An Odd Way to find a Fossilised Ichthyosaur – Stumble over It

For an elderly Australian tourist on a trip to the northwest of Queensland, nipping into the bushes to relive himself, a sort of unscheduled toilet stop has surprising consequences as he stumbled over the exposed remains of a 100-million-year-old marine reptile fossil.

This part of Australia is well known for marine reptile fossils, with animals such as the pliosaur Kronosaurus, plus plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs having been excavated from the Cretaceous aged sediments.

Explaining that this part of Australia was once a shallow, tropical sea, curator of the local natural history museum at nearby Richmond, Paul Stumkat commented:

“They [the elderly couple] went to a site near town where the Richmond Shire council has had a couple of quarries for road base.  It is a good place to look for fossils as the overburden has been removed”.

The retired couple were a few miles past the quarry when the elderly gentleman required his unscheduled pit stop and as he went out for a pee, he stumbled over the remains of an ichthyosaur.

Marine Reptile Fossil

Ichthyosaurs, otherwise known as “fish lizards” were among the first reptiles to fully adapt to a life in a marine environment and most forms never ventured onto land, not even to lay eggs, as they were able to give birth to live young (viviparous).  Superficially similar to dolphins, these marine reptiles evolved in the Early Triassic and survived for much of the Mesozoic, finally becoming extinct prior to the end of the Cretaceous.  They were superbly well adapted to life in a marine environment and evolved into many different genera, some such as Shonisaurus reached lengths in excess of 15 metres or more.

The fossil discovered by the elderly gentleman in such an unusual way represents a single individual and it is estimated to be approximately 4 metres in length.  The species has yet to be confirmed, but according to local experts it is likely to be excavated over the next few months and put on display at the Richmond museum.

An Illustration of a Typical Ichthyosaur

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

When asked what he thought about the unusual way in which the ichthyosaur fossil was discovered, Mr Stumkat stated:

“I just wish I could stop for a pee and stumble over something like that.  They ate fish and squid and are not the sort of thing you trip over every day”.

It may be one of the more unusual methods for finding fossils but thanks to a weak bladder another fossilised marine reptile has been discovered.

To view models of an ichthyosaur and other marine reptiles on the Everything Dinosaur website: Dinosaurs, Marine Reptiles and Models of Prehistoric Animals.

Geo-scientist has Evidence Refuting Asteroid Impact Theory Published in London Based Scientific Journal

The debate surrounding the causes of the Cretaceous mass extinction event goes on. A new study rejects the asteroid impact theory.

The arguments surrounding the causes of the Cretaceous mass extinction event that led to the demise of the marine reptiles, dinosaurs, pterosaurs and a whole range of other vertebrates (not to mention the invertebrate casualties) continue to rumble on.  No sooner have we written an article on James E. Fassett’s work on the date of the dinosaur die off, another paper on the mass extinction event is published.

Asteroid Impact Theory

Evidence from studies of rock formations in New Mexico and Colorado by U.S. Geologist James Fassett and his team indicate that some types of dinosaur may have survived the Cretaceous mass extinction event and survived for a few hundred thousand years into the Cenozoic era.

To read more about the evidence supporting dinosaurs in the Tertiary: Did Dinosaurs survive into the Palaeogene?

Now the eminent scientist Gerta Keller of Princeton University has had her work published on the causes of the extinction event, in the leading scientific publication ,”The Journal of the Geological Society” in London.

As an eminent geo-scientist, Professor Keller accepts that there is evidence to indicate an extraterrestrial impact event around 66 million years ago, but she believes that the meteorite/asteroid strike did not wipe out the dinosaurs.

The Timing of the Mass Extinction Event

Her team’s research indicates that a mass extinction event may not have occurred immediately after the impact but the extinctions happened much later. Studies of the fossil bearing rocks on the K-T boundary in areas such as Mexico, the United States and India, the international team of scientists, which included members of universities in Spain, Mexico and Switzerland concluded that mass extinctions could not be directly related to the impact of an asteroid or meteorite.

Massive volcanic activity such as that in the area of the Deccan Traps are claimed to have had the greatest effect on the fauna and flora of our planet.

For models and replicas of Late Cretaceous prehistoric animals: Papo Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Figures.

Commenting on the research, Professor Keller noted:

“Careful documentation of results that are reproducible and verifiable will uncover what really happened, this study takes an important step in that direction”.

The reasons for the mass extinction event that happened approximately 65 million years ago continue to be hotly debated, a number of articles relating to Professor Keller’s work have been published on this blog site already, for further information regarding the Cretaceous mass extinction:

Article on Keller’s Theory: Volcanoes linked to Dinosaur Extinction.

Further information on Keller’s Theory Mass Extinction may not be linked to Asteroid Strike.

To read more about the Deccan Traps: Blame the Deccan Traps.

