Hairy Museum of Natural History

• 
  
  The reconstructed skull of Panphagia (detail)
  Credit: Martinez & Alcober, 2009.

• New Dinosaur: Panphagia protos
• Name Means: First Everything-Eater
• Relations: Basal Sauropodomorph
• Holotype: PVSJ 874, partial skull and skeleton of an immature individual
• Location: Ischigualasto Provincial Park, Argentina
• Age: Carnian Triassic, ~228,300,000 years old
• Length: The juvenile holotype was about 1.3 meters (4.25 feet) long
• Info:
  Silhouette reconstruction of the skeleton of Panphagia protos
  From Martinez & Alcober, 2009.
• Some of the earliest known dinosaurs have come from the fabled Valley of the Moon in Ischigualasto Provincial Park, Argentina. Both Eoraptor and Herrerasaurus hail from the lower Upper Triassic rocks preserved there, and today researchers have added a new dinosaur to the Ischigualastoan roster. Panphagia protos was a smallish, slender, hollow-boned biped, at first glance not too terribly different from its contemporaries (particularly Eoraptor, which it shares some intriguing similarities with).
• Upon closer inspection, Panphagia shows characters that hint at much larger things to come. Its teeth are long and sharp, particularly near the front of the jaw, but also sport the coarse serrations seen in later plant-eaters. Its name, meaning “Everything Eater,” reflects Martinez and Alcober’s suggestion that it was an omnivore, descended from carnivorous ancestors but capable of supplementing its diet with plant matter as well. Several features of its teeth, skull, and skeleton ally it to the Sauropodomorpha, that great clade of long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs that would later give rise to familiar giants like Apatosaurus and Brachiosaurus (as well as a whole panoply of less-well-known but equally fascinating megaherbivores).
• Little Panphagia appears to be the basal-most branch off the sauropodomorph family tree, providing researchers with new insight into the early evolution of dinosaurs, and clues to the origin of herbivory in some of the most famous extinct plant-eaters.
• Reference: Martinez, R. N., and Alcober, O. A., 2009. A Basal Sauropodomorph (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from the Ischigualasto Formation (Triassic, Carnian) and the Early Evolution of Sauropodomorpha. PLoS ONE. 4(2): e4397. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004397
• Further Reading:
  • Dracovenator: Before they were giants, a new fossil from the dawn of the age of dinosaurs
  • El PaleoFreak: Panphagia [Google Translation]
  • Clarín: Hallaron en San Juan al ancestro más antiguo de los dinosaurios gigantes [Google Translation]

—Matt Celeskey.

File under: Dinosaurs, Triassic.

Comments on record: (2)

February 12, 2009 marks the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, and 2009 also marks the susquecentennial of his most famous work, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. There are a ton of posts, projects, and events celebrating these facts all over the web today, and, of course, darwinday.org is a great place to find information on a lot of them.

Back on Darwin Day 2004, HMNH Curator of Ich-theology Ray Troll and Kirk Johnson came through Albuquerque on one of the last legs of their epic Fossil Freeway adventure. That evening, the three of us got together and recited The Evolutionist’s Prayer, an ode to common descent that Ray and I composed for the occasion. Feb. 12 is a great time to reflect on our rich evolutionary heritage and deep connections to all life on this planet.

This year, Ray has released a new piece of art and music in honor of the occasion – check out Trollart.com and give his new song, “Fishface,” a listen!

Artwork © Ray Troll 2009

Other Darwin-inspired links of note:

• In other Darwinian music news, Thomas Holtz provides the lyrics to “The Twelve Days of Darwin.”
• ReBecca Hunt at Dinochick Blogs has some great Darwin art, and a couple of Ray Troll posts of her own.
• Seed Magazine has several articles, slideshows, and other tidbits as part of their Darwin 200 celebration—The Evolution of Life in 60 seconds and the Saved by Science slideshow are good places to start.
• The Daily Mammal has two drawings (so far) up in a “Darwin Day” series.
• Rigor Vitae shows the Evolution of a Public Image in honor of the day.
• I couldn’t agree more with John Hawks’ criticism of a recent article calling for the death of “Darwinism”.
• And, if you’ve never taken a look at Anne Weaver’s The Voyage of the Beetle, today would be an excellent day to do so!

—Matt Celeskey.

File under: Paleo-Pop, Webbery.

Comments on record: (0)

Detail of the Parasaurolophus painting I did
for the cover of Paleontology of New Mexico

I’m happy to announce the release of a new book—The Paleontology of New Mexico by Barry S. Kues. Dr. Kues is a professor of paleontology in the Earth & Planetary Sciences Department at the University of New Mexico with a longstanding interest in the prehistory of our state. The handsome cover (more on that later) states that this is an updated and expanded version of Dr. Kues’ 1982 work, Fossils of New Mexico. But since that time, so much fieldwork and research has been done around New Mexico that this work is literally twice the size of its predecessor, and almost entirely rewritten.

The book follows a familiar format—a few introductory chapters, followed by a chapter-by-chapter look at the fossils known from each geological period through the Paleozoic & Mesozoic Eras, and by epoch through the Cenozoic. (The least fossiliferous chapter of New Mexican prehistory? The highly volcanic Oligocene, which takes up less than a page in this book.) The text is written in a style I’d describe as “accessible scientific,” and the book contains numerous black and white illustrations, mostly compiled from the primary literature, which provide ample visual appeal for the interested non-specialist. All in all, this volume is a very solid overview of the current state of paleontology in the State of New Mexico.

