Toothy 3-foot Piranha Fossil Found

If you thought piranhas were scary, be glad Megapiranha is no longer around.

Megapiranha was up to 3 feet long (1 meter) – a fish-beast four times as big as piranhas living today, studies of its jawbones indicate. It lived about 8 million to 10 million years ago and might have been quite comfortable stalking cartoon animals in an “Ice Age” movie.

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Now a newly uncovered jawbone of a transition species ties all these teeth together. Named Megapiranha paranensis, this previously unknown fossil fish bridges the evolutionary gap between flesh-eating piranhas and their plant-eating cousins.

Here’s what’s known:

Present-day piranhas have a single row of triangular teeth, like the blade on a saw, explained the researchers. Pacu have two rows of square teeth, presumably for crushing fruits and seeds.

“In modern piranhas the teeth are arranged in a single file,” said Wasila Dahdul, a visiting scientist at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in North Carolina. “But in the relatives of piranhas – which tend to be herbivorous fishes – the teeth are in two rows.”

The new fossil shows an intermediate pattern: teeth in a zig-zag row. This suggests that the two rows in pacu were compressed to form a single row in piranhas. “It almost looks like the teeth are migrating from the second row into the first row,” said John Lundberg, curator at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and a co-author of a study of the jawbone.

Prehistoric Reptiles From Russia Possessed The First Modern Ears

The discovery of the first anatomically modern ear in a group of 260 million-year-old fossil reptiles significantly pushes back the date of the origin of an advanced sense of hearing, and suggests the first known adaptations to living in the dark.
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The ability of modern animals to hear a wide range of frequencies, highly important for prey capture, escape, and communication, was long assumed to have only evolved shortly before the origin of dinosaurs, not much longer than 200 million years ago, and therefore comparatively late in vertebrate history.
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But why would these animals have possessed such an ear” “Of course this question cannot be answered with certainty”, explains Müller, “but when we compared these fossils with modern land vertebrates, we recognized that animals with an excellent sense of hearing such as cats, owls, or geckos, are all active at night or under low-light conditions.

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Fossils from two early whales — a male and a rare pregnant female — shed light on how these ancestors to modern whales made the leap from walking on land to ruling the sea.

The fetal remains, found with the 47.5 million-year-old pregnant female, were positioned head down, suggesting these creatures gave birth on land, while spending much of the rest of their time in the water
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The fetal skeleton is the first specimen of the extinct whale group known as Archaeoceti, and the find represents a new species named Maiacetus inuus, a hybrid of the words for “mother whale” and Inuus, the name of a Roman fertility god.

The fetus was positioned head down like other land animals, allowing it to begin breathing right away. This suggests the group had not yet made the leap to giving birth in the water like modern whales, which are born tail first to allow them to start swimming right after birth.

The 8.5-foot (2.59-meter) male, which was collected in the same fossil beds as the female, is about 12 percent bigger and had fangs that were 20 percent larger than those of the female. Gingerich said these well developed choppers suggest the creatures spent a large portion of their time catching and eating fish.

Both fossils had four flipper-like legs that could have supported their weight on land, but only for short distances, suggesting these whales likely came on shore to mate, rest and give birth, Gingerich said.

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Fossils from northeastern Colombia reveal the biggest snake ever discovered: a behemoth that stretched 42 to 45 feet long, reaching more than 2,500 pounds.

“This thing weighs more than a bison and is longer than a city bus,” enthused snake expert Jack Conrad of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who was familiar with the find.

“It could easily eat something the size of a cow. A human would just be toast immediately.”
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Actually, the beast probably munched on ancient relatives of crocodiles in its rainforest home some 58 million to 60 million years ago, he said.

The discoverers of the snake named it Titanoboa cerrejonensis (“ty-TAN-o-BO-ah sare-ah-HONE-en-siss”). That means “titanic boa from Cerrejon,” the region where it was found.

While related to modern boa constrictors, it behaved more like an anaconda and spent almost all its time in the water, Head said. It could slither on land as well as swim.

Conrad, who wasn’t involved in the discovery, called the find “just unbelievable…. It mocks your preconceptions about how big a snake can get.”

Titanoboa breaks the record for snake length by about 11 feet, surpassing a creature that lived about 40 million years ago in Egypt, Head said. Among living snake species, the record holder is an individual python measured at about 30 feet long, which is some 12 to 15 feet shorter than typical Titanoboas, said study co-author Jonathan Bloch.

Animaltronic work of Larry Billings:

CGI work of Michael Napodano:

Official Site
More Info a Undead Backbrain

Thanks to Avery, who I hope avoids any attacking raptors!

