If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)

Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

The Mosasaur Thread

Options

04-05-2011 12:26pm

#1
Galvasean

Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2006

Posts: 29410
It looks like protein tissue from the Cretaceous mosasaur Prognathodon has been found.
I for one look forward to seeing the monster in Sea World

Swedish scientists detail their new mosasaur find. The researchers note that the earlier ancient protein extractions have been controversial, but note that their new research is backed up by several tests to corroborate the tissue's authenticity.

The researchers used infrared microspectoscopy, mass spectrometry, and a chemical analysis on the ancient sea-going predator's remains to make sure what they had found was not contamination from bacteria or other modern sources.

Read more here.

Tagged:

europe

skin

protein

shark

cretaceous

proteins

legs

mosasaur

swedish

tissue

hungary

prognathodon

ectenosaurus

clidastoindes

denticles

freshwater

pannoniasaurus

1

Comments

Options
#2 04-05-2011 4:27pm
Rubecula

Registered Users Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭

Join Date: July 2010

Posts: 8323

Does this mean that getting a sample of DNA is possible?

0
Options
#3 05-05-2011 10:25am
Alvin T. Grey

Closed Accounts Posts: 1,169 ✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2007

Posts: 1133

Imagine the possibilities of sequencing that??/?

You finally get to see if your classification of the amimal families was right, and what there closest living reletives are. That could make understanding what the creatures habits and behaviour was easier.

Now, if they could only find a sample of Rex...

0
Options
#4 06-05-2011 10:37pm
Adam Khor

Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2011

Posts: 3885

Alvin T. Grey wrote: »

Now, if they could only find a sample of Rex...

What ever happened to the soft tissue they found in a T-Rex leg bone?

0
Options
#5 07-05-2011 12:34am
Capt'n Midnight

Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,700 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2003

Posts: 88940

Alvin T. Grey wrote: »

Imagine the possibilities of sequencing that??/?

You finally get to see if your classification of the amimal families was right, and what there closest living reletives are. That could make understanding what the creatures habits and behaviour was easier.

Now, if they could only find a sample of Rex...

Even if you dont have the DNA you could still sequence the protein and compare it to the proteins coded by known DNA sequences.

0
Options
#6 07-05-2011 7:46pm
Galvasean

Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2006

Posts: 29410

Adam Khor wrote: »

What ever happened to the soft tissue they found in a T-Rex leg bone?

As far as I know it's ongoing...
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=56732221

0
Advertisement
Options
#7 09-05-2011 9:41am
Alvin T. Grey

Closed Accounts Posts: 1,169 ✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2007

Posts: 1133

Adam Khor wrote: »

What ever happened to the soft tissue they found in a T-Rex leg bone?

It was tasty......:D

0
Options
#8 20-11-2011 8:43pm
Adam Khor

Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2011

Posts: 3885

They also swam like sharks, not eels, but this had already been revealed

http://www.livescience.com/17071-mosasaur-fossil-skin-locomotion.html

0
Options
#9 21-11-2011 1:06pm
Galvasean

Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2006

Posts: 29410

Guess that'll be the end of the undulating mosasaurs so.

0
Options
#10 21-11-2011 3:02pm
Rubecula

Registered Users Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭

Join Date: July 2010

Posts: 8323

A shark's skin supposedly helps it move more effortlessly through the water. (I am not sure this is true but it seems to be.) So if this is the case then other marine creatures that evolved a similar system is not beyond the bounds of possibility really.

0
Options
#11 21-11-2011 10:33pm
Adam Khor

Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2011

Posts: 3885

Rubecula wrote: »

A shark's skin supposedly helps it move more effortlessly through the water. (I am not sure this is true but it seems to be.) So if this is the case then other marine creatures that evolved a similar system is not beyond the bounds of possibility really.

Its actually to be expected. And yes, the denticles in a shark's skin help it move better underwater- I remember someone was designing a diver's suit that replicated a shark's skin. It allowed the divers/swimmers to move much faster than with normal suits!

0
Advertisement
Options
#12 22-11-2011 12:05am
Galvasean

Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2006

Posts: 29410

Huh huh....

Denticles.

0
Options
#13 20-12-2012 9:44pm
Adam Khor

Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2011

Posts: 3885

And not only that; a freshwater mosasaur with legs. It could probably crawl on land.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/12/121219-sea-monster-new-species-freshwater-paleontology-science/

0
Options
#14 21-12-2012 1:09pm
Kess73

Registered Users Posts: 25,560 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: August 2007

Posts: 25051

The T-Rex of inland waterways :pac:

0
Options
#15 21-12-2012 4:13pm
Rubecula

Registered Users Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭

Join Date: July 2010

Posts: 8323

Kess73 wrote: »

The T-Rex of inland waterways :pac:

Oh no don't. Please don't ....

