Canadians Abroad

Apr. 25, 2013 — The rediscovery of a mystery animal in a museum's underground storeroom proves that a non-native 'big cat' prowled the British countryside at the turn of the last century.

The animal's skeleton and mounted skin was analysed by a multi-disciplinary team of Durham University scientists and fellow researchers at Bristol, Southampton and Aberystwyth universities and found to be a Canadian lynx -- a carnivorous predator more than twice the size of a domestic cat.

A neat little discovery, and a good intro to Darren Naish, one of my favorite science bloggers, who has a much more detailed piece on the discovery here.  Darren's into crytozoology, among other things.  I've written about him before.

Did The Egyptians Trade In Pygmy Mammoths

Palaeozoologist Darren Naish does one of his terrific Cryptozoology posts on the small, hairy, elephanty thingy in the tomb-painting above. Was it a pygmy mammoth from Wrangel Island, one of late surviving-dwarf species from around the Mediterranean, or just bad drawing?

Its Sea Serpent Week!

By day Darren Naish studies giant Pterosaurs and other magnificent prehistoric beasts. By night, he writes the Tetrapod Zoology Blog, which deals with said creatures for the most part but, occasionally, strays into matters cryptozoological. This week Darren is writing a whole series on famous and not-so famous sea serpents!

Go on over and taste the serpenty goodness!

Jurassic Stork Dined On Deano!

If there was a Nobel Prize for Cool, then paleontologist Darren Naish and Paleo-Artist Mark Witton would be awarded it 7-fold. I know Darren best, as a long-time contributor to the dinosaur mailing list, then an intrepid paelo-blogger with a taste for crypto-zoology (who wrote, for example, on "The Monster of Base Naden"), and now as the co-author of an astounding new paper on Azhdarchid Paleobiology.

Azhdarchid's were pterosaurs. In fact they include the largest pterosaurs--standing 2.5 meters tall and with a wing-span of 10 meters. (See picture above left, of Azhdarchid eyeing soft, pathetic human.) To date, however, reconstructing their lifestyle has been difficult:

While azhdarchids have been imagined as vulture-like scavengers, sediment probers, swimmers, waders, aerial predators, or stork-like generalists, most recent authors have regarded them as skim-feeders, trawling their lower jaws through water during flight and seizing aquatic prey from the water's surface.

However, Darren and Mark think that this last, most recent theory is incorrect:

We argue that azhdarchids were stork- or ground hornbill-like generalists, foraging in diverse environments for small animals and carrion.

What kind of "small animals", you ask? Well, as Mr. Witton's image below suggests...

...among their prey were hatchling sauropods! Now, for some scale here, the "babies" in the picture would probably be the size of a Great Dane, and our pterosaurs look to be sucking 'em back like oysters! Slurp! One gulp and gone, no need to even chew! (I think these particular pterosaurs were toothless anyway!)

And the best part? Although Azhdarchids made a living as ground hunters, Darren writes:

Even weighing 250 kg, azhdarchids were capable flyers as demonstrated by estimated wing musculature and planform. There is no reason to assume flightlessness.

Damn! Starts to make this guy sound prophetic! (If you know what I'm talking about, then you are truly a connoisseur of Canadian SciFi.)

Nessie Grudge Match! Naish And Coleman Square Off!

Actually, a friendly exchange. Darren isn't convinced by the photo evidence. Loren isn't sure he isn't convinced. A good time is had by all.

Major Dino Action

I thought I might write about the no less than three major dinosaur-related discoveries that have hit the news over the past week, but then I thought to heck with it! I'll just link to Darren Naish's wonderful Tetrapod Zoology site, because he does this kind of thing much better than I do. Left is a picture of my favorite of the three finds, a nearly complete baby sauropod skeleton. This sucker would have grown up to be as big as a bus.