Pliosaur had arthritis

Ancient sea reptile with gammy jaw suggests dinosaurs got arthritis too

Press release issued 16 May 2012

Imagine having arthritis in your jaw bones… if they’re over 2 metres long! A new study by scientists at the University of Bristol has found signs of a degenerative condition similar to human arthritis in the jaw of a pliosaur, an ancient sea reptile that lived 150 million years ago. Such a disease has never been described before in fossilised Jurassic reptiles.

The Bristol scientists studied a giant specimen of the pliosaur Pliosaurus dating from the Upper Jurassic.  Found in Westbury, Wiltshire, it has been kept since its discovery in the collections of the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. The 8 metre long pliosaur was a terrifying creature with a large, crocodile-like head, a short neck, whale-like body and four powerful flippers to propel it through water in pursuit of prey. With its huge jaws and 20 cm long teeth, it would have been capable of ripping most other marine reptiles or dinosaurs to pieces, but this particular individual was the unfortunate victim of an arthritis-like disease.

Read rest here: http://bristol.ac.uk/news/2012/8488.html

for lovers of Fortean fiction

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Esk-The-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B007PK6R6E/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1337078347&sr=8-5

First the Hellhound is seen , then the Ghostly coach with the head less driver , a man is found beheaded and a respectable church goer says Dracula drank her blood. What is going on in Whitby? Has someone opened up Hell? The Fifth Reich are funding a dig at the old Abbey ruins. What they are searching for was buried to keep it safe from men a long time ago.Laura and her companions and Henry and the Knights find themselves facing some truths, some ghosts and demons. The end comes swiftly but who for?

"They stood transfixed as the coach raced towards them , unable to move or speak. The sight of the coach was terrifying , black horses foaming at the mouth straining to go faster pulling a black coach with no lights and driving them a man with no head, just a neck stump, the old blood stains showing on his high collared cloak. It looked like something from the 18th Century. The noise of the horses’ hooves and clatter of the wheels on the cobbles was deafening in the narrow street and seemed to reverberate within their heads and echo all around them."

By the successful author of “Dark Ness” (now in paperback) and “Dark Wear”

news on the Skunk Ape and a new Fish discovered

Legend of the Skunk Ape has ties to the Suncoast

               Reported by: Josh Taylor

For years, there have been rumors and reported sightings of an unknown mysterious creature lurking in the woods and wetlands of Florida. The legend only grew with photos sent to our local sheriff's office more than a decade ago.
Most people know the names Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti. But in Florida, the human-like hair-covered creature has also been called the Skunk Ape. The National Parks Service says it is only a myth. However, sightings date all the way back to Native Americans.
Today the legend is fiction for most and fact for a few. And down the Tamiami Trail, deep into the Florida Everglades, is a man who says there is even more proof.
"I am the expert; the state and county expert on the Florida Skunk Ape, and have been for years." Dave Shealy runs what's he calls the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters in Ochopee. It doubles as a roadside attraction where you can check out snakes, buy a t-shirt, and hear one whopper of a tale. "In July 2000, I took these photographs. We have between 7 and 9 of these things that live in the Big Cypress Preserve."

Read rest here : http://www.mysuncoast.com/news/local/story/Legend-of-the-Skunk-Ape-has-ties-to-the-Suncoast/62Rp4T-alU-WJQFzBfLC9g.cspx

New Species Of Fish Discovered In Sweden: Reticulated Dragonet

by Underwatertimes.com News Service

GOTHENBURG, Sweden -- Reticulated dragonet have been found in Väderöarna – "Weather Islands" – off the west coast of Sweden. It is not often that a new species of fish is discovered in Sweden.Lars-Ove Loo is the underwater photographer who has captured the fish on film. He saw it while making an inventory ahead of the creation of a new nature reserve in the islands. This was in August 2010, 19 meters below the surface of the sea south of Lyngö in the southern Väderöarna (58° 32.554' N, 11° 05.373' E).

Read rest here: http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=59102187046

The Madidi Monster

The Madidi Monster - hydra dinosaur or deformed crocodile?

In1883, William A. E. Axon, made some amazing claims:

“Sir,—The ‘Anglo-Brazilian Times,’ March 24th, 1883, says that the Brazilian Minister at La Paz, Bolivia, has remitted to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Rio photographs of drawings of an extraordinary Saurian killed on the Beni after receiving thirty-six balls. By order of the President of Bolivia the dried body, which had been preserved at Asuncion, was sent to La Paz. It is 12 metres long(39 feet) from snout to point of the tail, which latter is flattened. Besides the anterior head, it has, 4 metres(13 feet) behind, two small but completely formed heads rising from the back. All three have much resemblance to the head of a dog. The legs are short, and end in formidable claws. The legs, belly, and lower part of the throat appear defended by a kind of scale armour, and all the back is protected by a still thicker and double cuirass, starting from behind the ears of the anterior head, and continuing to the tail. The neck is long, and the belly large and almost dragging on the ground. Professor Gilveti, who examined the beast, thinks it is not a monster, but a member of a rare or almost lost species, as the Indians in some parts of Bolivia use small earthen vases of identical shape, and probably copied from Nature.”

."( "A Bolivian Saurian," Scientific American, 49:3, 1883.)

The corpse of the so called Madidi Monster was allegedly moved to La Paz at the President’s request and subsequently disappeared.

Now this was regarded as a hoax especially in view of the “photographs of drawings” (made me think of the Goon Show “here is a photograph of a cheque” lol) . If they had photographs why weren’t they of the original corpse not of the drawings? Then I came across this fossil find:

Scientists have found what is thought to be the first example of a two-headed reptile in the fossil record. The abnormal animal, belonging to a group of aquatic reptiles, was unearthed in north-eastern China and dates to the time of the dinosaurs. The specimen reveals that it must have been very young when it died and became fossilised, says lead researcher Eric Buffetaut. "Living animals like this are known. But if you compare the number of reptiles born with two heads with the total number of reptiles born, it is very small. "So the chances of finding a fossil like this are extremely low." The abnormality is known to occur with some frequency in modern reptiles; about 400 cases of two-headed snakes have been recorded in historic times.

Full article here:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6195345.stm

It could be that the monster was a deformed crocodile or reptile of some sort that had survived for a few years until adulthood. It certainly makes more sense than a hydra dinosaur. As it is a rare event for an animal to be born like this , it is unlikely that local people had seen anything like it before .

The story of the Madidi Monster is here:

http://americanmonsters.com/site/2010/01/madidi-monster-south-america/

Giant Beaver in Boston lake?

Blog tracks 'sightings' of Jessie, a mysterious monster beneath Jamaica Pond

May 09, 2012|By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent, Globe Staff

Could there be a monster living beneath the serene waters of Jamaica Pond?

State officials released some 1,150 fish into Jamaica Pond last month, saying the bounty would feed the imaginations of local anglers as winter gives way to spring.However, some speculate that the annual hefty stock of trout and salmon could feed a different hunger: a mysterious monster that lurks beneath Boston's largest body of freshwater.
Read rest here: http://articles.boston.com/2012-05-09/yourtown/31643332_1_loch-ness-monster-bloggers-nessie

mini mammoth found

Smallest mammoths found on Crete

he smallest mammoth ever known to have existed roamed the island of Crete millions of years ago, researchers say.Adults were roughly the size of a modern baby elephant, standing over a metre tall at the shoulders.Remains were discovered more than a century ago, but scientists had debated whether the animal was a mammoth or an ancient elephant.A new analysis of the animal's teeth suggests it falls closer to the mammoth lineage.Palaeontologists Victoria Herridge and Adrian Lister, from London's Natural History Museum, report their findings in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B."Dwarfism is a well-known evolutionary response of large mammals to island environments," said Dr Herridge.This evolutionary phenomenon is thought to be driven by the relative scarcity of food sources or by the absence of predators."Our findings show that on Crete, island dwarfism occurred to an extreme degree, producing the smallest mammoth known so far," she added.

Read rest here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18003093

saving a prehistoric predator

Everglades scientists play risky game of tag with near-extinct predator

Susan Cocking Miami Herald

The boat captain and the scientist wielded their lasso like seasoned cowboys instead of fishermen. A good thing, since their lives literally depended on it: roping an upset, 13-foot-long, prehistoric creature waving a double-toothed saw in the water is just as dangerous as grabbing a bull by the horns."There's a swing," Captain Jim Willcox warned as the saw slashed the air. "Careful, it's pretty green."But Willcox and Yannis Papastamatiou, a University of Florida scientist, managed to secure the line around both the saw and the tail of their quarry: an endangered smalltooth sawfish, the rarest marine species in U.S. waters. Now the huge brown creature lay quietly alongside their skiff near East Cape Sable in Everglades National Park, enabling them to safely complete their research mission.
Read rest here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/sns-mct-everglades-scientists-play-risky-game-of-tag-with-20120508,0,964142.story