Discovered: Giant Dolphin-Like Sea Monster That Ate Dinosaurs, Named "lizard-eating ruler of the sea - Polidicks

[quote]Dolphins are great! Intelligent, charming, cute. This newly-discovered dolphin-like predator: maybe not so great. Thalattoarchon saurophagis--meaning "lizard-eating ruler of the sea" (!)--was at least 28 feet long, and spent its 160 million years on Earth eating creatures that were smaller, the same size, and even bigger than itself, before it died out about 90 million years ago, or 25 million years before the end of the dinosaurs. It used a giant skull with giant teeth to prey on those often-giant sea-dwellers. Researchers, who first discovered fossil evidence of Thalattoarchon in central Nevada in 2008 and published their findings this week, pin the creature's heyday at about 244 million years ago. That puts it at 8 million years after a mass-extinction killed as many as 96 percent of ocean creatures. It seems, then, that ecosystems restore balance after a major die-off relatively quickly: if predators this size were able to survive by hunting other large creatures, there must've been small creatures at the lower end of the food chain, too. Still, though: tough luck for those species that barely missed mass extinction, then had to deal with this thing. [img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/dolphinfossil.jpg[/img] [img]http://znn.india.com/Img/2013/1/8/dinoi.jpg[/img][/quote] Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-01/ancient-dolphin-predator-discovered[/url]

Fuck yeah, big scary things

I wonder if it was smart like todays dolphins. That'd be scary

Everything used to be way more badass. Too bad a world of badass animals can't be supported when the conditions change.

[QUOTE=Reds;39155109]Everything used to be way more badass. Too bad a world of badass animals can't be supported when the conditions change.[/QUOTE] Which is kind of good for us. If even one of these 'badass' animals made it to today, I seriously doubt humanity would have made it this far :v:

Good lord.

[QUOTE=OvB;39155126]Good lord.[/QUOTE] Was expecting a sciency comment from you on this, but for some reason, I find that reply more satisfying

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39155124]Which is kind of good for us. If even one of these 'badass' animals made it to today, I seriously doubt humanity would have made it this far :v:[/QUOTE] Never said it was a good thing. Still, dinosauroid or whatever aside, it would be interesting to see what a possible human-level of intelligence animal would be like if humans never evolved.

[QUOTE=Reds;39155145]Never said it was a good thing. Still, dinosauroid or whatever aside, it would be interesting to see what a possible human-level of intelligence animal would be like if humans never evolved.[/QUOTE] It would be a good thing if we could tame them and ride them

So many things wrong with this article it's staggering...

I could have it.

[QUOTE=davethestoner;39155103]I wonder if it was smart like todays dolphins. That'd be scary[/QUOTE] Well they're not related to dolphins, they just look like them. Of course it might've been intelligent, and I personally think it was. Predators in general need to be more intelligent than their prey and with so much energy going around during those days (lots of prey, richer ecosystem), maintaining a better brain probably wasn't a problem. But then of course it's also a matter of evolutionary progress, if the structure of the brain was even remotely close to supporting higher intelligence at that time. There isn't really any way of knowing this, and we will probably never find out as soft tissue isn't preserved for a very long time. In any case, it's pretty safe to say that if they did have intelligence it would probably not be like mammal intelligence but something very different.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39155134]Was expecting a sciency comment from you on this, but for some reason, I find that reply more satisfying[/QUOTE] Can't right now. Sitting on a plane in Minneapolis waiting to leave.

Hello cousin! On another note, some of the creatures alive back then make great whites look like pushovers. The sea was a far less friendly place back then then it was today.

And this is another reason as to why I'll study evolutionary biology. One gets to study things like [I]this.[/I]

Sounds like a badass metal song. lizard-eating ruler of the sea

[QUOTE=RR_Raptor65;39155231]So many things wrong with this article it's staggering...[/QUOTE] Yeah, like [quote]Dolphins are great! Intelligent, charming, cute.[/quote]

Today's dolphins have fallen greatly from this once-majestic predator. While feared as king of the seas, today's dolphins are known as hoodlums and low-life inhabiting government housing, forming their own murderpods and rapecaves in which to torment victims. Today's dolphin is a shadow of what it once was, reduced to handouts and sucking from the teat of society - it has been well documented that 35% of male dolphins from the age from 18 to 25 have already been in prison for a felony conviction and that 24% of dolphins under the age of eighteen have already been pregnant. These are the symptoms of a species, though while criminally intelligent and capable of manipulating public opinion through clever use of propaganda, that has many problems endemic to its nature. They are bloodthirsty, rape-hungry, malicious predators. You cannot redeem a dolphin, you cannot teach it to rise above its true nature, you can only ensure future dolphin crime does not happen again. Join the National Shark Association today! We fight for your rights - against dolphins! [SUB]This message is supported by Citizens United against Delphic Creatures - do your job and plug a blowhole![/SUB]

[QUOTE=Herr Sven;39155536]And this is another reason as to why I'll study evolutionary biology. One gets to study things like [I]this.[/I][/QUOTE] If you are interested in a good evolution book I suggest "Your Inner Fish" by Neil Shubin.

[QUOTE=Hogie bear;39155553]Sounds like a badass metal song. lizard-eating ruler of the sea[/QUOTE] For sure sounds like a dethklok song

This species didn't die out, they just returned to there home planet. They sang this song on the way back: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG6b3V2MNxQ[/media]

[QUOTE=Rents;39155685]Yeah, like [quote]Dolphins are great! Intelligent, charming, cute.[/quote] [/QUOTE] As a start... I mean hell Fox News did a better article. For one it's being touted as a 'Dinosaur eater' when it's about 12 million years older than the oldest Dinosaurs which made up such a tiny portion of the land population as to be insignificant until their competition died out, which doesn't sound like much until you realize that most genera don't last more than 2 million years or so, the article says it went on for 160 million years, which is only true for Ichthyosaurs as a whole not this genus. Dinosaur journalism really grinds my gears, I mean look what happened when that Kraken deal popped up, or the Toroceratops fiasco.

Kraken deal?

There was some idiot who suggested that ancient giant squids were killing Ichthyosaurs and making self portraits from their bones and it got lots of attention, real scientists shot it down pretty quick but then the cat is pretty much out of the bag at that point anyway.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39155124]Which is kind of good for us. If even one of these 'badass' animals made it to today, I seriously doubt humanity would have made it this far :v:[/QUOTE] Humans are extremely resilient. If it was just 1 creature as you said we would easily be able to overcome it. Obviously failing at first but that's how we learn.

[QUOTE=gbtygfvyg;39157112]Humans are extremely resilient. If it was just 1 creature as you said we would easily be able to overcome it. Obviously failing at first but that's how we learn.[/QUOTE] Somehow, I don't see early man with nothing but rocks and shit on his ass would be able to out run or survive well with a majority of predatory dinosaurs.

Neat, I love ancient sea creatures!

This single species existed for 160 million years? what

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39155124]Which is kind of good for us. If even one of these 'badass' animals made it to today, I seriously doubt humanity would have made it this far :v:[/QUOTE] I think it wouldn't have changed much. There's an awful lot of big things our ancestors managed to drive to extinction. RIP mammoth.

[QUOTE=Clavus;39159299]I think it wouldn't have changed much. There's an awful lot of big things our ancestors managed to drive to extinction. RIP mammoth.[/QUOTE] There weren't nearly as much mega fauna back then as when there were dinosaurs. Let alone predator ones.