rhamphotheca:

Deuterosaurus

… a genus of the Therapsids, one of the “mammal-like” reptiles dominating land during the late Palaeozoic. Skulls of Deuterosaurus are well-known from several finds. They were around 80 cm (2 ft 6 in) with a long snout and conical teeth. Like all anteosaurs, the skull possessed long, dagger-like canine teeth. The skull was rather short for an antosaur, with a broad cheek region, indicating a very strong bite. The eyes where partly slanted forward, giving it at least partial stereo vision. The pineal eye, though small, had a well formed opening right atop the brain case.

Deuterosaurus was a very large animal; the size of a modern grizzly bear. T. H. Huxley mistakenly considered it to be a dinosaur. With its long tail, it had an adult length of 5-6 m (15-18 ft) and weighted around half a ton. Judging from related therapsids, the short but massive legs where held sprawling, much like a modern crocodile. When walking, the tail would have swung sideways, like in modern reptiles…

(read more: Wikipedia)   (images: Dmitry Bogdanov)

(via scientificillustration)

wilwheaton:

xmaplebeerx:

My inner science geek is laughing like a maniac right now

FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING, WHY ISN’T THIS TAGGED SCIENCE?!

(Source: platowin, via ittakesii)

mothernaturenetwork:

Life thrives near deepest spot on Earth
Clams and other creatures have been discovered at deep-sea around vents near the Mariana Trench, the deepest spot on Earth’s surface, surprising the scientists who found them.

scipsy:

[Img via National Geographic © Jean-Marie Ghislain] 

Thresher sharks are solitary predators named for their thresher-like tail which can be as long as the total body length and which they use as a weapon to stun their preys and sometimes to kill sea birds. Thresher sharks are also known to jump out of the water like dolphins, a behavior called breaching.

-I want to be a shark-

jtotheizzoe:

scipsy:

Variability of brain size and external topography.

Photographs and weights of the brains of different species. Primates: human (Homo sapiens, 1.176 kg), chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes, 273 g), baboon (Papio cynocephalus, 151 g), mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx, 123 g), macaque (Macaca tonkeana, 110 g). Carnivores: bear (Ursus arctos, 289 g), lion (Panthera leo, 165 g), cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus, 119 g), dog (Canis familiaris, 95 g), cat (Felis catus, 32 g). Artiodactyls: giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis, 700 g), kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros, 166 g), mouflon (Ovis musimon, 118 g), ibex (Capra pyrenaica, 115 g); peccary (Tayassu pecari, 41 g). Marsupials: wallaby (Protemnodon rufogrisea, 28 g). Lagomorphs: rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus, 5.2 g). Rodents: rat (Rattus rattus, 2.6 g), mouse (Mus musculus, 0.5 g). (via Frontiers)

What the hell is going on with that rabbit brain? Huge olfactory bulb on the left (as in the rat and mouse, big smellers) and an inverted cerebellum on the right hanging off like a couple “brain eyes”.

discoverynews:

7 Million-Year-Old Elephant Herd Revealed in Prints

The most extensive set of fossilized mammal footprints ever found has allowed scientists to recreate how elephants lived 7 million years ago.

The footprints were discovered at a site called Mleisa 1 in the United Arab Emirates. The find was reported in a new study in the journal Royal Society Biology Letters.

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