I won’t write about how much I fucking loved the dinosaur exhibit, because you all probably know that I think it was PHENOMENAL… except that they said they had “expanded” their dinosaur collection - however… they just made fake dinosaurs out of plaster. There were a TON of dinosaurs that had no real bone on them. … So that wasn’t very cool. But they were still neat to look at.

I spent last weekend in Toronto with my gay boyfriend, his brother, the lovely pres of the UTSA and met up with some Guelph friends one night. We did the usual… bar… thing. We went to 4, which was actually really nice, I wish we could have stayed there. But we had to go meet people at Crews … we went too late, and it was full of hot sweaty gay men. And ran into like 4 people I haven’t seen in a long time and had awkward conversations.

Anyway… after all that craziness I decided it was probably in my best interest to spend Sunday doing some downtime sort of things. So I went to the ROM, since I missed out on it when all the campus people went. When I walked in, this was the first thing I saw:

Seriously. There is NOTHING more adorable than kids loving dinosaurs. I’d of hated to be the person inside that costume, but they kids loved it so much.

I think the most interesting stops of my day were - Canadian History, Darwin and the top floor Japanese art exhibit.

Canada through the history didn’t actually sound that good, because I already know all about Canada’s history - but after seeing a painting of some aboriginals, and the art’s description of being humbled in front of his own painting - I decided to press on. On of the things they had set up was decor. They showed what people’s houses would have looked like during the first settlements, then with French influence… etc. when it got to the “modern” section it was weird. I was staring at what was supposed to represent my era.

It was a read couch, with a curvy top sitting low to the floor, and a couple super modern looking chairs and like funky looking lamps. The only thing I could think was “Uh, my house totally doesn’t look like that” really.. rich people’s houses were the ones that looked like that. It made me sort of second guess everything I had just looked at. Who actually had the french influenced furniture? Just the rich people? Was anything the correct depiction of how everyday people lived?

The only downside of that exhibit was that it didn’t once mention Sir Isaac Brock, and I love him. <3

The Darwin exhibit was pretty good. I felt bad for the animals they had caged up for entertainment, people knocking on their glass, taking pictures and pointing. They just looked sad. The history of Darwin’s life was good to read, and all the information on evolution was no news - but again, glad to see it was there and being read by so many people.

There was a “tourist” group going through…. so I attached myself for a little bit. Turns out they were a Christian group, and that was interesting. The tour guide would bring them to a section of the exhibit that said on the display “evolution is the only explanation for life science has thus far” and would read it as “obviously evolution isn’t the only explanation” and would make up their own science.

Shanghai Kaleidoscope was the japanese art exhibit on the top floor - I recommend EVERYONE go see this. It wasn’t very big, but it was SO good. The large scale video art was just amazing. I’ll likely go back to the ROM just to see that exhibit again.

The animal with the earliest sexual differentiation.

Name: diictodon (DY-ik-toe-don) means two teeth
animal: therapsid reptile
size: 45 cm long
diet: herbivore
lived: 256 - 252 mya
found: Africa and Asia
fossil:

In the late Permian period, the same time as the gorgonopes, these extremely common mammal-like synapsids burrowed deep in the ground living in couples, probably staying with the same partner its entire life. It’s head was large, with a beak that had no teeth except two saber like tusks. The tusks are extremely important as they are the characteristic of the first sexual dimorphism in all of animal history. Only the males were found having the pair of tusks. It lived in deep narrow tunnels protecting it from harsh weather and larger predators - making it an extremely successful animal of its time.

The diictodon were abundant, not only would you find multiple burrows within the same patch of land, their fossils also make up about 1/2 of all backboned animals in South Africa from the Late Permian Period. None of the burrows were interconnected further stressing the theory that the diictodon were strictly monogamous. A small chamber at the end of the burrow would have vegetation for comfort, this is where the diictodon female would have and raise her children.

These underground burrows would have been excellent for times of drought. The burrows would have remained cooler, and had a damp environment. The diictodon could also feed on the roots that were underground. The animals would, however, build their burrows in areas that were not so great, such as river banks. They burrows would often flood killing the animals. The particular fossil above is a pair of diictodon that were cuddled together when flood struck.

The diictodon’s arms and legs did not lack in strength, still they were strictly herbivores. It had an excellent sense of balance, sight and smell. It would use these keen senses to dart in and out of its burrow knowing danger was not near. It would then use its beak to break of vegetation and other plant pieces to eat and use in their housing.

The diictodon is widely studied since it is such an abundant animal. Not only was it the first animal with sexual differentiation, it was also the missing link between reptiles becoming mammals. This little reptile is thus a hugely important link in the evolutionary chain.

