur evolution. But this discovery along with Spinosaurus from Egypt in 1915, and Baryonix from England in 1983, have helped piece together a
picture of the therapod group Spinosauridae.
The skull features of Suchomimus point to a snatch and secure hunting style. Eating slippery prey items such as fish, large eels or something we just do not know of yet.
The head was very narrow and filled with about a hundred small conical shaped teeth, much like a crocodile. This kind of tooth shape is good for puncturing and gripping as opposed to tearing. It also
helps that the upper and lower teeth meshed together squarely to hold prey firmly once grabbed . The skull also has a hard palate separating the mouth from the nasal passages helping to reinforce the narrow skull from stress forces created by struggling prey and head shaking. Suchomimus also probably had a large gular or throat pouch, perhaps similar to what pelicans have, that expanded to hold large fish just prior to being swallowed head first, considering the narrowness of the jaws.
Suchomimus was found in rocks about a hundred million years old, putting it in the lower Cretaceous period. The skeleton was 36 feet long and is not considered to be full grown. The humerus, radius and ulna (arm bones) had very large flaring crests, especially at the elbow joint, which served as attachment sites for obviously huge muscles. The fingers were tipped with equally massive claws: The thumb claw alone was 16 inches long! These arms must have played an important role in grappling prey. Perhaps the arms helped to tear off huge chunks from prey that was too large to swallow whole.
Suchomimus was obviously powerful enough to subdue large animals.
Another curious feature were the tall neural spines of the vertebrae. Their function is open to speculation. see the page on Acrocanthosaurus for more discussion on these strange vertebrae.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 81 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Aug 10, 2000 (01:57) * 20 lines
Concerning the SINOPA fossils, this from
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/8/0,5716,28288+1+27844,00.html
Creodonta
order of extinct, primitive carnivores first found as fossils in early Tertiary deposits of Mongolia (the Tertiary Period lasted from 66.4 to 1.6 million years ago). The creodonts
evolved from Late Cretaceous mammals (the Deltatheridia), became the early
dominant carnivores, and reached the peak of their number and diversity during the
Eocene Epoch (between 57.8 and 36.6 million years ago). The creodonts retained
numerous archaic traits. The brain was small and primitive, and the skull was relatively
long and low. Prominent crests present on the skull served for the attachment of
well-developed chewing muscles. Two main families are distinguished: the Oxyaenidae
and the Hyaenodontidae. The oxyaenids, long-bodied, weasel-like animals with short
legs, first appeared during the late Paleocene Epoch (more than 57.8 million years
ago) and were extinct by the end of the Eocene Epoch. The hyaenodonts were more
diverse and abundant than the oxyaenids and had proportionately longer limbs. Some
forms grew to large size and paralleled the evolution of later, more advanced
carnivores, including the sabre-toothed cats. The hyaenodonts were active predators
and persisted much later than the oxyaenids. Some were able to compete with the
true carnivores and survived into the late Tertiary. Well-known genera of hyaenodonts include Sinopa and Hyaenodon.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 82 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Aug 10, 2000 (02:07) * 43 lines
Regarding the SMILODON
http://www.lam.mus.ca.us/cats/encyclo/smilodon/
Saber -toothed Cat
Smilodon fatalis
Size: The saber-toothed cat was the size of the modern
African lion.
Habitat: Probably lived on grassy plains and in open
woodland.
Primary prey: The saber-toothed cat probably
killed prey larger than themselves, such as ancient horses and buffalo but may have also taken smaller animals like
antelope and deer. They may also have eaten carrion .
Conservation Status: Became extinct around 11,000 years ago.
Distribution: North America and South America.
Notable Features: Of all the animals known from Rancho La Brea, the saber-toothed cat, sometimes called
the saber toothed tiger, most vividly captures the imagination. It has been named the state fossil of California.
Bones from nearly 2,000 individuals have been recovered from Rancho La Brea.
Although the saber-toothed cat has no close living relatives, paleontologists reconstruct how the saber-toothed cat
looked by comparing its bones with those of large cats living today. Very powerful front legs and a short tail
indicate that saber-toothed cats used stealth and ambush rather than speed to capture their prey.
Recent investigations suggest that the saber toothed cat probably used its long canines to bite open the soft belly of its prey.
Some fossils show healed injuries or diseases that would have crippled the
animal. Some paleontologists see this as evidence that saber-toothed cats were
social animals, living and hunting in packs that provided food for old and sick
members.
