#life on earth
[deGruy] We’ve got to really rewire the way human beings look at our relationship to nature. In the same way that humans have the ability to conciously shift the balance of the Earth, which we’ve done, we also have the capacity and capability of stopping it. We can shift it. We have to. What we have on Earth is all we’ll ever have.
[Safina] The sad fact of it is that the ocean could be empty and it would still look the same. It’s a very hard thing to convey what’s happening, how it will affect you personally. And so as the ocean is being emptied and as the ocean is dying, the surface looks the same, the waves look the same.
[Earle] If I could be born anywhere in time, it would be now. It would be now because this is the time, as never before, that we know. We understand what we didn’t know 50 years ago. If we wait another 50 years.. opportunities we now have will be gone. This is the moment. Our decisions, our actions will shape everything that follows.
Visitor@loudossogne face to facemask with our cast of T. rex ‘Stan’ in the Dinosaur Gallery.
We’re pretty sure our T. rex cast is the most photographed and ‘selfied’ specimen in the Museum. It has become quite the symbol of dinosaurs as a group, and maybe that’s a pity, because it’s overshadowing an incredible variety of amazing other dinosaur species. What is your favourite one?
But hey, Tyrannosaurus rex IS a spectacular and terrifying predator. T. rex lived 69 to 66 million years ago, at the very end of the Late Cretaceous. It had 50 to 60 teeth as big as bananas. They are serrated - just like a steak knife - excellent for piercing the flesh of their prey and ripping off chunks of meat…The teeth were replaced throughout their lives.
In a recent study @naturalismuseum claims that T. rex probably walked more slowly than previously assumed, as shown by a 3D model that simulated the walk of T. rex ‘Trix’. She walked at 4.6 kilometres per hour - which is about the same speed as you! To prevent injuries, the living animal likely kept a relaxed gait. But as the authors note, this was not the maximal speed, but the animal’s preferred walking speed.
Stay tuned for more T. rex mania this autumn! ;)
[picture: @loudossogne]
Nice picture by visitor @faye.pieters in our Gallery of Evolution!
In the background you can see two skeletons of whale ancestors hanging from the ceiling. Whales evolved over some 50 million years from small four-limbed and hoofed land-dwelling mammals to fully-aquatic baleen and toothed whales.
On the right is Maiacetus, that lived some 47 million years ago. It still has four legs and was amphibious: so it could swim, but also walk on land. And to the left of it is Dorudon, which hind legs are already extremely reduced, so it was already fully aquatic some 40 million years ago. Whale evolution is just one stunning science story to tell!
Want to know more? Watch our YT video in which our fossil whale specialist Olivier Lambert explains an important find in Peru illuminating whale evolution and dispersal some 43 million years ago – so in between Maiacetus and Dorudon.
[picture:@faye.pieters]
mushroom’s lament:
‘they feed us bullshit and keep us in the dark’
source: flaneurissimo
Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) stopped by Amoeba Music in Hollywood during a recent tour stop to give a look at what they’ve been listening to and reading lately, including music by Bessie Smith, The Weather Station, Toots & the Maytals, Bad Bunny, Nina Simone, and more. Hurray for the Riff Raff heads out on tour with music from their new album, LIFE ON EARTH, as special guest of Bright Eyes starting Thursday.
