Tyrannosaurus Couldn't Chase a Jeep, but He Didn't Need Too

Biomechanical studies have revealed that Tyrannosaurus Rex probably wasn't a speed demon. In reality the massive Cretaceous killer could probably only reach speeds of up to 25 mph, and had a far slower turn radius then a human...





Though some might point to this as evidence that counters Rex as an active predator in that he couldn't chase down prey. What these people fail to recognize is that T-Rex's prey was also as large, and no doubt just as slow (I had a conversation with the Tyrrell's new Dinosaur curator in 06 about how Hadrosaurs were on the weight scale and biomechanical buildup of medium sauropods) ...

That doesn't even take into account former Tyrrell Curator Phil Currie's findings of Tyrannosaurid pack dynamics with nimbler juvenile animals (who are built along the lines of the Tyrannosaurids close relatives the speedster Ornithimimids) as part of a family hunting strategy in which the fast youngsters could run into prey herds dividing and trafficking dinner to the adult Rexs (with the strongest bite force of any known animal) who'd do the killing...

Just as in this posts picture I'd still run (in terrified glee) if I saw a Rex!

Otago Museum

So among my first days of exploring one of the more exciting discoveries I made was that of the Otago Museum. Located not too far from my home on just the opposite side of the university I would make an even more amazing discovery. Admission was FREE!!!

I had initially planned to hold off on the museum till there were other people around to go with. However with no cost in place I opted to pop in and check things out. You know in case it was on one of my prereq tests or something ;P


The building itself is a very nice modern looking one. I should have taken a longer shot as the front of the museum is really nice architecture.

Your first sight entering the lobby. A giant Moa. Probably their most prolific of natural history subject as you'll see. Not the same kind of focus here on Moas as the Tyrrell has with Dinosaurs, mostly due to it's being a general museum as opposed to natural history. This is one of 3 fleshed out mock up of the giant birds, but what makes this one extra special is it is in the front lobby to try and prompt you for money. The mound she is standing on is their donation bin.


This life size sun fish greets you at the far end of the lobby right beside the staircase to head up to the various levels and their exhibits. The first two floors were various human history galleries. Included was a section on New Zealand (go figure), the Maori (again a shock), peoples of the pacific all the way from down here up to Alaska (didn't see this coming to be honest), and special exhibit which was Antarctica at this stage in the game, and lastly the natural history halls on the third floor.

As shocking as this may seem I didn't spend a whole lot of time in the first two floors with the plan being to hit those when I had someone else there to encourage learning the stuff. I poked mostly around the top floor. With two exceptions.

First was this rather nice and impressive Green Turtle skeleton on display on the second floor.

Next was of course the Antarctic display that was setup as a white walled rat maze. Around every corner though you'd encounter interesting display pieces such as this. So an entertaining rat race in any case.

Above in this display a quick none moving preview of the Albatross colony just outside of town. At the time this photo was taken I had yet to make it out to this site to see live Albatrosses so this served to get me excited for that all the more.

Heading up to the third floor one of it's first displays as you enter the natural history gallery is this fine cast of a shark toothed dolphin. An hour after I popped into the Otago Museum I'd bump into and meet the Palaeontologist who discovered and described this critter. That is a story for another time though.

Hanging above the various cases of fossil whales was the lower jaw of a modern day Sperm Whale which was COOL. I plan on venturing North up the southern island at some point during a break, and go to see some of these guys alive and in the wild.

Of course this gallery won't be complete without Moas! Here's one of a pair of fleshed out ones they have upstairs. This guy is kinda their version of Lillian, only he's been around since 1912! They haven't gotten rid of him for renovations yet, unlike Lillian. So in 20 years when looking at this blog many people will have no clue what I'm referring too LOL.

The other part of the pair. This model has been around since the 1930's if my memory serves me (I remember specifically that the first model is from 1912).

They have an extensive collection of mounted Moa skeletons.

Though these photos of the Moa section may not give you a comprensive feel for the place. Mostly due to the bad lighting making photos in there difficult. There are probably some 20 skeletons on display. Next time I pop in I'm planning on a proper count. If my estimate is correct that would make Moas the most common animal on display. Possibly only rivaled by penguins which occur on the third floor, but also in the Maori displays downstairs.

Just on the other side of the Moas are the other fossil displays. Including this "little" guy a definite primitive relative of the Great White Shark (unlike Megalodon which is now thought to only be distantly related). This guy was only a tad bit bigger then a great white but weighed three times as much!!!

Now I kinda altered the third floor gallery to present this guy last in this entry. He comes just after the whales in the front door, and is right beside the Moas. This is of course their Mesozoic item a medium sized Pleiosaur. It is the largest and most articulate fossil collected ANYWHERE in New Zealand and was found just an hour North of Dunedin. Making this area kind of the Drum of the South island. Especially taking into consideration the fact that most of the fossil whales and sharks are from the same general area as this marine reptile (though different aged rocks!!!)

Chinese River Dolphin Extinct

After much speculation and uncertainty, an expedition searching China has confirmed that the Baiji River Dolphin is functionally extinct. The last formal census of the species confirmed a small, but theoretically savable population in the late 90's. This new search has shown that even if a few animals remain alive and undetected, the population as a whole is not diverse or large enough to mount a viable come back.

Aquariums I HAVE to visit!

So was poking around on wikipedia, and like usuaul I made a really amazing factual discovery.

Would you believe that there are at present 3 aquariums in the world that hold Whale Sharks as part of their displays! This just blows my mind with its immensity and coolness!

Four live at the "World's Largest Aquarium" in Atlanta, three in Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, and a singleton at Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. So I now have a real reason to visit Japan!

Anyways moral of the story if you have time to waste don't watch TV (well except maybe Report on Business TV so that I get a raise :P ), check out Wikipedia instead! You're bound to find something immensely cool AND educational in about 5 min tops...

Panda Breeding LOL

Okay this is too funny, and you have to read it to believe it...

Zookeepers in Bangkok (which just makes this funnier LOL) while having trouble encouraging their two Pandas to breed have devised a solution you have to read the full article on or you won't believe me. Their going to show the male big screen video of Panda mating so he learns how. Panda porn... In an actually institution. I'm crying right now having just read this a minute ago... TOO FUNNY!

Storm on Saturn

Today really interesting news from space...

Scientists have detected what looks like a hurricane like storm over the south pole of Saturn. At moment there is no explanation as to how this could have occurred as Saturn is a gasious planetary body thought to be devoid of liquid water. The key ingredient and thermal cause of hurricanes here on earth...

Lost on Mars...

NASA had deployed a new space craft to help it explore Mars. Called the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter it is basically a really high powered camera that can take detailed readings and pics of an area the size of a coffee table.

In addition to exploring new areas of the red planet NASA also hopes to use this to try and track down earlier lost probes and missions... Which I think is futile. We all know the aliens got those!

Cloaking Device

Finally I might be able to have that Warbird I've always wanted... Scientists have built the first primitive cloaking device