Extinct Tasmanian tiger gene brought back to life: scientists

by Lawrence Bartlett Tue May 20, 3:14 AM ET

SYDNEY (AFP) – Scientists said Tuesday they had “resurrected” a gene from the extinct Tasmanian tiger by implanting it in a mouse, raising the future possibility of bringing animals such as dinosaurs back to life.

In what they describe as a world first, researchers from Australian and US universities extracted a gene from a preserved specimen of the doglike marsupial — formally known as a thylacine — and revived it in a mouse embryo.

“This is the first time that DNA from an extinct species has been used to induce a functional response in another living organism,” said research leader Andrew Pask of the University of Melbourne.

The announcement was hailed here as raising the possibility of recreating extinct animals.

Mike Archer, dean of science at the University of New South Wales who led an attempt to clone the thylacine when he was director of the Australian Museum, called it “one very significant step in that direction.”

“I’m personally convinced this is going to happen,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “I’ve got another group working on another extinct Australian animal and we think this is highly probable.”

Pask told AFP in a telephone interview that while recreating extinct animals might be possible one day, it could not be done with the technique his team used on the Tasmanian tiger.

“We can look at the function of one gene within that animal. Most animals have about 30,000 genes,” he said.

“We hope that with advances in techniques that maybe one day that might be possible, but certainly as science stands at the moment, we are not able to do that, unfortunately.

“We’ve now created a technique people can use to look at the function of DNA from any extinct species, so you could use it from mammoth or Neanderthal man or even dinosaurs if there’s some intact DNA there.”

The last known Tasmanian tiger, which took its name from the Australian island and the stripes on its back, died in captivity in the Hobart Zoo in 1936, having been hunted to extinction in the wild in the early 1900s.

Some thylacine pups and adult tissues were preserved in alcohol, however, and the research team used specimens from the Museum Victoria in Melbourne.

“The research team isolated DNA from 100-year-old ethanol-fixed specimens,” the scientists said in a statement.

“After authenticating this DNA as truly thylacine, it was inserted into mouse embryos and its function examined.

“The thylacine DNA was resurrected, showing a function in the developing mouse cartilage, which will later form the bone.”

The results were due to be published in the international scientific journal PLoS ONE on Tuesday.

“This research has enormous potential for many applications including the development of new biomedicines and gaining a better understanding of the biology of extinct animals,” said co-researcher Richard Behringer of the University of Texas.

At a time when extinction rates are increasing the discovery is critical, said senior author Marilyn Renfree of the University of Melbourne.

“For those species that have already become extinct, our method shows that access to their genetic biodiversity may not be completely lost,” she said.

But Renfree also cautioned that the recreation of extinct animals was not the aim of the research.

“Maybe one day this might be possible but it won’t happen in my lifetime,” she told AFP. “It might happen in my children’s lifetime, but there’s so many steps we need to achieve before you could actually make this work.”

The prospect of bringing extinct animals back to life caught the public imagination after Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film “Jurassic Park,” based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton.

In that story, dinosaurs are cloned from genetic material found in mosquitoes that had sucked their blood before becoming preserved in amber. The dinosaurs then wreak havoc.

Parrot Fossil 55 Million Years Old Discovered In Scandinavia

ScienceDaily (May 17, 2008) — Palaeontologists have discovered fossil remains in Scandinavia of parrots dating back 55 million years. Reported May 14 in the journal Palaeontology, the fossils indicate that parrots once flew wild over what is now Norway and Denmark.

Parrots today live only in the tropics and southern hemisphere, but this new research suggests that they first evolved in the North, much earlier than had been thought.

The fossil parrot was discovered on the Isle of Mors in the northwest of Denmark – far from where you’d normally expect to find a parrot. It’s a new species, officially named ‘Mopsitta tanta’. However, already its nick-name is the ‘Danish Blue Parrot’, a term derived from a famous comedy sketch about a ‘Norwegian Blue Parrot’ in the 1970s BBC television programme ‘Monty Python’.

The article goes on to explain the Monty Python Show for a long time. Seriously, a LOOOOOONG time. Science writers suck.

Ecosystem Remodelling Among Vertebrates During The Permian-Triassic Extinction

ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2004) — The biggest mass extinction of all time happened 251 million years ago, at the Permian-Triassic boundary. Virtually all of life was wiped out, but the pattern of how life was killed off on land has been mysterious until now. A team from Bristol University and Saratov University, Russia, have now laid the evidence bare.

The Bristol and Russian researchers have documented the event in Russia after looking at 675 specimens of amphibians and reptiles from 289 areas spanning 13 successive geological time zones in the South Urals basin. The study will be reported in Nature Thursday, November 4.