Two different types of saber-toothed cats lived in the Americas 12,000 years ago. One type was the
familiarSmilodon fatalis, discussed above. The second type was the Scimitar Cat (Homotherium serum). Both
cats had enlarged canine teeth although the canines of the Scimitar cat were shorter, about 4 inches compared to
Smilodon's seven inch canines. Some of the differences can be seen by comparing a photo of the skull of the
Smilodon (image courtesy of the U.C. Berkeley Museum of Paleontology) with that of a drawing of a Scimitar Cat
(image courtesy of the The Illinois State Museum).
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 83 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Aug 10, 2000 (02:14) * 4 lines
Do my posting cover your questions? If so, send me on another chase for information since that is how I learn, too. If not, I will hunt further for your information. Again, Thank you for sharing your interests in fossils. If all else fails you can check this url to see what Coccosteus really looks like!
I just might post it if you do not have a sketch of it for me to post...
http://www.personal.u-net.com/~paleomod/p97/g-cocco.htm
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 84 of 378: Maggie (sociolingo) * Wed, Sep 6, 2000 (11:48) * 8 lines
Wednesday September 6 7:56 AM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000906/sc/india_fossil_dc_1.html
Prehistoric Elephant Fossil Discovered in Kashmir
GALLANDER, India (Reuters) - Geologists in Indian-administered Kashmir said Wednesday they had excavated a 50,000-year-old elephant fossil, the first of its kind to be discovered in the Himalayan valley.``Our team of experts is working on it and in a few days we will reveal the proper details. Not only in Kashmir...it must be the largest ever known in the world,'' said G.M. Bhat, a teacher in the Geology and Geophysics Department of Kashmir University.
He said the fossil showed a skull five feet by four feet with complete lower and upper jaws, a broken tusk two feet and nine inches long and a vertebra.
The fossil was found after four days of excavation at Gallander near saffron fields nine miles south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir state.``Its age we think is about 50,000 years, and the basis of our claim are rocks above this (fossil) which have been carbon dated approximately 50,000 years back,'' local geologist Abdul Majid Dar said. He added that a search for other parts of the fossil was on.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 85 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Sep 7, 2000 (17:07) * 1 lines
Fossil Elephant? Not Spanish? I had no idea elephants as we know them had ever been fossilized. I learned even more today. I like that! Thanks, Maggie, luv!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 86 of 378: Maggie (sociolingo) * Thu, Sep 7, 2000 (17:15) * 1 lines
I try, I try ......anything to give you a smile....
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 87 of 378: Maggie (sociolingo) * Thu, Sep 7, 2000 (17:27) * 20 lines
West Runton Elephant Project
http://www.zagni.co.uk/elephant.htm
(I can't find a date on the site for this posting....site updated 1999)
One of the major events to happen in Norfolk in recent years has been the discovery of the oldest and largest fossil elephant skeleton ever to be found in Britain. Heavy seas during the winter of 1990 eroded the cliffs at West Runton and had revealed a tantalising glimpse of large-fossil bones. Part excavations took place in the following years until funds became available to allow a full excavation to take place during 1995. Since then painstaking research and conservation work has been undertaken at the Norfolk Rural Life Museum sited in Gressinghall.
It has been found, from examining the fossilised teeth, that the elephant is an early form of mammoth, Mammuthus Trogontherii. When alive, some 600,000 - 700,000 years ago, the mammoth would have had an estimated height at the shoulder of four meters and weighed an incredible 10 tonnes. To protect the largest fossil piece, the skull and one tusk, the fossils were wrapped in a plaster jacket and a steel frame-work was constructed to minimise damage in transit from the find site to Gressinghall. To allow the conservation work to be undertaken all of the protective materials, including the steel framework, were to be dismantled but this would cause a problem. How could you support such an awkward shape, with an estimated weight of up to 500 kgs, during the conservation work?, and then how could you safely transport the fully conserved piece from Gressinghall to it's final resting place at the Norwich Castle Museum? A further problem also came to light once conservation work started, the bones were not fully f
ssilised! This meant that the bones were in a fragile state much worse than had been anticipated.
Zagni International Freight offered their services in the form of sponsorship to solve this problem. An assessment was made and a highly specialised transit case was designed. The first stage was to provide a base to allow the conserved skull and tusk to be attached to it. Once secured it would be unable to move again due to its fragile state. The weight also formed a problem as it would mean that any movement would have to be made by mechanical means, i.e. a forklift truck or crane. During lifting a normal base would bend slightly which could possibly cause the fossil to crack. Vibrations during handling and subsequent transit to Norwich could also contribute to the possibility that cracking may occur. A highly specialised base was constructed, using heavy timbers and anti-vibration, doughnut-shaped feet, to a total thickness of 33cms/13 inches to ensure minimal risk of cracking. The skull and tusk, encased within its protective plaster jacket and steel framework, had to be raised using four jacks and ste
l bard to allow the base to be slid beneath it. A layer of barrier foil was placed on top of the base to ensure that the likelihood of penetration from moisture of sap contained within the wood, which could cause possible further damage to the fossils, was kept to an absolute minimum. The foil was in turn coated with a layer of heavy duty plastic to protect it from falling debris during the conservation work. The second and final stage is to be undertaken during 2000, when the conservation work has been completed. Wooden sides and a lid will be attached to the base with screws, thus reducing the risk of vibration, protection from the elements and to reduce the risk of damage if accidentally knocked. Zagni International Freight are providing their own vehicles to carry the wooden case and other fossilised remains from Gressinghall to the Norwich Castle Museum. To reduce vibrations from the uneven road surface and from the vehicles engine if stood still a Police escort is to be arranged. Travelling at speeds
s slow as 20mph will potentially cause a traffic hazard and it is intended for the vehicles not to stop until reaching the Castle Museum. As a result, the vehicle will have to be waved through road junctions and traffic lights. We are sure that this will attract a lot of media attention, certainly locally if not nationally, so be sure to keep your eyes and ears open when the time comes.
Further information can be obtained from the Norfolk Museum Website which can be found at
http://www.paston.co.uk/users/ncm/
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 88 of 378: Maggie (sociolingo) * Thu, Sep 7, 2000 (17:29) * 2 lines
Here's the latest report I can find on the West Runton Elephant
http://www.paston.co.uk/users/ncm/elep_now.html
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 89 of 378: Maggie (sociolingo) * Thu, Sep 7, 2000 (17:48) * 36 lines
http://www.geo.tu-freiberg.de/~horna/geoafr/bbb.htm
Africa,
The Paleozoic Era.
The Paleozoic Era consists of the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian periods and includes two major mountain-building episodes. The continent of Africa may be said to have taken shape during the Paleozoic. A glacial period during the Ordovician is evidenced by widespread deposition tillites, which may be seen in southern Morocco, throughout western Africa, and in subequatorial Africa as far south as Namibia. This tillite sequence marks the transition from the end of the Precambrian to the beginning of the Cambrian Period.
Marine fossils of the Cambrian Period (544 to 505 million years ago) are found in southern Morocco, the Western and Mauritanian Sahara, and Namibia. In Egypt and in the Arabian Peninsula, their presence has been revealed by drilling. Elsewhere, they remain unknown.
During the Ordovician Period (505 to 438 million years ago), fossiliferous marine sandstone completely covered northern and western Africa, including the Sahara. The Table Mountain sandstone of South Africa constitutes its only other trace. This period is, in addition, remarkable for broad, large-scale deformation of the African crust, which raised the continental table of the central and western Sahara by approximately 5,000 feet (1,500 metres). Each emergence resulted in the creation of valleys that became flooded when the continent subsided. Toward the end of the period, the Sahara became glaciated, and tillites and sandstones filled the valleys. A complete change of sedimentation characterized the Silurian Period (438 to 408 million years ago); this is indicated by the deposits of graptolitic shales (those containing small fossil colonies of extinct marine animals of uncertain zoological affinity) in the Arabian Peninsula and in northwestern Africa.
Marine fossils of the Devonian Period (408 to 360 million years ago) are found in North Africa and in the Sahara. Traces also have been discovered in parts of Guinea, Ghana, and Arabia, as well as in Gabon; they also occur in the Bokkeveld Series of South Africa. Fossilized plants that include Archaeosigillaria (ancient club mosses) may be traced in formations of the earlier Devonian Period in the Sahara and in South Africa (Witteberg Series).
The Carboniferous Period (360 to 286 million years ago) was marked by the onset of several major tectonic events. Evidence of marine life that existed in the earlier part of this period comes from fossils found in North Africa, the central and western Sahara, and Egypt. During the middle and later parts of the Carboniferous, the Hercynian mountain-building episodes occurred as a result of collision between the North American and African plates. The Mauritanide mountain chain was compressed and folded at this time along the western margin of the West African craton from Morocco to Senegal. Elsewhere, major uplift or subsidence occurred, continuing until the end of the Triassic Period (i.e., about 208 million years ago). These structures were synformal (folded with the strata dipping inward toward a central axis) in the Tindouf and Taoudeni basins of western Algeria, Mauritania, and Mali and antiformal (forming a mountainous spine or dome) at Reguibat in eastern Western Sahara.
The Late Carboniferous Period is represented throughout the Sahara by layers of fossilized plants and sometimes--as in Morocco and Algeria--by seams of coal. Different phenomena may be observed, however, in the region of subequatorial Africa, including the Dwyka tillite, which covers part of South Africa, Namibia, Madagascar, an extensive portion of the Congo Basin, and Gabon. At several places in South Africa, these Dwyka strata are covered by thin marine layers that serve to demarcate the transition from the Carboniferous to the Permian Period and that form the beginning of the great Karoo System.
Marine fossils of the Permian Period (286 to 245 million years ago) are visible in southern Tunisia, in Egypt, in the Arabian Peninsula, on the coasts of Tanzania, and in the Mozambique Channel. Elsewhere, traces of the Permian are of continental rather than marine origin and are included in the Karoo System in South Africa. There, the Lower Permian strata are known as the Ecca Series and are divided into three groups: the Lower Ecca (containing almost 1,000 feet of shales), the Middle Ecca (some 1,650 feet of sandstone, seams of coal, and fossilized plants), and the Upper Ecca (about 650 feet of shales again).
The Upper Permian is represented by the lower part of the Beaufort Series, which continued forming into the Early Triassic Period. The Beaufort Seriesis almost 10,000 feet thick and is famous for its amphibian and reptile fossils; a similar series is also found in the southern Soviet Union. Other Permian formations, not as rich in coal, occur in Zaire, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Madagascar.
The absence of primary marine formations throughout southern Africa should be emphasized. It is not yet known whether this absence is due to a hiatus in deposition or to erosion.
source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 90 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Sep 9, 2000 (16:15) * 3 lines
Marvelous, Maggie!!! Can Spanish fossil elephants be far behind?! With Fossilized mangoes or it does not count (this is a very inside joke with someone too busy using his valuable time online talking privately with me...*sigh*)
Back to studying rather than downloading the entire 80's rock genre from Napster before the big money yanks the privilege from the masses...
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 91 of 378: Maggie (sociolingo) * Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (13:04) * 21 lines
Human Fossils and the Flood
Introduction
Could some fossil human bones and teeth that occur in caves be the remains of people who lived before the flood, who were destroyed in the great catastrophe? It seems unlikely that these cave sites all represent deliberate burials, or that whole races of man actually lived in caves in the past; the deeper recesses of cave systems are generally inhospitable places for man. It also seems implausible to say people kept falling down crevices and potholes, to become trapped inside caves, an explanation sometimes invoked to explain the presence of animal fossils in caves, which often include creatures that do not normally inhabit caves.
Many of the human fossils in European caves are Neanderthal types, a race which has become extinct. These were powerful, muscular people, such as Genesis 6:4 suggests was characteristic of at least some of the races of the antediluvians.
Most accounts of the human fossils mention stone implements associated with the fossil remains, which, if true, seems incompatible with an interpretation of these fossils as those due to drowning and burial in sediments of the flood, but perhaps there are other possible explanations for these objects. One suggestion is that investigators have mistaken naturally broken pebbles and stones of flint for tools worked by man. Dr Chris Stringer of Britain's Natural History Museum is quoted as saying:
"The argument is that these things may not be human artifacts at all. If you look at enough pebbles, you'll see some that look as if they have been artificially shaped." (The Times, 21 June 95, page 16. Cited in Britain's 'Oldest' Man.)
Genesis 4:22 indicates that the use of iron and brass was known to man before the flood, so, from a creationist viewpoint, it would seem that the evolutionary ideas of a "stone age" in man's early history may be simply misguided. Yet there are tribes still around, or that existed until quite recent times, that used primitive "stone age" technology, such as the Australian aborigines.
Some human fossils occur without alleged "tools" associated with them, but occur along with bones of extinct animals, which appears to fit the idea of these being the remains of antediluvian people. Some finds may represent reburials of fossil remains of flood victims. However, probably not all human remains from the caves are those of antediluvian man; some could represent burials of those who died since the flood, as suggested in the story in Genesis 25:9 about the burial of Abraham in a cave in Palestine. Where fossils occur lying in a fetal position, it seems to be a good indication of a deliberate burial.
The table below presents a list of some of the human fossils. Since about 6,000 human fossils are known, this is only a representative sample. In this list, the evolutionary sequence that is usually imposed on the fossil data has been discarded; references to dating schemes and associated implements, etc. have been dropped, as these involve interpretation. Other data that may possibly be appropriate for a proper interpretation may have been omitted. I encourage comments and suggestions for additions to the list and about any further details that may be relevant. I suggest that for a Creationist understanding of the human fossils, one should perhaps start with bare data, stripped of interpretations, (which is sometimes difficult to do) and consider how it may best fit the information God has provided us in Genesis about human origins. This list attempts to present bare facts; the order of fossils listed is roughly that of discovery, not the evolutionary one seen in most text books.