New BBC Series set to Begin on Sunday May 10th

A new BBC television series starts next Sunday, tracing the evolution and origins of our own human species Homo sapiens.  The programme will chart the evolution of mankind and the progress of our species out of Africa and their migration and eventual colonisation of the world.  Presented by Dr Alice Roberts, an Anthropologist at Bristol University, this documentary series shows how our species, so few in number after a period of climatic change, managed to cling on and eventually to become the dominant large species on planet Earth.

The faces of some of our human ancestors are dramatically reconstructed using techniques akin to forensic science to literally “flesh out” fossil skull bones of our ancestors and bring them back to life as highly realistic three-dimensional sculptures.

For example, the face of the first anatomically modern human to live in Europe has been re-created for the series.  Although from the fossil fragments found to date, it is impossible to ascertain whether this was a man or woman, the fossils have been dated to around 35,000 years ago and this ancient human would have shared the world with another human species – Neanderthals.

The person responsible for the re-creation is forensic artist Richard Neave, who used copies of fossil human bones found in a cave in the Carpathian mountains to build up the facial features of this early European.  Human fossils are very rare and only partial skull material and part of the jawbone were available to work with but using these items and other supporting material, slowly and surely Richard was able to bring back this ancient person.

From the reconstruction, it appears that the facial features indicate a close affinity to African ancestors.  This human clay model was built up using the same processes as found in the Everything Dinosaur Neanderthal Skull kit, a forensic science kit that enables young scientists (from aged 8 to 80) to build their own forensic model, but this time of a Neanderthal from 50,000 years ago.

Richard Neave, the forensic artist who reconstructed the facial features in the TV clay model, based his assessment on a careful measurement of the bone fragments and his long experience of how the soft tissues of the face are built around the bones of the skull.

The Neanderthal Skull Kit from Everything Dinosaur

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the range of educational themed item including prehistoric animal toys and gifts available from Everything Dinosaur: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

This forensic peg sculpture kit comes complete with skull kit, moulded pegs, modelling clay, rollers, sculpting tools and display stand.  Detailed assembly guide, instructional DVD plus Neanderthal Man fact sheet.  Sales of this product support the Natural History Museum – London.  The kit is based on the fossils of a real Neanderthal, a man who lived in France approximately 50,000 years ago.

Forensic artists like Richard Neave, are able to create realistic peg sculpture models of ancient hominids based on their knowledge of human anatomy and the clues they find when fossil skull bones are closely examined.  Unfortunately, it is impossible to say whether the ancient European re-created for the BBC had a dark or pale skin.  It is likely that he or she was quite dark skinned, with later generations slowly losing their dark skin pigment as they adapted to colder climates with less strong sunlight.

Mr Neave’s clay sculpture sits on the desk of the programme presenter Dr Alice Roberts, she commented:

“It’s really quite bizarre.  I’m a scientist and objective, but I look at that face and think ‘Gosh, I’m actually looking at the face of somebody from 40,000 years ago’, and there’s something weirdly moving about that”.

A team of potholers discovered the lower jawbone of the first modern European in 2002 in Pestera cu Oase, the “cave with bones”, located in the south-western Carpathian mountains.  The remaining fragments of skull were unearthed the following year as other parts of the cave were explored.  The cave also contains a lot of bones of the Cave Bear (Ursus spelaeus), a large omnivorous bear that would have been a formidable animal for our ancestors to confront.

A Model of a Cave Bear (Ursus spelaeus)

The Papo Cave Bear model.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

The picture (above) shows the Papo Cave Bear model to view the range of Papo prehistoric animal figures in stock at Everything Dinosaur: Papo Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animal Models.

Scientists have dated the human fossilised bones from the cave using radiocarbon analysis to between 34,000 and 36,000 years ago when Europe was occupied by both Neanderthal man, who had lived in the region for tens of thousands of years, and anatomically-modern humans – Homo sapiens – who had recently arrived on a migratory route from Africa via the Middle East.

Although the skull shares many modern features of human anatomy, it also displays more archaic traits, such as very large molar teeth, which led some scientists to speculate the skull may belong to a hybrid between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals – an idea discounted by other experts.

The large molars may be an adaptation to the harsher diet of our ancestors, rather than direct evidence of a close affinity with Neanderthals.  What is known from chemical analysis of fossil modern human and Neanderthal bones is that these two species had different diets.  Neanderthals ate more meat than our direct ancestors.  Homo sapiens seems to have been more of a generalist; eating a wider variety of food items, and subsequently less dependent on large animals such as Mammoths and Woolly Rhinos for food.

Perhaps our more varied diet and less dependence on the mega fauna is one of the reasons why this programme aired on BBC 2, Sundays and repeated the following Tuesday is presented by a Homo sapiens and not a Neanderthal.

The Neanderthal Peg Sculpture Forensic Kit

A clay model of a Neanderthal.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur