Tuesday 7 February 2012

Monster tales and the sound of Jurassic park


Roger Moroney: Monster tales from deep dark past
 Tuesday, February 7, 2012 17:06

Extracts:
For Colenso went on to describe how two other chaps, who had been out riding the same area some time before the young duck shooter had gone there, had come across a "beast" in the water.
All that poked out above the surface was a dark grey head, about 18 inches long - that's close to half a metre.
The young shooter who also sighted it said he got one shot away at it, and believe he may have struck it "about the angle of its mouth."


Jurassic cricket's song recreated
By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC Nature
Night-time in the Jurassic forest was punctuated by the unmistakable sound of chirping bush crickets. This is according to scientists who have reconstructed the song of a cricket that chirped 165 million years ago.A remarkably complete fossil of the prehistoric insect enabled the team to see the structures in its wings that rubbed together to make the sound.The international team report their findings in the journal PNAS. Scientists from the US and China discovered the tiny fossil and named their newly discovered species Archaboilus musicus , because the music-making structures in its body were so clearly visible.
Read rest hear song here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/16878292

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