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Scary Monsters Science Took Away from Us

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    #32
    Galvasean
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    They've gone all Halloweeny this week.
    http://www.krank.ie/category/internets/scary-monsters-science-took-away-from-us-jurassic-vampire/

    Not a whole bunch about about prehistory, mind you, but our good friend Dougal Dixon gets to show off his 'wares'. :o


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    #33
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    I'm very sure vampire pterosaurs and/or dinosaurs did exist. I mean even today, there are vampire dinos, like the vampire finch of Galapagos:

    animal_vampires_9.jpg

    The famous oxpeckers considered to be "friends" to large herbivores in the African plains are actually more vampiric than we thought- they may have started picking ticks and other parasites from the skin of their "host", but they like blood so much they are not above keeping wounds open to feed on them, or even, opening new ones.

    The Mesozoic lasted 180 million years ago- surely stuff like this happened more than once during that time.


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    #34
    Galvasean
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    :eek: Thanks dam, you've ruined finches! :(
    We have vampire bats too. Not to mention all manner of mosquitos, ticks, leeches and other blood sucking things today. So: mammals, insects, arachnids, those squirmy things that leeches are, and birds. That's at least 5 animal groups that contain 'vampires' so it's probably not unreasonable to guess there was a vampiric dino/ptero at some point. Whether we'll ever find it is another thing entirely.


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    #35
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,820 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    weren't there small flying reptiles that used to hang off sauropods ?


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    #36
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
    weren't there small flying reptiles that used to hang off sauropods ?

    You must be thinking of Anurognathus from Walking with Dinosaurs. There's no evidence they did that, but they may have, considering they seem well adapted to hunt insects.

    In fact most scientists believe that anurognathids (including Jeholornis) were the pterosaur equivalent of nightjars and kin, being nocturnal or crepuscular and catching flying insects with their big wide mouths:
    800px-anurognathusdb.jpg?w=300&h=214


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    #37
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,820 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Adam Khor wrote: »
    You must be thinking of Anurognathus from Walking with Dinosaurs
    that's the one, but surly some of them must have figured out such a lucritive lifestyle

    look at the ciclads that have evolved to steal other fishes scales


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    #38
    Galvasean
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Sauropods got so massive that I wouldn't be surprised if some small forms of reptile spent the majority of their lives attached to them. I'd imagine a particularly large sauropod would have acted like a walking eco-system.


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    #39
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Galvasean wrote: »
    Sauropods got so massive that I wouldn't be surprised if some small forms of reptile spent the majority of their lives attached to them. I'd imagine a particularly large sauropod would have acted like a walking eco-system.

    Unless they were fond of constant bathing and mud masks like elephants and co.


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    #40
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,820 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Galvasean wrote: »
    Sauropods got so massive that I wouldn't be surprised if some small forms of reptile spent the majority of their lives attached to them. I'd imagine a particularly large sauropod would have acted like a walking eco-system.
    a warm eco-system


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