CARL MARSHALL: Predator X vs Liopleurodon.

Predator X vs Liopleurodon.
For the last three weeks my family and I have been watching "Planet Dinosaur" on BBC1, this edition (4 of 6) of the documentary series was looking at the Dinosaur "Allosaurus" and an new colossal marine Pleosaur known informally as "Predator X". Well as soon as I saw the mighty P. x in motion I got a sudden feeling that I had seen this massive creature before on another documentary called "Walking with Dinosaurs" that aired in 1999 and also in Nigel Marven's "Sea Monsters" in 2003 and that its name was Liopleurodon (smooth sided tooth). Well, I remembered buying a copy of "Sea Monsters", so went to find my copy and get to the bottom of this..

I found it - Liopleurodon, according to the book this monstrous reptile was alive in the mid to late Jurassic (160 -155 mya) and was a colossal 25 meters long (80 feet). So why were the producers of this series making such a fuss out of P.x which came in at 15 meters (49 feet) when an even bigger monster Liopleurodon (from the same clade) had already been discovered- Well after some more research the truth came to light.

Walking with Dinosaurs and Sea Monsters did not tell us the whole truth.

Liopleurodon never reached 25 meters (80 feet), as far as my research implies the largest specimen found was named Liopleurodon ferox and was a (still respectful) 6.50 meters (21 feet) in length, discovered near Peterborough in England. The Liopleurodon Genus was first named by Henri - Emile Sauvage in 1873 with the discovery of L. ferox and eventually contained two more species L. pachydeirus ( European) and L. rossicus (Russian). There was another discovered but wasn't placed into the Liopleurodon genus. The maximum length for Liopleurodon has been a debatable subject for some time, Palaeontologist L.B Tarlo stated that the total length of any Pleosaur ( including Liopleurodon ) could be obtained from skull length eg. a skull at 1.5 meters (4.92 feet) means a Pleosaur at 10.5 meters (34.44feet)

But even these dated ratios do not explane the body length depicted by both "Walking with Dinosaurs and "Sea Monsters".

Predator X.

Discovered in 2006 and excavated in 2008 "Predator X" is the largest Pliosaur ever discovered. It was found in Svalbard near the Arctic by Dr Hurrum of the Natural History Museum at the University of Olso and is estimated at a massive 15 meters (49 feet) long. 20,000 fragments were discovered.

One resource states that P. x had a bite eleven times more powerful than Tyrannosaurus rex-

P. x : 33,000 lb per square inch.
T.rex : 3,000 lb per square inch.
Crocodile :2,500 lb per square inch.


However I have also found information that says that P.x had a bite force ten times more powerful than extant animals but only four times the bite pressure of T. rex.

But whatever the outcome Liopleurodon did not reach lengths anywhere near the 25 meters (80 feet) that "Walking with Dinosaurs" and "Sea Monsters" have claimed, and it seems these two documentary's are actually sisters and have seriously damaged there credibility with these statements.

I believe the largest marine reptile was an Ichthyosaur at an enormous 22.86 meters (75 feet) that lived about 210 mya, so far I don't think it has yet been given a Bi-nominal name.

However I am not a Palaeontologist, I work with modern Reptiles so if anybody reading this has more reliable information about this debate please do comment.

DOUG SHOOP: Minnesota nature photography

I stumbled across this website which details the beauty of nature.
Some fantastic shots of remote areas of extreme Northeast Minnesota that few people visit.

http://travisnovitsky.smugmug.com/galleries

TONY LUCAS SENT US THIS STORY ABOUT A GIANT PARROT IN 1925

GIANT PARROT.
New Zealand Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 38, 14 February 1925, Page 16

HAUNTED SKIES: Lincoln - Belmont Booster IL 8.9.54

http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2011/10/lincoln-belmont-booster-il-8954.html

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1869 the Cardiff Giant was unearthed in a farm outside New York. The gypsum giant was of course fake and had been made by a man named George Hull but that’s just half the story, as you’ll see when you click the video link at the end of today’s blog…

And now the news:

Rescued squirrel develops a taste for family's cru...
Dolphins 'decompress like humans'
How the Zebra Gets Its Stripes: A Simple Genetic C...
Coal port could wipe out dolphin pod: WWF
Summit hears that wild salmon are dying in “alarmi...
Radioactive lockdown on the shores of Fife

Yours truly, talking about giant scams and petrified men:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VlcHCK3y9U

GLEN VAUDREY: Whole Wide World #17

Honduras
Within Honduras can be found the ruins of perhaps one of the most celebrated Mayan cities, Copán. Today, however, rather than being known as a lost civilization, the Mayan are better known for their Long Count, which is said to end in 2012.

This Long Count has given rise to a number of end-of-days prophecies; however, I doubt any of them will match the terror of the prospect of having to watch the film 2012 again. But enough of the film reviews. What do we have to look at today?

We find the Wihwin, a mystery amphibious creature that is said to resemble a horse but with prominent fangs. It is said to inhabit the Caribbean coastal waters of Honduras and to occasionally come ashore for some reason perhaps known only to itself.

As for the Long Count: well, something big is coming in 2012. Yes: the Weird Weekend.

DALE DRINNON: Cedar and Willow updates

I have the blog up that finishes with the Twilight Zone episode Eye of The Beholder. Of course there are several devious twists and turns along the way in my thickly-populated literary universe:
http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/2011/10/perils-of-paulines-part-8-betty-hutton.html

I worked all day on getting the next one through. I know you'll like it:
http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/2011/10/perils-of-penelopes.html