picture of the day
tetrapodzoology | June 7, 2007
Today's image shows the ever-interesting Maned wolf, the so-called 'fox on stilts' Chrysocyon brachyurus, kindly supplied by Anne-Marie of Pondering Pikaia. Anne-Marie studies these animals for her honors thesis. Maned wolves are well known for being predators of large rodents (like pacas) and similar-sized vertebrate prey, but they consume a surprising amount of plant material, and are particularly fond of the 'fruta da lobo' (hence its name). Often regarded as specialised for the Argentinean pampas, fossils show that they evolved in North America - they are just one of a whole bunch of…
tetrapodzoology | June 5, 2007
When most people (and that includes palaeontologists and dinosaur specialists) think of Brachiosaurus, they think of the east African taxon B. brancai, named by Werner Janensch in 1914. But they shouldn't: the 'real' Brachiosaurus is B. altithorax from the Morrison Formation of Colorado [later reported from Utah, Wyoming and Oklahoma], named by Elmer Riggs in 1903. The two species are actually quite different, leading Greg Paul to coin a new name - Giraffatitan - for the African taxon. This photo, kindly provided by Dr Matt Wedel (aka Dr Vector), shows the mounted B. altithorax skeleton that…
tetrapodzoology | June 5, 2007
Today, a new picture by my good friend Mark Witton, shamelessly stolen from his flickr site. And, yes, it shows the Campanian ceratopsid Styracosaurus albertensis eating a theropod carcass. If you think that the idea of a bristly omnivorous ceratopsid is odd and requires some justification, I will direct you to Mark's accompanying essay. As he admits, he has - for sure - used artistic license... however, both the presence of bristles in these animals, and the possibility of omnivory, do have some reasonable basis to them. I will say no more. Must do horned dinosaurs on the blog some time (…
tetrapodzoology | June 3, 2007
A Chinese goose: the domesticated form of the Swan goose Anser cygnoides (that's right, more than one species of goose has been domesticated: this was always assumed based on morphological features, but was confirmed genetically in a 2006 study [abstract here]). The Swan goose is also the ancestor of the domesticated African goose. Wild swan geese are native to eastern Russia, China and Korea (they used to occur on Japan, but haven't been recorded there since the 1970s, except as rare winter visitors) and have declined severely since the 1950s due to loss of floodplain habitat and human…
tetrapodzoology | June 3, 2007
What the hell, thought I may as well do more books before getting back to animals. Here is part of the 'mostly mammals' section of the library. Dan will be pleased, as there is a Carrington and a Swinton in there. Also L. Harrison Matthews, Hans Hvass, Kingdon, Guggisberg, and C. J. Harris. Spot the Hellboy compilation, Macdonald's The Velvet Claw, Thorburn's Mammals, Alcock and (ahem) Bagemihl. And here is where I went today...
tetrapodzoology | June 2, 2007
Given that it seems to be such an oh-so-fashionable thing to do in the blogosphere, I thought I may as well join the party and post random photos of some of my bookshelves. This collection is in the unsorted/random section of the library... clearly. Note the run of Palaeontology journals, Cogger's Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, Weidensaul's The Ghost With Trembling Wings, Gans' Biomechanics (awesome for amphisbaenians) and Berta & Sumich's Marine Mammals. The tail-tip of our pet roboraptor peeps in at the bottom...
tetrapodzoology | May 31, 2007
Yet another rhino - there is an inadvertent theme going here. This amazing fossil is an embryo of the diceratheriine Subhyracodon occidentalis from Upper Eocene-Lower Oligocene USA (Subhyracodon often went by the name Caenopus in the older rhino literature). Discovered in rocks of the Brule Formation in Wyoming, the baby was (reportedly) not recovered from the body of a mother, but found on its own. Its total length is 76 cm. As an adult, Subhyracodon was a big tridactyl rhino as much as 4 m long. It was hornless, but males possessed paired ridges on their nasal bones. Good news everyone:…
tetrapodzoology | May 30, 2007
The amazing skull of a giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis, courtesy of Mark Witton. This presumably wasn't an old individual (you can clearly see the sutures of most of its bones), nor does it have the enlarged ossicones and general gnarliness of mature males. The specimen also has a low median hump; in mature males this is generally taller and more like a short horn. Note how shockingly gracile and stretched the premaxillae and dentaries are. For a previous Tet Zoo post on giraffes go here. Proper post hopefully coming later today (though not on giraffes).
tetrapodzoology | May 30, 2007
Apologies to all for total lack of proper posts recently - I am just too busy. However, several posts will - in theory - appear very soon, and I hope that they will prove really, really interesting (especially to people interested in our views on the diversity of extant mammals. And please don't try and guess: I'm not telling). The theme for today's picture of the day is, obviously, rhinos.. again. This photo shows a Ceratotherium simum, the animal that (for an as-yet-unknown reason) we call the White rhino (and, no, that stuff about 'white' being a corruption of 'wide', 'wijd', 'weit' or…
tetrapodzoology | May 28, 2007
A not-particularly-realistic model of the Triassic protorosaur Tanystropheus. This animal is best known for its bizarre elongate neck: this consisted of 12 tube-like vertebrae. There wasn't much flexibility between them, which raises the question as to how, and how much, the animal could bend its neck. How it lived is still a mystery and there are several competing ideas. It was not a one-off freak: it was widely distributed across Europe and the Middle East for something like 20 million years, and evolved multiple species that differed in size and proportions.
tetrapodzoology | May 28, 2007
The skull of the immense Pleistocene rhino Elasmotherium sibiricum, with reconstructed horn, as displayed at the Natural History Museum in London. Relatively well known as fossil rhinos go, E. sibiricum is the largest and best known species of the diverse rhinocerotid clade Elasmotheriina. I have a post planned on elasmotheres, it's called 'Giant unicorn rhino and pals', but I don't know when I'll get round to posting it. I have rhinos on my mind at the moment: on Wednesday I'm attending Save the Rhino's Mayday event at the Zoological Society's meeting hall at Regent's Park.
tetrapodzoology | May 26, 2007
This image shows a life-sized restoration of the South American tapejarid pterosaur Tapejara imperator as displayed at the Karlsruhe Museum fur Naturkunde. This remarkable pterosaur was named by Diogenes de Almeida Campos and Alex Kellner in 1997 and is famous for its immense sail-like crest, supported anteriorly by a tall vertical spine. A new generic name for this taxon is in press and due to be published soon. If this 'picture of the day' thing is new to you, check out picture 1 here. I previously blogged about tapejarids and their relatives at ver 1 here.
tetrapodzoology | May 26, 2007
Following a recent phone discussion with Dave Hone of Ask A Biologist, I'm going to try something really lame in a desperate effort to boost my number of hits. Shudder. I am going to start posting a new picture every day. Yes, every day. The pictures might be of anything, so long as they are within the Tet Zoo remit of course. This will not impact the number/quality/timing of those super-lengthy 'proper' posts you all visit for. So here we are with # 1. It features a dromaeosaur coughing up a pellet: a possibility suggested by the discovery of a regurgitalite in Cretaceous rocks from Russia…