I do want to thank Barry Kues and the publishers at UNM Press for giving me the opportunity to create a painting for the cover—a dapper Parasaurolophus tubicen hooting at dusk on the shores of a steamy Cretaceous riverbank in what is now northwest New Mexico. (And a big thank you to Mina Yamashita at the Press for a cover design that really pops the painting off of the jacket!)

The Paleontology of New Mexico is available online now – from UNM Press, Amazon, and the Museum of New Mexico Foundation Shops.

—Matt Celeskey.

File under: Dinosaurs, Paleo-Pop.

Comments on record: (14)

• 
  
  The giant Titanoboa (detail)
  Credit: Jason Bourque,
  University of FloridaFrom the UF press release.

• New Snake: Titanoboa cerrejonensis
• Name Means: Titanic Boa from Cerrejón
• Relations: Boid Snake
• Holotype: UF-IGM 1, a precloacal vertebra
• Location: Cerrejón, northeastern Colombia
• Age: Middle Paleocene, 58,000,000 to 60,000,000 years old
• Length: ~13 meters (42 feet)
• Weight: 1,135 kg (2,500 lbs)
• Info:
  A vertebra from a modern Anaconda boid Anaconda compared with the type vertebra of Titanoboa.
  Photo by Ray Carson, UF News Bureau. From the UF press release.
• The hefty vertebrae of newly-described Titanoboa dwarf their modern counterparts, and are by far the largest known from any fossil serpents, as well. Size estimates for this South American giant reach well over 40 feet in length and weighing in at just over a ton!
• Today, the largest snakes are found in the equatorial tropics, where high ambient temperatures allow them to maintain their “cold-blooded” bulk. If today’s anacondas and pythons need a mean annual temperature of 27° Celsius (80° F) to grow 20 feet long, then a giant like Titanoboa would have required mean annual temperatures of 32° Celsius (96° F) to support its serpentine bulk.
• Reference: Head, J. J., Bloch, J. I., Hastings, A. K., Bourque, J. R., Cadena, E. A., Herrera, F. A., Polly, P. D., and Jaramillo, C. A., 2009. Giant boid snake from the Palaeocene neotropics reveals hotter past equatorial temperatures. Nature 457: 715-717. doi:10.1038/nature07671. [Figures] [Supplementary Info]
• Further Reading:
  • University of Florida Press Release [multimedia]
  • Cryptomundo: Snake longer than school bus discovered!
  • The Dragon’s Tales: Now THAT’S a SNAKE!
  • microecos: Why is a protarded boa constrictor like a writing desk, I mean, thermometer?
  • Not Exactly Rocket Science: Titanoboa – thirteen metres, one tonne, largest snake ever.

—Matt Celeskey.

File under: Paleogene, Reptiles.

Comments on record: (15)

• 
  
  Credit: John Klausmeyer,
  University of Michigan
  Museums of Natural History.
  From the U. of Mich. press release.

• New Mammal: Maiacetus inuus
• Name Means: Fecund Mother whale
• Relations: Protocetid whale
• Holotype: GSP-UM 3475a, partial skeleton of an adult female, containing the partially ossified skeleton of a near-term fetus (GSP-UM 3475b)
• Location: Balochistan Province, Pakistan
• Age: Middle Eocene, ~47,500,000 years old
• Length: ~2.5 meters (about 8 feet)
• Info: Artist’s conception of male Maiacetus inuus as it would have appeared in life.
  Credit: John Klausmeyer, University of Michigan Museums of Natural History.
• A team of paleontologists led by Philip Gingerich have described a new species of early whale. Buried along the shrinking shores of the Tethys Sea (and collected well above sea level in present-day Pakistan), the holotype of Maiacetus is the partial skeleton of a pregnant mother, preserved with the remains of its near-term fetus still in its womb. A more complete skeleton found one kilometer away is thought to be male, due to differences in size and pelvic proportion, and shows that this early whale retained the ancestral ability to stroll the shores on four fully-functional limbs (including an artiodactyl-style “double-pulley” ankle). The position of the fetus in the female indicates that Maiacetus gave birth head-first and most certainly on land, unlike modern whales that give birth tail-first into the water, which reduces the risk of drowning and helps orient the newborns parallel to their mothers. There are several excellent articles around the blogosphere for those who want to learn more, and the description is freely accessible through PLoS ONE at the link below.
  Fossils of female Maiacetus inuus with near-term fetus in utero, as found in the field. The female’s skull is shaded white (teeth brown), and other parts of her skeleton are shaded red. The single fetus, in birth position inside the mother whale, is shaded blue (teeth orange). The specimen was collected in three plaster jackets (blue dashed lines), and additional bones were picked up separately. The red dashed line indicates the edge exposed by erosion.
  Copyright: University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology.
• Reference: Gingerich, P. D., Haq, M-u., von Koenigswald, W., Sanders, W. J., Smith, B. H., and Zalmout, I. S., 2009. New Protocetid Whale from the Middle Eocene of Pakistan: Birth on Land, Precocial Development, and Sexual Dimorphism. PLoS One 4(2): e4366. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004366.
• Further Reading:
  • University of Michigan Press Release
  • Greg Laden’s Blog: Amazing Fossil Finding: Proto Whales Gave Birth on Land, not at sea
  • Laelaps: Maiacetus, the good mother whale
  • The Loom: The Backward Whale
  • Not Exactly Rocket Science: Fossil foetus shows that early whales gave birth on land
  • The Questionable Authority: A Fossil Fetus and what it can tell us about the life history of early whales.

—Matt Celeskey.

File under: Mammals, Paleogene.

Comments on record: (3)