The statements in Genesis 6:1-13 about the conditions in antediluvian times may be helpful for our interpretation of these fossil finds; a possible mechanism by which they came to be buried in the caves is suggested by my disintegration theory of the drift. It is interesting and significant to note how many of the fossils listed below are from caves. I would be interested in hearing about other significant fossils that could be added to the list, and especially about references to the details on particular circumstances of burial of the fossils, as this seems especially relevant to the proper interpretation.
For the rest of this article go to
http://www.sentex.net/~tcc/humfoss.html
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 92 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (21:19) * 1 lines
Oh Maggie!!! Thanks for putting this here. I posted something yesterday when the news first broke - in archy (Geo 17) I think... Fascinating!!! Bob Ballard is a highly-respected scholar and can be trusted. I am delighted he is making this discovery rather than someone with a religious axe to grind!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 93 of 378: Dimday (Coccosteus) * Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (10:56) * 6 lines
Greetings Marcia.
I decided to come again and bother you some more :p
Could you help me with the Coelophysis cranium?
I'm going to make a pic of it, and my books have Coelophysis skeletons, but the detail is not really accurate.
I hope you can help me :)
See you and Thanx!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 94 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (13:42) * 1 lines
Aloha, Cocco! What a delightful surprise to find you posting again. My happiness seeing you here is even more wonderful because you have sent me off on another hunt for an elusive fossil. Your interest and questions are what helps me learn about creatures which are new to me. Thank you...I am off to hunt down some information for you! By the way, perhaps you know this, but all should know that you are NEVER a bother, except in the most delightful sense of the word. *Hugs*
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 95 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (17:26) * 0 lines
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 96 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (17:30) * 35 lines
From: http://www.dallasdino.org/dinoworld/Coelophysis.cfm
Pronunciation:
see-lo-FISE-iss
Translation:
Hollow Form
Also Known As:
Rioarribasaurus
Description:
Carnivore, Bipedal
Order:
Saurischia
Suborder:
Theropoda
Infraorder
Ceratosauria
Micro-order
Family:
Podokesauridae
Height:
4 feet (1.2 meters)
Length:
9 feet (2.7 meters)
Weight:
100 lbs (45.5 kg)
Period:
Late Triassic
Coelophysis was an early theropod that is thought to have lived in family groups and hunted in packs.
Much of what is deduced of Coelophysis behavior is based on the hundreds of well-preserved skeletons
found at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. Coelophysis has recently been renamed "Rioarribasaurus," but
some researchers believe that these are two different animals.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 97 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (17:53) * 5 lines
From: http://www.abc.net.au/dinosaurs/dino_playground/gallery/dried/coelophysis.htm#
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 98 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (19:51) * 11 lines
This URL has great a great Cranial shot on it but takes too long to load to put it here: http://www.geocities.com/jeff_charity/Coelophysis.html
A museum diorama showing several angles of the head and entire body:
http://www.statemuseumpa.org/Paleo/Coelophysis%20Dioramam.htm
http://www.clpgh.org/cmnh/jurassic/fctcoelo.html
Please set me to work again if this is not sufficient for your use. My pleasure is fulfilling requests! Please let me see your interpretation when you are finished (or as you work on it...) - I am most curious! This Coelophysis has a vicious set of teeth!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 99 of 378: Carys (Carys) * Sat, Oct 14, 2000 (13:59) * 1 lines
Great reading! I really have nothing intelligent to contibute to this discussion. But I love reading it.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 100 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Oct 14, 2000 (20:38) * 1 lines
Thanks for being interested and reading - and, most especially, for saying so. My heartiest greetings and warmest hugs to those who pause long enough to appreciate Paleontology. There are not a lot of us around, but those of us who do so are my special treasures.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 101 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Mon, Oct 16, 2000 (17:58) * 7 lines
Per the request on post 93 of this topic, I posted several sources of Coelophysis cranuim images and a few here, as well. True to his word, he not only created the image he wanted, he is allowing me to post it here. He has also said he would do running for me which I will also post as soon as he has completed the artwork. Many thanks, Dimday. You add immeasurable pleasure to
a topic which I also find fascinating.
Coelophysis
(image created by Dimday © )
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 102 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Mon, Oct 16, 2000 (17:59) * 0 lines
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 103 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Mon, Oct 16, 2000 (18:09) * 1 lines
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 104 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Mon, Oct 16, 2000 (18:12) * 3 lines
Mental note: Close embolden brackets before submitting. If you have to post a second time to correct the problem of non-closure, do not delete the post with the closure html and expect it to work, anyway.
Thanks, again Dimday. Your art made my day. I wish I could use the animal fonts here that you sent. Hmmm... thinking of how to do that....
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 105 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (18:47) * 7 lines
The man has done it again. He sent me this one today and it is even more spectacular than the other one to me. Thank you, love!
