Monthly Archives: February 2020

Are you a budding paleontologist? Or do you just love reading interesting facts about the prehistoric era and the creatures that roamed around before humankind came to dominate the earth and its resources? Either way, planning museum visits with friends and family sounds like something that you may be doing regularly! After all, it is the one place where you get to see and admire all the relics from the past. Talking about museums, coming across fossils and bones of creatures that are now extinct is pretty exciting. Fossils of dinosaurs are the most sought after. These wondrous creatures were wiped off the earth about 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period. Today dinosaur bones and teeth have been dug out from around the globe. While about 700 species of dinosaurs have been discovered, Tyrannosaurus Rex, popularly referred to as T-Rex, is considered to be one among the most massive carnivores to have ever walked the earth during the late Cretaceous period! Tyrannosaurus bones have been discovered in the USA, Canada, and East Asia.

If you are into paleontology or want to become a paleontologist in the future, frequent trips to museums that house Tyrannosaurus and other dinosaur bones are a must. These trips are not just going to be informative, but a lot of fun too! What if we told you that you need not drag yourself to the museum every time you feel like looking at this beast’s remains? You may very well become proud owners of these relics by purchasing them! All you have to do is browse the internet!

Let us now look at some fascinating facts about T-Rex:

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Trilobites are a group of now-extinct marine arthropods that are believed to have first appeared around 540 million years ago in what is today known as Siberia. From there, they quickly spread to other locations around the world, including the United States. Redlichiida and Ptychoparlid bigotinids are regarded as some of the earliest orders of trilobites. The name “trilobite” comes from the fact their bodies could be divided into three parts, both axially and longitudinally. Below are some more interesting facts about this arthropod that lived and thrived on our ocean floors.

1. There are more than 20,000 recognized trilobite species today.

There is no continent where you will not find trilobite fossils. The species varied from each other in many factors, including size and skeletal structure. The biggest one measured almost 28 inches in length while the smallest was less than a millimeter. Some had smooth, convex shells while some had defensive spines.

2. They are the official fossils in three US states.

If you didn’t know, then it may come as a surprise that most US states have a state fossil designation. And various trilobites are the official fossils in three states: Ohio (Isotelus), Pennsylvania (Phacops rana), and Wisconsin (Calymene celebra).

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One of the most ancient of all the modern sharks, Cow sharks are divided into the following five species: Sharpnose Sevengill, Broadnose Sevengill, Atlantic Sixgill, Bluntnose Sixgill, and the Bigeyed Sixgill. Of the five species, Atlantic Sixgill is the most recently discovered Cow shark. The reason why all these sharks have ‘gill’ at the end of their names is due to the obvious fact that they all possessed gill slits. But what’s with ‘Seven’ gill or ‘Six’ gill? While all the other sharks have the usual 5-gill slits, Cow sharks are unique in their make up as they possess one additional, or in certain classes such as the Sharpnose and Broadnose, two additional gill slits.

This distinct group of sharks first made their way into the fossil record in the late Cretaceous geological period and four of the early Cow sharks still exist to this date. These sharks have not shown many changes in their physical attributes in 65 million years. Hexanchus griseus, the Broadnose Sixgill species, and Notorynchus cepedianus, the Bluntnose Sevengill, are the two cow sharks that are most commonly found in present times.

Different Characteristics within the Cow Shark Family

Apart from having one less gill slit than Sevengill sharks, Sixgill sharks differ from them in that they have a longer length in comparison to Sevengill sharks. While the latter has managed to achieve a maximum length of 2.6 m (9 feet), Sixgill ones have reached lengths of 4.8 m

Paleontologists, scientists, and those enthusiastic about delving into the prehistoric age know that the great white shark of today is not the largest of the shark. Megalodon, a super-shark that ruled aquatic life in the prehistoric age, nearly 20 to 2.6 million years ago, was three times larger than the Great White shark, growing up to 16-18 meters (55-60 feet) in length. With a size so enormous, no doubt it is the largest of all sharks and was one of the most feared predators ever existed on Earth.

Most of the information about the gigantic Megalodon comes from the size of its tooth collected by researchers in different places all around the world. Judging by the tooth size, which may reach up to 18 cm (7 inches) long, researchers concluded that not only it was the largest and a fearsome creature of the prehistoric era, but also one of the most powerful predators with an estimated bite force of between 10.8 to 18.2 tones, which is quite impressive when compared with the bite force of 1.7 tones of the largest Great White shark ever recorded.

If you talk about the jaw size, Megalodon shark jaws were lined with 276 teeth and spanned roughly 2.7 to 3.4 meters (9-11 feet) wide, which is more than enough to swallow two adults side-by-side. On the other hand, the Great White shark jaws are recorded to a maximum width of 2 meters (6.5 feet).

Final note

The sharks swimming in the oceans today, in no way, would stand before