Ancient super crocodile fossil found in museum drawer

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Long-forgotten remains of a long-forgotten species, have been discovered in a museum drawer in Scotland. The beast, a dolphin-shaped crocodilian “super predator,” was able to eat other species its size and larger.

The ancient newfound crocodilian is named Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos, Greek for “blood-biting tyrant swimmer.” Sounds pretty friendly, doesn’t it? “Tyrannoneustes was a dolphinlike crocodile that lived 165 million years ago,” said researcher Mark Young, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the University of Southampton in England.

The predator possessed a long snout, large flippers, armorless skin and a tail fin where the bottom half is larger than the top half, resembling an upside-down version of an ordinary shark’s tail fin.It’s uncertain how large Tyrannoneustes was, but the right side of its lower jaw was at least 26 inches (67 centimeters) long. It featured enlarged teeth with serrated edges, and a jaw that evolved to open wider, allowing it to swallow smaller prey whole.
Back when Tyrannoneustes was alive, the area in central England where the fossils were discovered was covered in a shallow sea encompassing much of what is now Europe. Originally found between 1907 and 1909, the fossil has been lost in a drawer at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow for nearly 100 years.

There are no modern descendents of the animal. Instead, this predator was a kind of metriorhynchid, an extinct family of marine crocodiles.

The discovery of Tyrannoneustes shows that during the Middle Jurassic, metriorhynchid crocodiles were beginning to evolve into predators of large-bodied prey. By the Late Jurassic, numerous metriorhynchid species were suited to feeding on large prey, but Tyrannoneustes is the first known from the Middle Jurassic. How this impacted upon other predatory groups such as pliosaurs and ichthyosaurs is still unclear.
 

Future research can scan Tyrannoneustes bones to develop computer models of how it might have fed, Young said. He and his colleagues detailed their findings online Jan. 4 in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.

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Bigfoot In Oregon? Strange Bloodcurdling Noises In Pendleton Swamp

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Is there a bigfoot in Oregon?

The sounds of cries and roars can be heard throughout the Umatilla Indian Reservation near Pendleton, The Oregonian reports Jan. 25. The reservation is home to about 1,500 people across 178,000 acres in Oregon’s Blue Mountains. The possible Bigfoot noises were heard near an old reservation community center just north of Wilhorse Resort and Casino. Residents first started hearing the noises last month, and rumors quickly spread that it could be a mythical ape-like humanoid creature, Bigfoot.

Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is the name given to the mysterious ape-like creature that some people believe inhabits forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Scientists discount the existence of Bigfoot, usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid, and consider it to be a combination of folklore, misidentification, and hoax.

Among some Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest, however, the Bigfoot is not to be taken lightly. Stories about the hominid hairy creatures roaming the forests of the region have been passed down from generation to generation in some tribal cultures, so when the screeches first drifted over the swampland, it did not take much to convince the locals that those were the cries of Bigfoot.

According to the Oregon Live, the eerie late-night sounds, which range from high-pitched screams to basso profundo roars, started in November and have caused bigfoot rumors to spread. Several reservation unit tenants and home owners call authorities to report the strange sounds. One man even claimed his dog was too afraid to go outside.

One said the cries were made by “a young Bigfoot that had got separated from the rest of his clan.” The howls also make some believe the animal making those noises are foxes or a female coyote.

So far no one has been able to nail down exactly what the source is of the spooky sounds. For decades many have believed Bigfoot does, in fact, live in Oregon within its thick forests. Reported Examiner…

Carl Sheeler, wildlife program manager for the Walla Walla and Cayuse tribes, said the strange noises may just be from animals known to live in the area.

But some of those who have heard the sounds don’t agree with Sheeler. “Foxes do sound creepy,” said Sylvia Minthorn. “But it’s not the same sound, not even close.”

Did Oregon residents within the reservation actually hear Bigfoot? Enthusiasts of the creature think that they are getting closer to finding the elusive Bigfoot, and sightings continue. Late last year, a group of hikers in Utah encountered what they thought was a bear, but then the animal turned and stood on two legs, looking very much like Bigfoot.

Sasquatch Watch Canada posted a recording of the howls to Youtube. Listen to them below:

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Giant Earthworm Discovered In China

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In a province Binchaun County in southwest China was found a snake-like earthworm measuring over 19 inches (a half-meter) long in a house gutter. Li Zhiwei, a Forestry Bureau worker, made the discovery and eventually decided to keep the worm. “It looked like a snake, I looked carefully and found it was actually a huge earthworm,” said Li. Li’s neighbors who came to see his unusual find said they had never seen an earthworm that long in their area before.

Biologists said they plan to study the giant earthworm found in Li’s backyard to find out why it was able to grow to such an enormous length. An adult earthworm’s measurements vary by species and can range anywhere from 10mm long and 1mm wide, to 3-meters long and over 25mm wide. Environmental factors also influence an earthworm’s body size, and they tend to grow longer and larger during humid seasons if they take in sufficient nutrition and have no natural enemies. Biologists plan to study the earthworm found by Li to classify it and identify the reason it was able to grow to its current length.

The discovery is especially cool for Li. He said he plans to keep the giant earthworm in his backyard and raise it as a pet.

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Unknown Creature Discovered In Africa

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Hunters in Namibia have caught strange creature that has never been seen before. Recording of events caused strong reactions – is a being from another planet, the mythical creature or something completely different?
Video showing the unusual creature caught in Africa has become a hit on the Internet in just a few days. In his description states that local hunters in Namibia saw a strange creature in search of food. One of the hunters had shot him, after which the creature fled into the bush, but hunters nevertheless find it.

Hunters have found three other similar beings. One of them attacked them, so they killed him, but the other escaped.
The body of of the weird being were taken away in a hunting camp and is expected to detailed investigation. People on YouTube have made ​​a discussion on the origin of this creature. While some believe that it is a fake photographs, others are convinced of their authenticity, and some even claim to have themselves seen similar being.
Watch the video and judge for yourself whether he is a being from another planet, the mythical creature or something else.

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Do The World’s Tiniest Fly Really Decapitate Ants?

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A new species of phorid fly from Thailand is the smallest fly ever discovered. The tiny fly, Euryplatea nanaknihali, is also the first of its genus to be discovered in Asia, and it belongs to a fly family (Phoridae) that is known for “decapitating” ants.

It is a gruesome parasite that lives inside the heads of ants, growing in size until the victim is decapitated.
They lay their eggs inside their victims. When the maggots hatch, they move towards the ant’s head, where they gorge upon the brain and other tissues. The ant stumbles about in a literally mindless stupor until the connection between its head and body is dissolved by a enzyme released from the maggot. The head falls off and the adult flies burst out.

It is five times smaller than a fruit fly and tinier than a grain of salt (0.4 millimeters) in length — half the size of the smallest “no see-ums.””It’s so small you can barely see it with the naked eye on a microscope slide. It’s smaller than a flake of pepper,” said Brian Brown, of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, who identified the fly as a new species. “The housefly looks like a Godzilla fly beside it.”

Although this has not yet been observed, it is highly likely because the fly’s only known relative, Euryplatea eidmanni, is known to parasitize ants in Equatorial Guinea.

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Unknown Creature in Kanas Lake

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Kanas Lake, which means “beautiful, mysterious lake” in Mongolian, is tucked away in Xinjiang and China’s far North Western corner. The scenery here is more like Kazakstan or Russia than China with the 24km long and up to 2km wide lake flanked by birch and larch forest. The lake is 1,374 meters above sea level and covers an area of 45.73 square kilometers with the deepest point of 196 meters. The famous legend about “Kanas Monster” adds another air of mystery to the lake. If the stunning, Siberian-like scenery wasn’t enough there is some mystery thrown in regarding what is known as China’s Nessie – the Kanas Lake Monster! According to the legend, huge monsters dwell in the lake’s depths and often dragged horses and camels drinking into the water before swallowing them.

Some scientists believe, however, that the monsters may be taimen trout, one of the world’s largest and most ferocious freshwater fish which can grow as long as 10 meters.

This footage was filmed in China, where lake monster sightings have been popping up around a Kanas lake. Usually, lake monster “sightings” are later discovered to be common animals such as otters or eels. According to CCTV, about 15 of the unknown creature was found in Kanas Lake in China’s Xinjiang Province on the 5th of July.

Not just one, but more than a dozen huge creatures can be seen churning across Lake Kanas in remote western China, leaving a foamy wake more like an enormous motorboat than a big fish.
The tourists saw the lake monster in the lake at the foot of a mountain more than 2,000 meters away. The lake monster, four or five meters long, appeared in the lake with the huge wave, revealing its white belly.

This video recording is the latest sighting of the creature captured in June 2012, by a local worker Wang.

The tale about this monster has been spread for thousands of years in the Kanas area of China, which is about the creature engulf cattle and horses in one swallow and then dive down into the deep bottom of the cold Kanas Lake.

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Bigfoot Spotted In Idaho?

A group of high school students believe they may have stumbled upon Bigfoot while in the Idaho wilderness for a class project.

The teenagers were in the woods near Mink Creek in Franklin County when they said they noticed a dark creature watching them from a ridge. Mysterious creature was caught on tape for a few seconds near Mink Creek before it retreated into the treeline.

The group then raced to the point they had seen the creature, and said they found a large foot imprint in the dirt and took a photograph of it. 

“It just didn’t look human-like. I don’t know what that is, it’s not a bear, it’s not a moose or anything. It was big and bulky and black,” said the student, who did not want to be identified on camera.
“I’m not going to say yes it was a Bigfoot or no it wasn’t, because I don’t know, and nobody knows,” the student told the news station.

Bigfoot is allegedly an ape-like creature said to inhabit forests mainly in the Northwest, but his existence has not been scientifically proven.

There have been scores of sightings, including in Spokane, Washington in May 2011, when a woman hiker captured a large figure on camera and uploaded the footage to YouTube.

The Animal Planet show Finding Bigfoot will visit Pocatello, Idaho next month to investigate the claims that Bigfoot could be in the area.

See below for video:

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Mermaids: The Body Found

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Could mermaids actually exist?

The idea of mermaids has tantalized seafarers for millenia! According to Charlie Foley’s speculative documentary “Mermaids: The Body Found,” which aired Memorial Day weekend on Animal Planet, “real” mermaids are more like those scary merfolk from “Harry Potter” than the Disney version.

Paul Robertson, a former employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), speaks in a two-hour Animal Planet special about his experiences with his research team while they were investigating mass whale beachings around the world.

The film, begins with the real, actual fact that the Navy’s use of sonar systems is suspected by some scientists of contributing to whale beachings. And it takes note of an odd underwater sound known as the Bloop that was recorded in the Pacific Ocean in 1997. It turns out that whales haven’t been the only creatures beaching themselves; two boys in Washington State caught something else on a cellphone camera before the authorities swooped in and pressured them into silence.

Also, remains found inside a shark in South Africa were decidedly mermaidlike.
An expert uses those remains to reconstruct a mermaid, which, sadly, is not nearly as cute as Ariel from the Disney film and doesn’t have her flowing red hair. But the public never got to meet this model mermaid because the whole project was black-opped.

People are taking it super-seriously — even pointing to the fact that the website listed in the trailer, BelieveInMermaids.com, has been seized by the Department of Homeland Security.

Could there actually be a scientific grounding to this legend?

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Mysterious Deep Sea Cascade Creature Caught on Cam

A huge weird blob was filmed by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) near an underwater drilling site and it’s been named the Cascade Creature. It’s size is very big, somewhere around six meters, it’s brownish skin has hexagonal shapes on it and it’s extremely weird and creepy.

As soon as the video turned viral, scientists of all sorts hopped to analyze the strange footage, in hopes that they can clarify what all the commotion is about. Some have said it’s something man-made: like a huge fishing net, but they were soon contradicted by the very evident elements that prove this huge creature was once alive. It has an intricate blood vessel system and the texture of it’s “skin” confirms it was once a living creature.

Assessments from experts such as Steven Haddock at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and Craig McClain at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center have cleared up the mystery, though perhaps disappointing fans of extraterrestrial theories. They concluded that the cascade creature is indeed a Deepstaria enigmatica. The scientist declared that:

“This bag-like jelly is not that rare, but is large, so rarely seen intact. In the video, the swirling from the sub makes the medusa appear to undulate and it even turns inside-out … The web-like pattern is not a nerve net, as some comments have said. It is branches from their digestive system”

According to Wikipedia, “Deepstaria enigmatica, is a jellyfish of the family Ulmaridae first described in 1967 by F.S. Russel. The bell of this jellyfish is very thin and wide (up to approx. 60 cm), and resembles a translucent, folding sheet or “lava lamp” as the animal moves.”

Meanwhile, according to the Marine Species Identification Portal, the Deepstaria enigmatica is found in the South Atlantic Ocean, with a bell that can measure up to 60cm in diameter. The portal adds that the jellyfish has “oral arms” which end in “curious hook-shaped organs.”

Have a look at the video below and let us know what you think it may be:

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England’s version of the ‘Loch Ness Monster’

Kayakers snap photo of England’s version of the ‘Loch Ness Monster’…
Nothing puts a damper on a serene afternoon’s kayaking like the sight of a primeval sea monster.

That was the rude lesson for Tom Pickles and Sarah Harrington, who’d taken their watercraft out on the foggy waters of Lake Windermere, only to encounter what appeared to be “an enormous snake” swimming by.

“It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away. At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10 mph,” the 24-year-old Pickles told The Telegraph. “Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast. Its skin was like a seal’s but its shape was completely abnormal—it’s not like any animal I’ve ever seen before.”

But what did Pickles and Harrington expect? Didn’t they know that Lake Windermere is reputedly the home of the British version of the Loch Ness monster? In the past five years, sojourners on the lake have reported eight sightings of a Nessie-like serpent.

But the kayaking couple rallied from their shock and snapped the clearest photo of the Windermere “monster” since the sightings began. A journalism professor and his wife inaugurated the recent spate of Nessie-esque encounters on the lake back in 2006 reporting they had seen a “giant eel” somewhere between 15-20 feet long.

Ever since then, researchers have set out upon the lake with sonar equipment, in pursuit of “Bow-Nessie,” as the creature’s British compatriots like to call it. But so far, their efforts haven’t borne fruit.

Of course, people in Scotland have reported sightings of the Loch Ness Monster since 1933, and even with dramatic advance sonar and video technology, Loch Ness research teams have likewise been unable to turn up any credible scientific evidence of its existence. Even its most noted hunter, Robert Rines, recently gave up his quest to find the beast after trying for nearly 40 years. “Unfortunately, I’m running out of age,” the 85 year-old Rines said last year when he announced he was calling it quits.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ian Winfield, a lake ecologist at the University of Lancaster, told The Sun he thinks the mysterious appartition people are seeing in Lake Windermere is merely a really big catfish. But all of this speculation overlooks the central mystery in the latest sighting: Why on earth would a couple go kayaking on an English lake in the middle of February?

source

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