Another good find Adam, I bet one of them would keep herons from the fish pond.

0
Options
#16 21-12-2012 4:33pm
Galvasean

Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2006

Posts: 29410

Chalk up another transitional fossil.

0
Options
#17 23-12-2012 6:46am
Adam Khor

Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2011

Posts: 3885

Rubecula wrote: »

Oh no don't. Please don't ....

Another good find Adam, I bet one of them would keep herons from the fish pond.

Would probably eat all the fish too XD

0
Options
#18 12-09-2013 5:56am
Adam Khor

Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2011

Posts: 3885

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/ancient-ocean-predators-were-reptiles-swam-sharks-8C11120803

Also, apparently ichthyosaurs are from the Cambrian :pac:

0
Options
#19 12-09-2013 5:59pm
Galvasean

Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2006

Posts: 29410

Ichthyosaurs in the Cambrian? Now wouldn't that be something? They must be hanging out with Robin Hood!

0
Options
#20 13-09-2013 1:17am
Rubecula

Registered Users Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭

Join Date: July 2010

Posts: 8323

See I knew Ichthyosaurs were totally awesome they even invented time machines, and perpetual motion mechanisms.

0
Options
#21 17-09-2013 3:58pm
Rubecula

Registered Users Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭

Join Date: July 2010

Posts: 8323

Just came across this on Nat Geo site

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/09/130910-mosasaur-sea-monster-reptile-tail-ocean-science/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20130917news-ancientshark&utm_campaign=Content

0
Advertisement
Options
#22 17-09-2013 8:48pm
Adam Khor

Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2011

Posts: 3885

What, now you need to be registered to READ their articles?

Shame on you, Nat Geo. You used to be cool.

0
Options
#23 18-09-2013 6:36pm
Galvasean

Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2006

Posts: 29410

Working normally for me and I never registered?

0
Options
#24 03-11-2013 11:23pm
Adam Khor

Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2011

Posts: 3885

They were insatiable that way.

http://www.livescience.com/40853-mosasaur-cannibalism-scavenging.html

0
Options
#25 04-11-2013 2:24pm
Galvasean

Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2006

Posts: 29410

How do they know the remains were scavenged?

0
Options
#26 05-11-2013 1:05am
Adam Khor

Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2011

Posts: 3885

It's an assumption apparently, because the jaws and skulls were not the "meaty parts", or that's what I think I read... :pac: Then again, I was under the impression that mosasaurs ate their prey either whole or in huge chunks, bones and all, so I don´t know...

0
Options
#27 09-01-2014 1:22am
Adam Khor

Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2011

Posts: 3885

Study included ancient sea turtle, mosasaur and ichthyosaur. Apparently mosasaurs had a dark back and a light underbelly which is not surprising in an aquatic predator, whereas the ichthyosaurs were completely black.

Not sure how accurate this may be... after all, if those are the melanosomes preserved, wouldn´t one expect to find only the black pigmentation? Or did I get something wrong?

http://www.livescience.com/42415-ancient-marine-beast-color.html

0
Options
#28 09-01-2014 1:51am
Manach

Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,664 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: January 2000

Posts: 9278

Again, echoing OP from what I remember of the fossilisation of soft material was always a very hap-hazard process, but not completely unknown.

0
Options
#29 10-01-2014 6:20pm
Kess73

Registered Users Posts: 25,560 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: August 2007

Posts: 25051

Seems to be a technique that would come a very large margin of error.

If we were to take it as being the norm for medium to large aquatic animals and also medium to large aquatic/semi aquatic reptiles, then what evolutionary advantage was there for modern day aquatic animals of size to lose the same black colourations?

I think that some extinct sea reptiles etc may have been black, but think colourations may have been as varied as they are today, and free swimming predators in particular would most likely have had body colourations that aided them ( dark on top, light underneath). Now I could see the advantage for an ambush predator to be dark or dull in colour, but again this would not mean that it had to be black.

The UV protection bit I think is also very debatable as if it was such a big advantage ( even taking what we think the climate was like back then) then it would still make evolutionary sense now.

0
Options
#30 10-04-2015 10:13pm
Adam Khor

Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2011

Posts: 3885

No shark-like coastal nurseries for baby mosasaurs (at least some of them) after all:

http://www.futurity.org/mosasaurs-babies-895672/

0
Advertisement
Options
#31 14-04-2015 5:55am
Linnaeus

Registered Users Posts: 218 ✭✭

Join Date: April 2015

Posts: 180

At least some species of Mosasaurs may have given birth to live offspring, like Ichthyosaurs. According to the article "Viviparity in Mosasaurs", from mapoflife.org, Carsosaurus marchesetti, described as a primitive "mosasaurid" of the Cretaceous, was certainly viviparous. A fossil of a pregnant Carsosaurus with four embryos has been discovered.

0