The Great Texas Pterosaur was discovered by UT student Doug Lawson, a student working at the Texas Memorial museum. Initially, Lawson did not know what the bones were or what a spectacular discovery he had made, even though he was a paleontology grad student. After he inspected and observed the hollow characteristic of the dinosaur bones, he knew from the shape and solid structure that he had come across something big. We see the magnificent result of his discovery below. The skeleton is giant. And even from the perspective of the photographer, you don't really capture the essence of this beauty until you actually see it up close at the museum.
[2]Above is a picture of The Great Texas Pterosaur at the Texas Memorial Museum .
The first thing I noticed about this dinosaur fossil was its awkward appearing neck. If you analyze the proportion of the bones constructing its wingspan in relation to its arms, it doesn't seem like the most graceful looking thing I'd imagine flying through the clouds of the prehistoric age. I'm no expert, but find this to be one of the most interesting and unique of all dinosaur fossils I've ever seen in a book or museum.
Personally, I'm normally someone who likes to find things out for myself. For intance, If I'm reading about a geographical place and its time, it makes more sense for me to take the time-line sheet and at least dig a hole, so I can see the dimensions we're talking about and understand the entire picture, as well as how the details fit into the broader scheme. The thought of people finding fossils excites me because it can tell us so much about our world. Of course we can get a glimpse of earth's history. In fact, I find fossils to be the least biased means of telling history. Walking around UT, and seeing all of the fossils at the library and almost every other UT building is food for thought. I also like to see aspects of our history such as the the Great Texas Pterosaur down at the Texas Memorial Museum. If you haven't seen it, might I suggest that thing was absolutely amazing and you should.
Awed by its neck, I'm still trying to imagine this creature flying though the sky and looking graceful. Another interesting aspect is how they dug an enormous, prehistoric bird out of the ground and preserved its integrity so well as it hangs from the ceiling. But I guess that's their job. They do it well because it evokes an experience that seemingly resembles traveling in a time capsule back through time and I was stunned experiencing a feeling of amazement when I saw it hanging from the ceiling. My excitement and curiosity compels me to think I'll be back there in the not so distant future, when I have some extra time. Speaking of time, what if this is what you spent your time doing?
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Darwin poses the question of, "How long will the struggle for existence, briefly discussed in the last chapeter, act in regard to variation? I'd like wake Darwin up to answer with a modern history response. Various people will struggle for existence no matter how 'fit' they are. Some will thrive if they're weak. But to answer the question a more polite context , some will try to recreate, recapture and restore the survival of other species by digging them out of the ground and putting them in museums. This is what we do. Most of us won't go around trying to be fit and healthy or applying evolution in malicious ways to advance evil deeds.
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Darwin poses the question of, "How long will the struggle for existence, briefly discussed in the last chapeter, act in regard to variation? I'd like wake Darwin up to answer with a modern history response. Various people will struggle for existence no matter how 'fit' they are. Some will thrive if they're weak. But to answer the question a more polite context , some will try to recreate, recapture and restore the survival of other species by digging them out of the ground and putting them in museums. This is what we do. Most of us won't go around trying to be fit and healthy or applying evolution in malicious ways to advance evil deeds.
I know I'm tough on Darwin, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Darwin's questions are a bit rhetorical and his claims are trumped up. It is important to remember that 2,000 years earlier, in Greece, they were speaking of atoms as being the smallest form of matter. In fact, their definition is that of our current definition. In other words, they were leaps and bounds ahead of Darwin. He just came at a time when it was easier for someone to spread ideas through the printing press and news papers. Coincidently, right around the time of Darwin's "emergence" also came the one of the first printing presses (1833) seen below.
[4]
This wasn't the only printing press made. But it was a lot more efficient than previous version. And even the idea of the printing press is not unique. It was found that when we invented it in the 1400s, the Chinese had already invented it centuries before.
According to scientists, the Age of the Dinosaurs tells us huge sea relatives of the lizards swam the seas, which, back then, covered 40% of present day North America. [5] These were predatory dinosaurs, a close relative to the sea serpent. There are five of these Mosasaurus maximus fossils on display around the world. The creature's remains were recovered in 1932 by University of Texas students. Their mouths were not only big, but they were also loose jointed and able to swallow large prey whole, like snakes [6]
[7]Now I have to figure out a way to invent a time machine to discover what would have happened to Darwin, and all of his observations had he lived in the Late Cretaceous period.
1 http://farm1.static.flickr.com/197/497999185_3c5af6c9fa.jpg
2http://youtube.com/watch?v=emp7_uAF8DA
3 Darwin Charles, Course anthology
4 http://www.dartmouth.edu/~toxmetal/images/Gpress.jpg
5 Onion Creek Mosasaur (course anthology) 364
6 Mosasaurus meximus, anthology
7http://www.dartmouth.edu/~toxmetal/images/Gpress.jpg
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