Coleophysis running
Image by Dimday ©
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 106 of 378: Cheryl (CherylB) * Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (19:10) * 3 lines
Would coleophysis have been a sprinter or run distance?
The art is impressive.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 107 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (19:38) * 3 lines
I would guess a sprinter but with that build, I think he can run until he catches what he wants to eat.
*beaming smiles* that you like his art. He is gifted and you should see the actual art he can create with standard sketching impliments! Now, to convince him...!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 108 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (21:10) * 21 lines
T.Rex Was a Terrifying, But Familiar Predator Says Scientist
By The Independent
October 12, 2000
TYRANNOSAURUS REX, the `king of dinosaurs', was
probably not a rare, terrifying sight. The discovery of five
skeletons in different places this summer suggests that in
the age of the dinosaurs, the building- sized carnivores
were actually a common and still terrifying sight.
The effect of the discovery could be to depress prices of
the skeletons, and to ensure that future finds will be
preserved for scientific examination.
Jack Horner, director of paleontology at the Museum of
the Rockies, Montana, who was the inspiration for the
dinosaur film Jurassic Park, led this summer's team. He
told New Scientist magazine: "They are basically a dime
a dozen."
more... http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/10/10122000/toomanytrex_3134.asp
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 109 of 378: Cheryl (CherylB) * Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (19:50) * 1 lines
A smaller version of Tyrannosaurus Rex was found in Canada several years ago. The skull was CAT scanned to determine if it was a juvenile or an adult. The speciman was determined to have been an adult, even quite old when it died. There were enough differences from T. Rex for it to be classed as a different genus. It was called Nanotyrannus, or pygmy tyrant.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 110 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (20:21) * 1 lines
Fascinating. I did not know that. Gonna see if I can find a representation of the Nanotyrannus...or enough to entice my artist to create one...even though he much prefers things crocodilian...(his representation of self as such will be posted somewhere in Geo. I am still pondering the best place to put him. It must be special, because he is very special to me!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 111 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (21:02) * 11 lines
Only one drawing by someone I do not know and did not like the representation and since I have a far superior artist willing and ready to render sketches for me, I shall hunt further to see what is available. Google.com or google.net (they were smart enough to register both names) came up with only 4 hits, 2 of which were for toys without pictures! Cheryl, can you help find something? How did you hear of this mini-predator of scary appetite?
http://www.starcarver.com/FieldPage2.htm
Recently (during the late 90's) while excavating dinosaur bones in South
Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming, we (paleontologist types) have been finding
teeth that looked like they came from T. rex. However, they are usually too small
to be from an adult T. rex. They have been labeled Albertasaurus, a cousin of
Rexy. The problem with this is there are no Albertasuarus bones found in the Hell
Creek sediments. Now they are considered to be from a much smaller version of
the T. rex called Nanotyrannosaurus rex.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 112 of 378: Cheryl (CherylB) * Sat, Oct 21, 2000 (11:22) * 3 lines
I found out about the little tyrant from television of all places. It was mentioned on an episode of "Nova" on PBS. That particular segment was on carnivorous dinosaurs, so of course T. rex and relatives were prominently mentioned. The funny part was that the Nanotyrannos skull had to be taken to a hospital to be CAT scanned. As mentioned, that was done to determine beyond a doubt that it was an adult specimen.
I'll check to see if there are any good representations of Nanotyrannosaurus rex out there in cyberspace.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 113 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Oct 21, 2000 (14:09) * 1 lines
Thanks! I did the www.google.com search and came up just about empty. Then Altavista...*sigh* Your help is most appreciated!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 114 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Oct 28, 2000 (16:27) * 3 lines
Cheryl outdid me - she came up with an awesome site of great modelling and text I cannot read. However, it is certainly worth a visit. Mahalo, and hugs, Dear!
http://village.infoweb.ne.jp/~kobo/KINRYU/NANO.htm
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 115 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Nov 1, 2000 (21:05) * 18 lines
News item like this scare me - A LOT!!! My precious artist and Paleo enthusiast lives in Barcelona! Awaiting hearing from him so I can breathe again!
Bomb Explodes in Barcelona, Injuring Two-Radio
MADRID (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded in central Barcelona
early on Thursday injuring two people, in an attack that bore
the hallmarks of the Basque separatist group ETA, Spanish state
radio reported.
The blast, which caused substantial damage to buildings in
the area, came two days after a Supreme Court judge, his driver
and bodyguard were killed in a car bombing in Madrid.
There have been no claims of responsibility for either
bombing, but ETA normally waits weeks to do so. The guerrilla
group has been blamed for 19 killings since it called of a 14
month cease-fire last December.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 116 of 378: Cheryl (CherylB) * Tue, Nov 7, 2000 (16:53) * 1 lines
Have you heard any news from Barcelona?
