Good to get out of the car and catch the breeze off the Cape Fear River...
It was still pretty hot, so we spent most of our time on the boat in the air-conditioned lounge...
I love these little guys...
I don't love these little guys, though they're pretty to look at (poisonous tree frogs)...
Imagining what it must have been like to wind up as a Megalodon's breakfast...
This feathered horror is an animated model of a Utahraptor, although it looks like the result of an experiment gone horribly wrong down on one of Tyson Chicken's farms...
As I say, it was very hot and humid, but one difference I note between here and Northern Virginia is that, when the sun goes down along the coast, thanks to the constant breezes blowing in off the ocean, the evenings are extraordinarily pleasant - whereas in N. VA, the nights can continue to be sticky hot.
I have a question.
ReplyDeleteHow do they know the Utahraptor had feathers?
When Yigal Yadin, the Israeli archaeologist, began to dig at Hazor, he walked over the tel with the farmer who farmed the land. "If you were the king of Hazor," Yadin asked, "where wold you put your palace?"
ReplyDeleteHe pointed to a higher part of the tel. "There."
Aha, Yadin thought, a man with an appreciation of military tactics. Himself being a former Chief of Staff to Israel's army, he appreciated the tactical advantages of the higher hill. "Why would you put it there?" he asked the farmer.
"No matter how hot the day has been, you can always count on a cool breeze there at sunset."
And that is where the excavators found the royal palace.
Although feathers have never been found in association with Utahraptor specimens, there is strong phylogenetic evidence suggesting that all dromaeosaurids possessed them. This evidence comes from phylogenetic bracketing, which allows paleontologists to infer traits that exist in a clade based on the existence of that trait in a more basal form.
ReplyDeleteC'mon, R-man, I thought everybody knew that.
Yeah, I was just testing you.
ReplyDeleteBut, I think the key word in your clearly off the top of your head statement is "infer". A synonym for infer is "conjecture" which is defined as: an opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of incomplete information.
Why do I have a feeling some paleontologists just want it to be true? "Wouldn't it be cool if Utahraptor had feathers?" "Yeah, no one has ever seen one, so we can say they did!" *
*This is clearly conjecture, on my part.
BTW, Paco, I'm supposed to be in Raleigh the first week of July. I'd mentioned meeting at the Duplin Winery for lunch, but I'll be coming down with my younger brother, so I won't have my own wheels. I'll email you if I can arrange transportation. It may be on somewhat short notice, so if you can't make it, that's fine.
ReplyDeleteThat would be fun. Keep me posted.
ReplyDeleteHAL9000 that was a great story!
ReplyDeleter-man, "infer" is the socially acceptable form of "SWAG" (Scientific, Wild A$$ Guess).
ReplyDeleteHAL9000 -- mayhaps Hazor was a military man who saw no reason not to be comfortable in the field.
It's the birds Rman. They're not as cute as they sometimes look, inside they're demon mini dinosaurs, I always knew birds are evil. That's the real reason we scare people by giving them feathers.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who has watched Mockingbirds might conclude that they must be descendants of Velociraptors.
ReplyDeleteSeahorses are enchanting. Do they have Sea Dragons? Amazing, magical creatues. Rays and dolhins are favorites too. Has Maggie questioned why she can't take the starfish in the "petting" tank home?
It is said that Megalodons still exist? Maybe it explains the missing planes and ships.
That's a fantastic aquarium! Fun creatures and animatronic dinosaurs!
Deborah: You are 100% spot on about mockingbirds. The bullies of the bird world. I've seen them attack everything from crows to falcons to cats to people; and when they can't find anything else to push around, they'll fight each other.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see any sea dragons, but they had some fish that looked like seahorses that had been straightened out (i.e., a sea horse head with an elongated body). Also, there were pipe fish, which, at first, I took for some kind of vegetation.
There were also some pools where you could reach in and touch rays and horseshoe crabs.
Sea Dragons are magical. They, too, look like vegetation, albeit, frilly vegetation.
DeleteThe bat rays would tease those who wished to pet. You'd put your hand in as they approached, and they would fly just out of reach. I haven't seen horseshoe crabs in decades. We used to see the little ones on the beach in Virginia. Enjoyed playing with them.
What new plush toy did Maggie finagle this trip? Grandparents are push overs by cuteness.