October+MEB

//10/7/14//

//Do you think that whales are peaceful creatures? Well did you know that there was a certain kind that could kill humans with ease? This whale was known as the// Leviathan. //The// Leviathan //is still known only from partial remains so the full size is still only an estimate(So think of this while looking at the graph below). However we do know that// Leviathan //had teeth that were up to thirty-six centimeters long and are considered to have been the largest teeth of any predator. Additionally these teeth are in both upper and lower jaws which suggest that// Leviathan //was a predator of other large animals, most probably smaller whales that were very numerous at the time it swam the ocean. Such large teeth would have had a considerable advantage in taking this kind of prey as they would more  easily pierce and punch straight through the blubber to hit critical areas. Additionally as a sperm whale it is not completely out of the question that// Leviathan //may have used echolocation.// Leviathan //seems to have suffered the same fate as many large marine predators of the Miocene to Pleistocene eras, declining with a drop of viable prey species. Today the whale closest to// Leviathan is the sperm whale. . __[|www.prehistoric-wildlife.com] __

__10/11/14__

For this week I decided to research the xiphactinus .This fish would trouble modern day sharks .It had very long needle like teeth that where perfect for piercing the scales of and flesh of other fish. However it was able to chew or slice of smaller pieces and probably ate fish whole. There is even proof of this in a complete fossil of the xiphactinus.Fossils of this fish are found in Canada,USA,Europe and,Australia.This shows that the xiphactinus where all over the ocean at its time.A fish that might be related to a xiphactinus is the tarpon which is a giant modern day fish just like this.

http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiphactinusv

a modern day tarpon. http://bigfishesoftheworld.blogspot.com/2013/08/tarpon-page-2.htm

10/19/2014

First and most importantly, mosasaurs are not dinosaurs. They are extinct marine reptiles that are believed to be distantly related to monitor lizards such as the Komodo Dragon. Based on recent evidence, however, it may be that they were even more closely related to snakes than monitor lizards. The discovery and study of mosasaurs near Maastricht in Europe in the late 1700s predated the finding of dinosaurs by more than fifty years. Many complete mosasaur specimens have been found in the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Formation of Western Kansas, and some of the first mosasaur remains were collected by Professor Benjamin Mudge and Dr. George M. Sternberg more than 130 years ago. A few years later, in a series of scientific expeditions sponsored by O. C. Marsh and Yale University, hundreds of specimens were collected. As a group, the fossilized remains of mosasaurs had been found all over the world, from Kansas to South Dakota to North Dakota to Montana to New Mexico to Colorado to Texas to Arkansas to Tennessee to Georgia to Alabama to New Jersey to California, to Canada, from the Netherlands to Sweden, from Turkey to Israel to Africa, and from Brazil to Peru to Australia and New Zealand to the islands off the coast of Antarctica.

withfriendship.com

10/26/14

Purussaurus is the largest of the giant crocodilians, perhaps probably even surpressing Deinosuchus in size. It reigned supreme in central South America in the Miocene period, 8 million years ago. Like other crocodiles, Purussaurus would have easily been capable of tackling large prey.As the monster caiman of the Miocene, Purussaurus had a very stout, robust head that included large, sharp-edged teeth suited for gripping and holding onto struggling prey. This giant is known from skull material found in throughout north-central South America. Paleontologists estimated Purussaurus brasilensis to be around 11-13 meters in length. It associated with sharks, rays, turtles, and other crocodilians in the water.

http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/p/purussaurus.html

[|curiomais.blogspot.com] purussaurus compared to a modern crocodile