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 117 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (17:58) * 3 lines
Never know where to put Neanderthal material, so I am puttin gthis link here and in Archaeolgy, thanks to Dar of Yahoo's anthropology club. It is a great site and the club is full of informative epople with a passion for the the subject.
http://www.neanderthal-modern.com/index.html
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 118 of 378: Cheryl (CherylB) * Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (13:06) * 1 lines
There are a lot of interesting theories about Neanderthals. One of the more interesting is that they could not interbreed with Cro-Magnons. Of course, there is the theory that they could and did; which resulted in their loosing their distinct identity and being absorbed into the population at large.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 119 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (14:28) * 1 lines
I tend to think that the latter has more going for it than the former. How else to explain some of the throw-backs which tried to date me in college?! (just kidding...)
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 120 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sun, Jan 14, 2001 (19:31) * 73 lines
Claims of Neanderthal-Human Mixing Leave Some Cold
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The out-of-Africa theory is not dead,
anthropologists and other experts said, despite two studies that
challenge the idea we are all descended from a single African "Eve."
U.S. and Australian researchers published two reports that used
physical and genetic evidence to suggest there may have been mixing
of pre-humans with modern species.
They said they had proved wrong the mainstream out-of-Africa theory
-- that the ancestors of all living humans emerged from Africa some
50,000 years ago and either killed off or out-competed all other
human-like creatures who settled across much of the world.
One study used genetic evidence that suggested "Mungo Man" -- an
Australian skeleton dated to between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago --
is genetically unrelated to Africans. The researchers, Gregory Adcock of
Australian National University and colleagues, said their finding showed
the first modern humans evolved in Australia, not Africa.
Another, published in Friday's issue of the journal Science, analyzed
physical features of early human skulls to suggest there must have
been interbreeding among the migrating Africans and resident
Neanderthals and even Homo erectus species of pre-humans.
"There never was a marauding band of Africans," University of Michigan
anthropologist Milford Wolpoff, who led the second study, said in a
telephone interview.
"It certainly means that the "Eve" theory, the replacement theory,
seems to be wrong."
The Australian team and Wolpoff and colleagues belong to the
"multiregionalist" school of human evolution. They believe humans
evolved around the world at roughly the same time, and that they
probably mixed with earlier species such as Neanderthals and Homo
erectus.
The out-of-Africa school says that all earlier humans died out and were
replaced by a small group from Africa who quickly conquered the world.
Some experts say the two theories are not incompatible -- although
they predict a fight over the latest studies.
FINGER-POINTING AND EGOS
"There might be a lot of finger-pointing and name calling and debate
that is more heat than light," said Peter Underhill of Stanford
University, who has published genetic studies that date our common
ancestors to an African man who lived 59,000 years ago and an African
woman who lived 143,000 years ago.
"But I don't think it torpedoes the recent out-of-Africa scenario at all. I
don't think these two papers are going to turn the world of human
evolution on its head."
It does not matter whether early humans mixed or evolved into
"modern" forms in more than one place, Underhill said. The
out-of-Africa theory holds only that one lineage finally held sway, either
through luck, better genes, or a combination of the two.
We are all descended from that lineage, he said. "Everyone on Earth
today is very closely related," he said.
"It might suggest that there was some hybridization with moderns and
possibly other modern lineages that existed 60,000 years ago that are
now extinct, or it is possible there was some kind of hybridization with
some sort of archaic human that lived in the past," Underhill added.
"But no one is walking around so far in Europe with Neanderthal
(genes)."
So if both theories can co-exist, why argue? "Egos, egos, egos,"
Underhill said. "Scientists are human."
Clark Howell, a professor emeritus of human evolution at the University
of California Berkeley, agreed.
"There is a tendency in some instances for some people at some
times ... to jump to very wide, sweeping conclusions," he said. "In my
view these two studies don't upset any apple carts that are known."
In other words, modern humans may have indeed evolved in places
other than Africa. They may even have mated occasionally with
Neanderthals, who did live at the same time and in the same places.
But genetically, they have since died out.
