Fun Poll: Which of these would you like to see discovered?

[Snafflehound]

I think trilobites would be popular as pets but probably not good eating.

 

[erich orser]

I think trilobites would be popular as pets but probably not good eating.

Think they would be kind of similar to horseshoe crab? I know the local rockfish just loved to eat those, but I've never heard of them for human consumption. I don't know though, get the best trilobite meat, some eggs, bread crumbs, dry mustard, Old Bay Seasoning, Worcestershire, a little hot sauce... hmmm... Maryland Trilobite Cakes...

 

[Snafflehound]

What did the body look like under all those plates? I guess if it was good enough for Anomalocaris it's good enough for me...

 

[Snafflehound]

Nope.... all of you are wrong...

Bring back LIOPLEURODON!

Yup, big Jurassic baddie with lots of teeth and a WHOLE LOTTA attitude.

Afflicted with insomnia, I looked up Liopleurodon ferox (great name that)

http://www.plesiosaur.com/liopleurodon.htm

This says that 25m length the BBC quoted was an exaggeration.. bit like those 50m long giant squids I guess []

 

[chrono_war01]

you mean 60m long Giant Squids, the longest one recorded was 55m, I think.

 

[erich orser]

I think you're thinking in terms of feet, not meters. I would certainly love a 55m squid swimming around, but those seem to only exist when certain (deceased) scientists realize that they're on camera!

 

[Snafflehound]

60m squid =

 

[Phil]

you mean 60m long Giant Squids, the longest one recorded was 55m, I think.

Well unfortunately the press does tend to exaggerate the size of Architeuthis. The maximum Total Length of a female specimen recorded is 13m, or 37ft. It is thought that the 1887 Lyall Bay NZ specimen that was recorded as 55ft was probably stretched out like a rubber band thus exaggerating the length. Mesonychoteuthis, the Colossal Squid, probably grows larger than Architeuthis though whether we will ever catch or photograph such a fully mature beast is another matter entirely.

For more information, please check out Steve and Kat's Giant and Colossal Squid Factsheet:

Giant Squid and Colossal Squid Fact Sheet


PS, any chance of seeing your sharks teeth, Erich? They sound most interesting.

 

[erich orser]

Unfortunately, my teeth were donated to Master Mark Miller upon his return from Maryland back to Los Angeles, and he jealously guards them! Actually, in addition to being an accomplished blues/blue grass/country musician, he's nuts about fossils and used to volunteer cleaning them over at the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. I'm sure we can do some kind of photographic layout that I can send your way. The Western shores of Chesapeake Bay, particularly the beaches under the clay cliffs of Calvert County, are famous for their vast amounts of fossil teeth. Most of the ones we found down there were tiny, although a few that looked to be tiger shark were around an inch.

Just curious regarding squid lengths: cephalopods are extremely elastic while alive. This being the case, coupled with the fact that the only really large squid we have to measure are all dead, isn't there the chance that until we can record the reach of a living specimen (presumably seizing prey), we'll never really know their actual lengths? The 37-foot female for instance - could she conceivably extend longer than that while alive? Perhaps to 38 feet?

 

[Squid Queen]

I don't know if anyone has read Richard Ellis' 'In Search of the Giant Squid', but he does mention that there is a theory floating around that the giant squids washed ashore were only teenager squids and that the adults might possibly be something like 200ft. Wouldn't that be fun?
Oh and... Glyptodon. I'd love giant cephs again, but Glyptodon and the Giant Ground Sloths of old. Yessir!

 

[chrono_war01]

you mean 60m long Giant Squids, the longest one recorded was 55m, I think.

Sorry.

 

[Michael Roth]

I chose the giant nautilus, but I bet the sea scorpion would be wicked in garlic butter...

 

[OB]

Mesonychoteuthis, the Colossal Squid, probably grows larger than Architeuthis though whether we will ever catch or photograph such a fully mature beast is another matter entirely.

What prophetic doubt, with hindsight!

 

[Phil]

Oh, Messie, yep, photos of the things are ten a penny these days. Did I really write that? It's funny when these old threads get resurrected as one gets haunted by the embarrassing things one has posted in the past. It's like meeting an old girlfriend out of the blue, usually utter horror ensues.

Back on topic, yes, I think the giant 11m Ordovician nautiloids would still be my pick too. Imagine poking around the shells on a beach after a storm!

 

[Michael Roth]

They would make a fantastic beachfront hut :>