DECEMBER 2001
New BBC Show – "Walking With Prehistoric Beasts"
Mark your calendars for December 9 when a new series begins from the BBC. This one will cover the time after the dinosaurs from 65 MYA on. There will be about 30 beasts covered including those pictured below. I did see one clip on Discovery that looks pretty good. I’m sure we’ll hear more about it as we get closer. You can visit the BBC website for more info on the beasts at www.bbc.co.uk/beasts/factfiles/index_all.shtml.
Here is a preliminary break down of the 6 episodes of "Walking With Beasts" (WWB) to be shown on Discovery Channel starting December 8. There will be 3 episodes on that night and the remainder will be on the following night, as I understand it.
Episode one, New Dawn, includes Eocene Messel (Germany, 50 MYA) animals, and Gastornis, a primitive primate Godinotia, and giant Messel ants.
Episode two, Whale Killer includes early whales, Basilosaurus and Dorudon, rhino-like brontotheres, and a primitive anthropoid, Apidium.
Episode three, Land of Giants, has Paraceratherium, Hyaenodon (hyena-toothed), and Chalicotherium (odd-toed ungulates).
Episode four, Next of Kin, covers the Plio-Pleistocene Africa with australopithecines, deinotheres (distant cousins of elephants), and saber-toothed cats.
Episode five, Saber Tooth, covers Pleistocene South America with Smilodon, Macrauchenia (long necked hoofed animal), a glyptodont, phorusrhacoid (large carnivorous bird), and a giant sloth.
Episode six, Mammoth Journey, covers Pleistocene Europe with Mammuthus, Megaloceros (Irish Elk), Coelodonta (woolly rhino), neanderthals, and others.
A New Flattened Crinoid Reported
Dr. Colin Sumrall et al reported in the September issue of Journal of Paleontology on a new species of crinoid found in the Wah Wah Limestone of the uppermost Lower Ordovician in Utah. They have named it Haimacystis Rozhnovi ( Greek for flowing blood sac when one of researchers was injured in field with specimen, and after a Russian researcher). It differs from other flattened crinoids in the plane of thecal flattening (anterior/posterior instead of lateral), its lack of one-piece marginals, and in its ambulacral development. There are four other distinctive groups of flattened crinoids. Some are believed to have developed this shape for living close to the substrate. The new species is believed to have had a holdfast (although not found) based on the widening of the lower stem. It is believed to have been a passive current feeder using its brachioles for capturing food particles. It had four basal plates along the stem end, four lateral plates and five small oral plates at the top around the mouth. The holotype is about 73 mm long (about 3 inches). Its brachioles were about as long as the thecal body. There are 16 specimens including slabs with several on them.
Sereno’s Super Croc
This croc was some big beast! Compare it to SUE at 43 feet long and 14,000 pounds. Sarcosuchus imperator was 40 feet long and weighed more than 17,000 pounds. This animal was first found in 1966 by French paleontologists but there were only partial remains. Paul has found about 50% of the beast including rows of 18 inch armored scutes that ran from the neck all the way down to the tail. It lived about 110 MYA along the rivers in Africa (now the Tenere Desert) and may have lived as long as 50 to 60 years. The shape of the jaw suggests that it probably ate fish and large dinosaurs. The skull had a large narial bulba and elongated jaws studded with stout smooth crowns that do not interlock. Other large related animals are Deinosuchus in North America and Rhamphosuchus from Pakistan, both of which reached 35 feet long. Paul’s Project Exploration web site has a short movie and lots more information.
NOTE: Chris Brochu pointed out on the web that Sarcosuchus is not a crocodile as claimed, but actually belongs to a related group of crocodyliforms called pholidosaur. This may have been done to make it easier for the general public to understand this new discovery. This group actually died out in the Late Cretaceous, while today’s crocodile species were just arriving.
Eating Habits From Fossil Teeth Debris
Another interesting talk at Bozeman was by David Krauss of Boston College. He has studied the phytoliths (plant stones) found in the cracks and pits of dinosaur teeth. These are bits of silica the plants get from the ground water and converts to hard crystals that can actually scratch the enamel tooth surface. Phytoliths were found in about 25 % of the hadrosaur and ceratopsian teeth studied. After studying the distinctive phytoliths of living plant relatives of ancient cycads and ferns, he was able to determine that Triceratops was eating more cycads and the hadrosaurs preferred dining on ferns. It is fascinating that there are ways to discover more about these beasts by careful analysis of all the details.
Triceratops Horn Growth
At Bozeman, Mark Goodwin of Berkeley gave a talk on the growth of the horns of the Triceratops. They have been able to study both adult and juvenile skulls now and have found that the bone on the front of the snout started out as a separate bone that later fused to the skull and continued to grow. The baby Triceratops had bony growths over its brows that pointed slightly forward and then grew into the s-shaped horns of adults. As juveniles the horns were thicker and curved slightly upward and back. As adults the thick brow horns curve forward from the base but still maintain the upward curve at the ends. This implies that they grow from the bases and not from the tips. Because about 1/3 of the base of the brow horns is hollow and subject to damage, they do not believe that they were primarily for defense, but were for show.
New Federal Legislation Proposed
The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act is in the House and is already supported by SVP (Society of Vertebrate Paleontology). It would increase the criminal penalties for stealing from federal lands, improve the management of paleontological resources, and coordinate the recording of discoveries. It requires that only qualified researchers with permits will be able to collect specimens and deposit them in public institutions. These fossils are too important to be in private collections or on the fossil black market. The penalties need to be stiff enough to discourage activity like I described in my November column (the Allosaurus theft and sale). I’ll keep you posted on developments.
Grand Staircase Bonanza
Scott Sampson of the Utah Museum of Natural History and Jim Kirkland, State Paleontologist of Utah, are singing praises for the fossil rich Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that is run by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). It is rich in Late Cretaceous rocks that could help to tell the story of life before the end of the dinosaurs. The rocks do date back to the Middle Permian about 280 MYA as well. The area is rugged and remote and contains the last river discovered in America, the Escalante. The BLM will spend $200,000 a year on paleontology including surveys and excavations. Near the Monument paleontologists have found a therizinosaur, a hadrosaur, armor for a new croc, a new genus of horned dino, a new species of tyrannosaur, and a new ceratopsid. None of them have been written up yet, so much is yet to come. It is hard to get permits to collect and the terrain is extremely difficult, especially because they will not allow motorized vehicles on many of the roads inside the monument.
Roman Baby Graveyard Study
The bodies of 47 babies were found in a fifth century cemetery near Rome. They feel that 22 were miscarried fetuses and that all of them were buried within a few weeks. There was a honeycomb pattern of many bones suggests anemia from malaria that suggests that they were the victims of a malaria epidemic. They have found the presence of malaria DNA in the bones of one of the babies( earliest malaria DNA ever identified).
The Ice Man’s 10th Anniversary
It has been 10 years since the Ice Man (nicknamed Otzi after the mountain range) was found on the Austrian Italian border. They recently found an arrowhead embedded in his left shoulder by CT scanning. The tools found with him are being studied to pinpoint where he was from. His tooth enamel indicates that he may have eaten plants from soils in the South Tyrol region of Italy. They are linking up with Peru and Chile to study the ancient mummies that have been found in those countries that might provide clues about Otzi.
Karen Nordquist, ESCONI Paleontology Study Group
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