"If we are looking for the ancestry of modern people, where people
alive today came from, where their genes came from -- if there was
such hybridization it is negligible. It is impossible to find today," Chris
Stringer, head of human origins at London's Natural History Museum
and an architect of the out-of-Africa theory, told Britain's Guardian
newspaper.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 121 of 378: Cheryl (CherylB) * Tue, Jan 16, 2001 (18:52) * 1 lines
There was a competing "Eve" theory to the Out-of-Africa hypothosis: being that the female ancestor which modern humans can be traced back to lived in Asia. One of the reasons cited for the lack of success of such a theory is that in the in the world of paleoanthropology, theories which relate to Africa are favored over those pertaining to other parts of the world.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 122 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Tue, Jan 16, 2001 (21:47) * 1 lines
There has been some problem in using mitochondrial DNA as the determinant since it is non-nuclear and less reliable. I think the jury will be out for a long time on the *Eve* theory.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 123 of 378: marshall smyth (marshallsmyth) * Thu, Feb 1, 2001 (22:10) * 1 lines
hi everyone. neanderthals and humans did mix! that's why i am alive.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 124 of 378: marcia's marshall (marshallsmyth) * Thu, Feb 1, 2001 (22:17) * 1 lines
i love marcia!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 125 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Feb 1, 2001 (22:37) * 1 lines
Marshall!!! Welcome and *gasp* Oh my!!! Trust me about this man. He is not a Neanderthal in any sense of the word. I love you, too!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 126 of 378: Cheryl (CherylB) * Mon, Feb 5, 2001 (19:46) * 1 lines
Poor Neanderthals! I thought that more recent research indicated that they have a worse reputation than they deserve.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 127 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Tue, Feb 6, 2001 (20:27) * 8 lines
a little adult humor...
According to archaeologists, for millions of years Neanderthal man was
not fully erect.
That's pretty easy to understand considering how ugly Neanderthal
woman were.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 128 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Tue, Feb 6, 2001 (20:28) * 1 lines
Actually, I rather like Neanderthals - especially the male who is commonly known as the Red Lady of Pavilland - buried with red ochre and flowers. How primitive is THAT?!
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 129 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Feb 8, 2001 (17:12) * 38 lines
from: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/geneticsandevolutionclub
in the 25 january issue of "nature" magazine, page 504 is a description of a new species of dinosaur. most good
libraries carry nature magazine, especially college libraries. i mention this article because i would like everyone to
see how a new species discovered paleontologically is described these days. there is a paragraph in bold at the
beginning often called an "abstract" which is like a summary designed to introduce what the article is about. the title
of the article attempts to catch the eye with as few stringently chosen words as possible. under the title are the
authors names. usually there is more than a single author, the researchers involved. their institutions are stated using
different kinds of semaphores. for new species, a brief partial taxonomy is given, with the name of the discoverer
of the taxon, and when the taxon was discovered. a new taxon has a period of time before various taxonomic and
systematic societies accept it. a description of how the new name came about is given, called etymology. here, one
often hears about greek and latin derivations, but also tribute names of countries, cities, peoples, tribes, and even
names of songs. in this case, the name of an inspiring songwriter. then they describe where the holotype specimen
is, what it consists of. a holotype is the most similar other specimen already known. this is important. then they give
an anatomical account of the actual specimen parts they found, calling these referred specimens. localities and
horizons is next. this involves a geographic description of where the specimen was found, and the geological
description is given. they use terms such as stratigraphic horizon, which makes it quite cool to know something
about geology. geologists have scientific magazines too. also, all through, you will notice that things are given
numbers. parts are numbered. if you have memory to spare, memorize them. if you are like the rest of us, just be
able to recognize the number if it is referred to later in the article. the main part of the article is the description
section. there will be drawings and photographs given captions. usually at least a simplified postulated standard
phylogeny is also given, with a caption. (count the syllables here) stratigraphically calibrated cladogram of
phylogenetic relationships. cladograms are what many who make a postulated phylogeny for a new species, or for a
correction, use. there actually is software that scores the traits, homologs and apomorphies, so that closeness of
relationship can be decided on. i can see that new software will be needed very soon. after the description, the
dates that nature received and accepted the original article is given. this can involve months or years. throughout
the article, reference numbers are given here and there, and a listing of these references is given after the date of
acceptance. these are usually articles from other journals, and sometimes the journals mentioned are the kind that
few scientists can afford, but in our searches, we do find our ways to the information. often, the books and journals
mentioned can be found at your local library, or a local high school science teacher may have them right under his
coffee cup. or her. last, and VERY IMPORTANTLY, the acknowledgements is where the researchers thank
those who helped them in many kinds of ways. sometimes a paleontologist can be a great scientist with a phd, but
he can barely read, and this is true. other times, editing is very important. they write it all out, and it can seem all
jumbled, and an editor cleans it all up. societies that pay for travel and digging expenses, and for electron
microscopes, you name it, are thanked. agencies that gave grants are thanked. lately, an email address is given for
correspondence with one of the authors, or a secretary of their department. marshall smyth
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 130 of 378: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Feb 8, 2001 (17:14) * 1 lines
Sorry I neglected to comment that the above was written by marshall smyth whose time is better spent in creating than copying and pasting.
Topic 7 of 99 [Geo]: Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood
Response 131 of 378: