Space Industry and Business News  
FLORA AND FAUNA
85-Million-Year-Old Sea Monster Re-Explored

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's mosasaur fossil contains four slabs, which make up a virtually complete, 20-foot specimen. Pictured here is the skull portion of the specimen. Credit: Courtesy of the Dinosaur Institute, NHM.
by Staff Writers
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 17, 2010
One of the ocean's most formidable marine predators, the marine mosasaur Platecarpus, lived in the Cretaceous Period some 85 million years ago and was thought to have swum like an eel. That theory is debunked in a new paper published in the journal PLoS ONE.

An international team of scientists have reconceived the animal's morphology, or body plan, based on a spectacular specimen housed at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

The paper was co-authored by a team of four scientists: Johan Lindgren (Lund University, Lund, Sweden), Michael W. Caldwell, Takuya Konishi (University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), and Luis M. Chiappe, Director of the Natural History Museum's Dinosaur Institute.

The mosasaur specimen was discovered in Kansas in 1969, and acquired by the NHM shortly thereafter. It contains four slabs, which make up a virtually complete, 20-foot specimen. Dr. Chiappe spurred a modern preparation of the specimen, and assembled the paper's research team.

"It is one of several exceptional fossils that will be featured in Dinosaur Mysteries," said Chiappe, curator of the 15,000-square foot landmark exhibition that opens at the museum in 2011.

In the meantime, the fossil will be temporarily on display at the museum's Dino Lab, a working lab located on the second floor of the museum, where paleontologists prepare fossils in full view of the public.

The specimen is "the finest preserved mosasaur in existence," according to Dr. Johan Lindgren, lead author of the published study. It retains traces of a partial body outline, putative skin color markings, external scales, a downturned tail, branching bronchial tubes, and stomach contents (fish).

Using it, the scientists demonstrate that a streamlined body plan and crescent-shaped tail fin were already well established in Platecarpus, and that these key features evolved very early in the evolution of mosasaurs. Noting the highly specialized tail fin, the new study assert that mosasaurs were better swimmers than previously thought - and that they swam more like sharks than eels.

The findings underscore how these adaptations for fully aquatic existence evolved rapidly and convergently in several groups of Mesozoic marine reptiles, as well as in extant whales. "This fossil shows evolution in action, how a successful design was developed time after time by different groups of organisms adapting to life in similar environments," said Chiappe.

"It highlights once again the potential for new discoveries to challenge well-established interpretations about dinosaurs and other animals that lived with them."

"From this beautifully preserved specimen it seems that advanced, shark like swimming began in mosasaurs millions of years earlier than we previously thought," said Dr. Kevin Padian, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley, not involved in the paper.

"This study is the best possible proof that active research by curators and staff is the most essential component of a museum dedicated to educating the public."



Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Darwin Today At TerraDaily.com



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


FLORA AND FAUNA
Increased Destruction Of Bird Populations Are Predicted With Rise In Global Temperatures
Westminster CO (SPX) Aug 17, 2010
In 2003, a massive heat wave struck and killed some 30,000 people in Europe in an area where heat was not considered a major threat. Similar mass die-offs occur in wild birds and some mammals during heat waves, but unlike humans, birds may not be able to take shelter or find fresh water in order to survive devastating heat. What is the outlook for desert bird communities in light of expect ... read more







FLORA AND FAUNA
"Fahrenheit 451" author burns at idea of digital books

Safer Plastics That Lock In Potentially Harmful Plasticizers

Power Problem With Insat-4B

Colorado Space Grant Consortium And LockMart To Develop CubeSat

FLORA AND FAUNA
USAF Launches First AEHF Satellite

Persistent Wireless Broadband Communications Network For The Battlefield

Mexican navy aircraft to use Telephonics

Raytheon's ASTOR Saving Lives In The Counterinsurgency Battle

FLORA AND FAUNA
Arianespace Announces Launch Contracts For Intelsat-20 And GSAT 10 Satellites

Arianespace Launches Two Satellites

New Rocket Launch Period In And Around Tanegashima

Kourou Spaceport Welcomes New Liquid Oxygen And Liquid Nitrogen Production Facility

FLORA AND FAUNA
India Launches Satellite-Based Navigation System

Putin wants Russian satnav system in new cars from 2012

Lockheed Martin-Built GPS Satellite Surpasses 10 Years On-Orbit

Sea Star Line GUARDIAN SERVICE Offers Reefer Monitoring, Tracking, Tracing And Control

FLORA AND FAUNA
Lightning bolts a risk for modern jets

Russian analysts assail aerial projects

US Senate legend Stevens killed in Alaska plane crash

Turkey's aerial industries prosper

FLORA AND FAUNA
Computer data stored with 'spintronics'

Protein From Poplar Trees Can Be Used To Greatly Increase Computer Capacity

Polymer Synthesis Could Aid Future Electronics

Acer, Asus and Lenovo lead pack as PC sales surge

FLORA AND FAUNA
Germany vs. Google, Round 2

Satellite data yield better wetlands maps

Terra Satellite Sees Intense Fires And Smoke Over Western Russia

NASA Video Shows Global Reach Of Pollution From Fires

FLORA AND FAUNA
Gabonese NGO decries effects of mining

Texas Petrochemical Emissions Down, But Still Underestimated

Study: Better pollution measuring a must

China cracks down on polluting factories


The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement