You may recall last week I wrote a post about a 10m (33ft) long Colossal Squid weighing almost 500 kg (1,100lb) that was found in Antarctic waters. The squid was kept frozen by fisherman until the ship came home to New Zealand.
And now scientists are pondering how to thaw out the squid evenly. Zoologist, Steve O'Shea of the of Auckland University of Technology, said it could take days for the creature to defrost at room temperature - meaning that the outer flesh could rot by the time the centre thaws. So one option is an industrial-sized microwave oven that could be used to defrost the animal evenly before it is embalmed. Scientists and curators at New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa would like to preserve the amazing specimen for detailed study and display.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you Steve, you know what happens when you radiate animals: they grow gigantic and attack the city!
If you’re a palaeontologist you’ve heard this question a thousand times. And if you’re not a palaeontologist you might wonder why you never get the same answer twice. Well you see the annoying part of palaeontology is that the most spectacular animals are sometimes only known from a single bone or sometimes a fragment of a bone and so ‘reconstructing’ that animal can be incredibly difficult (and controversial).
The famous French naturalist, Georges Cuvier once said
"Today comparative anatomy has reached such a point of perfection that, after inspecting a single bone, one can often determine the class, and sometimes even the genus of the animal to which it belonged, above all if that bone belonged to the head or the limbs. ... This is because the number, direction, and shape of the bones that compose each part of an animal's body are always in a necessary relation to all the other parts, in such a way that - up to a point - one can infer the whole from any one of them and vice versa."
This principal is key to the reconstruction of many giant sauropods, which are often found as disarticulated, isolated specimens and historically, estimates of their size have varied dramatically. The other day, my nephew, Ben and I were debating whether sauropods were the largest animals that ever lived on Earth. Ben felt very strongly for the ‘for’ side while I was in the conservative camp of ‘against’ because I thought that while sauropods came close, they did not exceed the size of Blue Whales (about 30-33m long and 150-170 tonnes). Well according to Ken Carpenter's most recent estimate, pictured below by Matt Celeskey, Amphicoelias fragillimus may have been an amazing 58m (190ft) long! If you want to read more about how this estimate was made, visit Matt's wonderfully entertaining blog, the Hairy Museum of Natural History.
Left back: Amphicoelias fragillimus - estimated to be 58 m (190 ft) long
Left front: Seismosaurus hallorum - 33m (110ft) long
Middle: Human, Homo sapiens - 1.8m (6ft) tall and African Elephant, Loxodonta africana - 4m (13ft) tall
Medial right: Argentinosaurus huinculensis - estimated 30m (98ft) long
Furthest right: Puertasaurus reuili - estimated at least 35m (115ft) long
Sorry, my blog has been a bit squid-heavy as of late but they are interesting creatures and this one definitely deserves a mention:
Vital Statistics:
Weight: 495kg (1,090lb)
Length: 10m (33ft)
Commonly: Colossal Squid
Scientifically: Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni
New Home: Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand's national museum
This amazing animal was caught last month by fishermen in Antarctica's Ross Sea. It is now on ice, awaiting examination and preparation for its permanent display in New Zealand's national museum. Once un-frozen, the creature will be embalmed and then preserved in a natural position.
The Colossal Squid was first recorded in 1925 after two tentacles were recovered from a sperm whale's stomach. Since then, only a handful of colossal squid have ever been sighted because they live very deep in the ocean. Two others were found in the Ross Sea, and one turned up near South Georgia in 2005.
Image from BBC website.
You may recall last week I wrote a post about a 10m (33ft) long Colossal Squid weighing almost 500 kg (1,100lb) that was found in Antarctic waters. The squid was kept frozen by fisherman until the ship came home to New Zealand.
