Post AiITOBEA3kJrE3XySW by DamonWakes@mastodon.sdf.org
(DIR) More posts by DamonWakes@mastodon.sdf.org
(DIR) Post #AiIIFbPmE95oLHggDI by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-05-26T20:24:22Z
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There were once giant aquatic sloths, like seacows... but sloths. (Thalassocnus)And they lived in fear of the toothy teethed whale dolphins (Acrophyseter) who are the scariest things I've ever seen. Miocene is one giant uncanny valley. I don't know why it doesn't get more attention for the sheer creep out factor.
(DIR) Post #AiIOLRcs8Mt3Rfyuy8 by llewelly@sauropods.win
2024-05-26T21:32:28Z
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@futurebird yeah - Thalassocnus also occurs in the same deposits (Pisco Formation in Peru) as Livytan, another macroraptorial sperm whale, related to Acrophyseter, but about 3 times as long. link to a picture of a reconstruction of the skull of Livytan:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livyatan#/media/File:Livyatan_melvillei_skull.jpgYou have to wonder how Thalassocnus survived. But that branch of sloths was around for at least a few million years.
(DIR) Post #AiIOk0mn3slDRTKqNE by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-05-26T21:36:38Z
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@llewelly It's so scary
(DIR) Post #AiISYlqCgaUniqpL9M by llewelly@sauropods.win
2024-05-26T22:19:35Z
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@sjuvonen @futurebird living sperm whales are about the same size, and while they don't have the teeth, they have a head evolved for ramming things (that's how the males fight), and the book _The Great Sperm Whale_ claims there are many credible accounts of sperm whales smashing wooden sailing ships to bits, including some which probably refer to the same individual doing it repeatedly. I don't know whether the macroraptorial sperm whales had the same ramming adaptations.
(DIR) Post #AiISoyoWDlIkaelgYK by the_medium_kahuna@mastodon.social
2024-05-26T22:22:50Z
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@futurebird my life is better now that I know aquatic sloths existed, thank you for this knowledge!
(DIR) Post #AiISsQJORNYik5qqkS by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-05-26T22:23:25Z
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@llewelly @sjuvonen Isn't that the bull who started attacking ships after the females in his pod were taken by whalers?I have this notion of writing a very different version of "Moby Dick" with a cetacean centric perspective. It would be from the perspective of the bull's daughter and her ambivalence at his vendetta against ships, as he searches for the "sea louse" he saw when his mother was taken. But the hate is eating him up and destroying the pod.
(DIR) Post #AiISyLculyEtwuo7d2 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-05-26T22:24:27Z
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@llewelly @sjuvonen The whales think that ships are the living creatures, and humans are some kind of sea louse that lives on them... but a wicked kind of louse that stings and causes trouble.
(DIR) Post #AiITOBEA3kJrE3XySW by DamonWakes@mastodon.sdf.org
2024-05-26T22:29:09Z
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@futurebird @llewelly @sjuvonen I genuinely think that would be well worth writing.
(DIR) Post #AiIYyRnYQUXYobDN8C by jonhendry@iosdev.space
2024-05-26T23:31:46Z
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@futurebird Bring back the Paraceratherium, cowards! Forget about dinosaurs.
(DIR) Post #AiIaMzlHu16v3TQKaO by DrHyde@fosstodon.org
2024-05-26T23:47:23Z
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@futurebird @llewelly @sjuvonen I’d read that.
(DIR) Post #AiJXoqnAjtzAdkr7y4 by paris@wandering.shop
2024-05-27T10:53:25Z
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@futurebird Grendel, a là Moby Dick. Excellent!
(DIR) Post #AiNp67K70O3WgevEJs by mike@sauropods.win
2024-05-29T11:57:45Z
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@AmyIsCoolz @futurebird @llewelly It's name WAS Leviathan until I wrote to the journal pointing out that it was preoccupied by a junion synonym of the mastodon Mammut.