The finding of the sexual dimorphism led scientists to believe there was an extremely complex set of social behaviors within the diictodon community. They could have been used to combat other males in an attempt to find a mate, or could have been used ritualistically.  These tusks gave rise to unbelievably huge developments in mammals in the near future.

With a name like “Gorgonops” I expected it to look more sci-fi-ish.

Name: Gorgonops (gore-gon-ops) “Gorgon’s arch”
Animal type: Therapsid reptile
lived: 252 - 248 mya
diet: Carnivore
size: 3.5 meters
found: Africa
fossil:

The Earth was slowly dying as it Pangaea died up from coast to coast, temperatures were getting higher and higher very quickly and rainfall became more and more scarce. In these harsh conditions few animals were surviving. The gorgonops was preying on anything that was left. It was a gigantic carnivorous reptile, the size of an elephant but moving sleek and quickly like a fox. It had large, long and sharp teeth permitting it to take down large animals with its strong jaw. It also had two long saber teeth, one of the first animals to have such a thing.

The gorgonops was extremely well adapted for life in these harsh conditions. Its long and upright legs allowed it to walk and run efficiently while it’s keen eye sight and sense of smell made it a very dangerous predator. The animals probably lived in groups, hunting during the cooler times of day and resting in the shade at peak hours. It would have taken several of the animals to take down the larger herbivores dwelling in the same areas.

The gorgonops is a member of the therapisid family - a group of reptiles that adapted well to change, were cold blooded and had a variety of mammalian characteristics. Their long legs tucked under the body and their oddly shaped teeth (odd for reptiles) gave way for the first mammals to evolve such as the thrinaxodon. Although the gorgonops seemed to be a wonder animal fully adapted for harsh weather it did not survive the great extinction 248 mya, mostly due to the fact that most of the animals they hunted became extinct.

First known herbivore reptile to evolve.

Name: Edaphosaurus (ed-eff-oh-saw-rus) “pavement lizard”
animal type: synapsid (pelycosaur) repitle
lived: 282-256 mya
size: 3 meters long
found: North America and Europe
fossil:

This animal looked a heck of a lot like the dimetrodon that I covered a while ago, but the two animals are distantly related and extremely different. The most obvious difference being that one was a ferocious meat eating predator while the edaphosaurus stuck to plants. Until this time all reptiles and amphibians had been carnivorous or insectivorous. Plants don’t hold nearly as much energy and proteins as the meats did - so animals would have to eat a lot more of them than they would meats to extract enough energy to life on.

Animals like the edaphosaurus  evolved different features in order to be able to properly tackle the plant life on earth. Their peg-like teeth could tear leaves apart like there was no tomorrow, and could break down twigs and branches with their powerful jaw. Even more teeth were found in the roof of the edaphosaurus’ mouth to further mash up the plant before it reached the stomach.

It’s large body allowed for a lot of food to be taken in at one time. It’s long gut would extract all the nutrients possible from its poor and limited diet of surrounding plants. The edaphosaurus would have liked swampy areas but could have survived in harsher desert climates. Its large sail, like on the dimetrodon, was used to regulate its temperature.

Just three more before dinosaur time!

I always get excited when I do a post about dinosaurs because I get to look for a picture of a dinosaur!

How does a dinosaur rawr? The world of dinosaurs, and especially big ones like the T Rex was deep and low. Research done on archosaurs - birds, crocodiles, alogators and dinosaurs, shows the similarities in the anatomical ear structure in the creatures. The research says that dinosaurs would produce the same noise that they were hearing.

“As a general rule, animals can hear the sounds that they produce,” lead author Robert Dooling told Discovery News.

Dooling is a professor of psychology and co-director of the Center for the Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing at the University of Maryland at College Park. He conducted the comparative study on archosaur ear data with German neuroanatomists Otto Gleich and Geoffrey Manley.

The team of researches took measurements of living animals as well as fossilized brachiosaurus, allosaurus and archeoptry finding that the body mass is greatly correlated to the size of the animals ear.

This determination allowed the scientists to extrapolate the hearing of the smallest bird, which weighs just around a third of an ounce, to that of huge dinos like brachiosaurus, which weighed 75 tons.

Dooling and his team believe hearing in such large dinosaurs was restricted to low frequencies with a high frequency limit below 3 kilohertz.

Smaller dinosaurs, however, likely could hear and emit higher frequency sounds since, as Dooling explained, “large organisms (in general) hear best and produce sounds at lower frequencies, while smaller organisms hear best and produce sounds at higher frequencies.”

Some researchers are suggesting that the dinosaurs could have been the “strong, silent type” and that vocalizations evolved to match hearing range rather than the reverse.

So you know how the T.Rex in Jurassic Park had that really high pitched loud screaming rawr? …Yeah, probably not.