#anyway that's me on the megalodon and fossil hunting

[watermelinoe]

the classification of megalodon and therefore its closest relative is somewhat contentious actually! it's generally accepted now that the megalodon belongs to the extinct otodontidae family (genus otodus) and not lamnidae (genus carcharodon or carcharocles), meaning it does not actually belong to the same family as the great white shark (carcharodon carcharias), though there are still proponents of the older model

you can typically only find meg teeth like these only by diving for them unless you get really lucky at the beach after a storm, but smaller samples can be found inland if you know where to dig ;)

the u.s. east coast is a fossil hunter's paradise, and florida in particular is thought by some to be the best source of pleistocene fossils in the world

The Titanoboa, is a 48ft long snake dating from around 60-58million years ago. It had a rib cage 2ft wide, allowing it to eat whole crocodiles, and surrounding the ribcage were muscles so powerful that it could crush a rhino. Titanoboa was so big it couldn’t even spend long amounts of time on land, because the force of gravity acting on it would cause it to suffocate under its own weight.

[earthstory]

BURY ME AS PART OF THE FOSSIL RECORD

A paleontologist friend claims that if all the bones of all the creatures that have ever inhabited the Earth were preserved, the planet’s surface would be covered by a 3km thick layer of animal remains. If this true? There’s no way to prove this because in the world of reality, only a very small percentage of animal remains become fossilized, and these have a tendency, with the great passage of geologic time, to be recycled into newer rock formations in which all fossil evidence is lithified – metamorphosed – subducted – erupted out of existence.

It is estimated that only 25 – 30% of species are capable of being preserved in the fossil record at all: the other species are soft-bodied or have no preservable parts anyway. Sharks, for example, have teeth that enter the fossil record, but their “bones” are made of cartilage, and cartilage dissolves and is only rarely fossilized: aside from a few rare vertebrae, no skeletal pieces of Megalodon have been found so that we could estimate the precise size of the largest shark ever to have existed. It is estimated that of the nine phyla that include potential fossil-forming animals, of all that ever lived, in all of geologic time, 85 – 97% have never been fossilized at all. Fossils are, indeed, rare! And finding them is never easy.

Enter Scot Richardson, an avid fossil hunter. As geologist, his passion is hunting down dinosaur remains for the Bureau of Land Management; it must be passion, because he only makes $30,000/year doing it. And he finds them – he discovered a new species of Tyranosaurus in southern Utah: this new species is named Lythronax argestes – the King of Gore!

Can Scot’s love of fossils outlive him? He claims that he wants to die in a swamp, to facilitate his own fossilization. So that perhaps in 80 million years or so, a future paleontologist might find his skull and wonder – “Now, where does this part go?”

Let’s hope that in that far future time, there are indeed paleontologists with the persistence of Scot, to boldly hunt for those rare, precious indeed, fossils.

Annie RImage: Bethany Mollenkof / Los Angeles Times

See also:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT7IDnY0UkU http://www.donaldprothero.com/files/47440594.pdf https://archive.unews.utah.edu/news_releases/newly-discovered-predatory-dinosaur-king-of-gore-reveals-the-origins-of-t-rex/?fbclid=IwAR2magV9z_D5ANoSLnlZZXGub-l8_OwMuXIO3_XaatwSle8F3p4xZw3qQjs https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-c1-utah-dinosaur-hunter-20140626-story.html#page=1

[arsenic-the-fae]

Oh boy they found the extinct shark on a radar and it's immediately attacking them. Love me some shark propaganda.

A megalodon wouldn't even be interested in their sub, it's too small to be calorie dense enough for it to warrant hunting. It's theorised they ate whales and stuff based on fossils. This isn't a bullshark, it wouldn't charge it's pray anyways. It's too big to give a shit about that.

Just turned on "The Meg" as an avid shark enthusiast. Gonna live blog this cause I forsee me having many opinions so tumblr gets to hear them