The mass extinction at the Permian-Triassic boundary is accepted as the most profound loss of life on record. Records indicate a loss of 50 per cent of animal groups or more, in both sea and on land, with a loss of 80 to 96 per cent of species. Local and regional-scale studies of marine specimen confirm the loss, but the terrestrial record has been harder to analyse in such close detail.

There was a profound loss of animal groups, and simplification of ecosystems, with the loss of small fish eaters and insect eaters, medium and large herbivores and large carnivores. Plant life also changed, from high rates of turnover through the Late Permian period to greater stability at low diversity through the Early Triassic period. Even after 15 million years of ecosystem rebuilding, some groups were still absent—small fish eaters, small insect eaters, large herbivores and top carnivores.

The end-Permian mass extinction is now thought to have been caused by gigantic volcanic eruptions, which triggered a runaway greenhouse effect and nearly put an end to life on earth.

Mike Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at Bristol University, said: “At the end of the Permian there was a high turnover in animal families on land however these were largely destroyed by the Permian-Triassic extinction. However, after that the animal groups recovered slowly and diversity gradually increased.”

Ecosystem remodelling among vertebrates at the Permian–Triassic boundary in Russia, M J Benton, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol and V P Tverdokhlebov and M V Surkov, Geological Institute of Saratov State University, Russia. Nature, 4 November 2004.

Adapted from materials provided by University Of Bristol.

Scientists Unveil Prehistoric “Sea Warrior” Crocodile

A fossil of a new prehistoric crocodile species “Guarinisuchus munizi” is seen during a press conference at National Museum of the Rio de Janeiro Federal University in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, March 26, 2008. Brazilian scientists say they have found a new prehistoric crocodile species that inhabited the Earth’s oceans some 62 million years ago.
(Ricardo Moraes/AP Photo)

Pointy-nosed crocodiles may have joined sharks as the dominant predators in the world’s oceans some 62 million years ago, according to Brazilian scientists who on Wednesday unveiled one of the most complete skeletons found yet of the prehistoric animals.

Scientists called it a new species, “Guarinisuchus munizi,” and said it sheds new light on the evolutionary history of modern crocodiles.

The fossil includes a skull, jaw bone and vertebrae, making it one of the most complete examples of marine crocodylomorphs collected so far in South America, said Alexander Kellner of the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He and other scientists unveiled fossils and a model of the 10-foot-long crocodile at the museum.

“It’s a very rare find and it gives rise to several new theories,” said Kellner, who co-authored an article on the find that was published Tuesday in Proceedings of The Royal Society B, a London-based peer-reviewed journal.

Guarinisuchus appears to be closely related to marine crocodylomorphs found in Africa, which supports the hypothesis that the group originated in Africa and migrated to South America before spreading into the waters off the North American coast, Kellner said.

The find also suggests that marine crocodylomorphs replaced marine lizards during the early Paleocene era, about 65 million years ago — the same time marine lizards became extinct. They believe it’s a new species based on anatomical differences in the skull that are unique to this creature.

Philip Currie, a paleontology professor at the University of Alberta, Canada who was not involved with the discovery, said it was an important find.

“There are a lot of unknowns with this group in terms of evolution. Clearly the discovery of a specimen as nice as this one will help sort things out,” Currie said in telephone interview.

The bones were found in the northeastern state of Pernambuco. Scientists named the species “Guarinisuchus” after the Tupi Indian word “Guarani,” which means warrior and “munizi,” in honor of Brazilian paleontologist Deraldo da Costa Barros Muniz, who has discovered many dinosaur fossils off Brazil’s northeastern coast. Muniz didn’t participate in this find.

Scientists have discovered a wealth of crocodile ancestors around Brazil in recent years.

In January, they announced the discovery of an 80 million-year-old land-bound reptile described as a possible link between prehistoric and modern-day crocodiles.

Two years ago, paleontologists from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro announced the discovery of a 70-million-year-old crocodile fossil that they called Uberabasuchus Terrificus, or “Terrible Crocodile of Uberaba.”

This “Terrible Crocodile of Uberaba” sounds interesting, so let’s dig up that story:

‘Terrible crocodile of Uberaba’ unveiled

Fossil offers look at Earth’s ecosystem of 70 million years ago

Thursday, February 17, 2005 Posted: 2109 GMT (0509 HKT)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) — The discovery of a nearly intact fossil of a prehistoric crocodile is

teaching scientists what the world was like before the continents were separated by oceans, a Brazilian paleontologist said.

A reproduction of the previously unknown creature — dubbed Uberabasuchus terrificus, or the terrible crocodile of Uberaba, was unveiled Wednesday at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Uberabasuchus lived 70 million years ago and was smaller than today’s crocodiles — only about three meters (10 feet) long and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), said paleontologist Ismar de Souza Carvalho.

“It’s important because the fossil was extremely well preserved, with 85 percent of its skeleton practically complete and intact,” he said.

Carvalho said Uberabasuchus lived on land — it was named because the fossil was found near Uberaba, an inland city in southeastern Brazil. It probably carried its body high off the ground on sturdy legs and was a strong and voracious hunter, he said.

“We’re learning about a new species of crocodile, the ecosystem of 70 million years ago, and the evolution of the land crocodile on the ancient continent of Gondwana,” Carvalho said.

Scientists believe the continents then were joined in a huge land mass, which some call Gondwana. Fossils similar to Uberabasuchus have been found in Africa and in Antarctica, which possibly were linked to South America.

Despite some similarities with modern-day crocodiles, Uberabasuchus became extinct when the other great dinosaurs died out, and it has no relation to today’s crocodiles, Carvalho said.

Brazil has drawn international attention for its recent discoveries of prehistoric creatures.

In December, scientists unveiled a replica of Unaysaurus tolentinoi, an ancestor of the huge Brontosaurus, that lived 230 million years ago in what is now southern Brazil. Experts said it was more closely related to fossils found in Germany than to dinosaurs from neighboring Argentina.

Zootaxa, a scientific journal published in New Zealand, said Unaysaurus “differs from all other dinosaurs.”

Carvalho predicted there was more to come.

“Important new discoveries are practically certain,” he said.

Baryonyx walkeri was discovered in 1983. It has been dated to the Barremian period of Early Cretaceous Period, around 125 million years ago.
A rare example of a piscivorous (fish-eating) dinosaur with specialized adaptions like a long, narrow snout with lots of teeth

A similar dinosaur is Suchomimus tenerensis, who lived 110 to 120 million years ago, during the middle portion of the Cretaceous period in Africa.

Unusual Fish-eating Dinosaur Had Crocodile-like Skull

ScienceDaily (Jan. 14, 2008) — An unusual dinosaur has been shown to have a skull that functioned like a fish-eating crocodile, despite looking like a dinosaur. It also possessed two huge hand claws, perhaps used as grappling hooks to lift fish from the water.

Dr Emily Rayfield at the University of Bristol, UK, used computer modelling techniques — more commonly used to discover how a car bonnet buckles during a crash — to show that while Baryonyx was eating, its skull bent and stretched in the same way as the skull of the Indian fish-eating gharial — a crocodile with long, narrow jaws.

Dr Rayfield said: “On excavation, partially digested fish scales and teeth, and a dinosaur bone were found in the stomach region of the animal, demonstrating that at least some of the time this dinosaur ate fish. Moreover, it had a very unusual skull that looked part-dinosaur and part-crocodile, so we wanted to establish which it was more similar to, structurally and functionally — a dinosaur or a crocodile.

“We used an engineering technique called finite element analysis that reconstructs stress and strain in a structure when loaded. The Baryonyx skull bones were CT-scanned by a colleague at Ohio University, USA, and digitally reconstructed so we could view the internal anatomy of the skull. We then analysed digital models of the snouts of a Baryonyx, a theropod dinosaur, an alligator, and a fish-eating gharial, to see how each snout stressed during feeding. We then compared them to each other.”

The results showed that the eating behaviour of Baryonyx was markedly different from that of a typical meat-eating theropod dinosaur or an alligator, and most similar to the fish-eating gharial. Since the bulk of the gharial diet consists of fish, Rayfield’s study suggests that this was also the case for Baryonyx back in the Cretaceous.

Dr Angela Milner from the Natural History Museum, who first described the dinosaur and is co-author on the paper, said: “I thought originally it might be a fish-eater and Emily’s analysis, which was done at the Natural History Museum, has demonstrated that to be the case.

“The CT-data revealed that although Baryonyx and the gharial have independently evolved to feed in a similar manner, through quirks of their evolutionary history their skulls are shaped in a slightly different way in order to achieve the same function. This shows us that in some cases there is more than one evolutionary solution to the same problem.”

The unusual skull of Baryonyx is very elongate, with a curved or sinuous jaw margin as seen in large crocodiles and alligators. It also had stout conical teeth, rather than the blade-like serrated ones in meat-eating dinosaurs, and a striking bulbous jaw tip (or ‘nose’) that bore a rosette of teeth, more commonly seen today in slender-jawed fish eating crocodilians such as the Indian fish-eating gharial.

The dinosaur in question, Baryonyx walkeri, was discovered near Dorking in Surrey, UK in 1983 by an amateur collector, William Walker, and named after him in 1986 by Alan Charig and Angela Milner. It is an early Cretaceous dinosaur, around 125 million years old, and belongs to a family called spinosaurs.

Adapted from materials provided by University of Bristol, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.