good morning jackson

  

 

B A C K     A F T E R     T H I S

 

love 

   dad

  

coldValentine

Morrison Formation

  

  

S T E G O S A U R U S

Skull of the Stegosaurus, a Jurassic dinosaur with 

bony plates lined upright along the crest of its

back and ending with four menacing spikes

at the tip of its tail.  Its profile is iconic.

Its fossil remains populate a Jurassic layer

in western North America known as the 

Morrison Formation.  T. rex and Triceratops

are among the notable fossilized dinosaurs

discovered here.

 

M O R R I S O N       F O R M A T I O N

 This red layer over grey near Green River, Utah

shows the boundary between the Jurassic and 

Cretaceous Periods.  Jurassic is the red layer,

so the more recent Cretaceous would be deposited

above it.  The red is the Morrison Formation, a 

layer containing the fossils of over seventy species

of dinosaur from the Late Jurassic. 

J U R A S S I C - C R E T A C E O U S     F O S S I L S

 Each name on this map identifies a proven spot for

good fossil hunting.  Arid terrain.  Little water for

soil erosion and for encouraging plants to explore

all about with their intrusive roots.  The fossils

here have remained unmolested for over 60 million

years.  Compare that with an ancient Egyptian mummy,

barely a rookie at ten thousand years.

 

 

D I P L O D O C U S

 Standing on its hind legs keeps the throat

out of reach of these two attacking allosaurs.

The long whip of its tail delivers a supersonic

papercut to its target.  You don't know you're cut

until your top half slides off the half holding your legs.

After all, the Diplodocus did not grow to over a 

hundred feet by feeding all the neighborhood

with its flesh.

This is another Jurassic hall of famer found amidst

the Morrison Formation.

A L L O S A U R U S

 It looks like the T. rex skeleton.  Allosaurus

is an apex predator much like Tyrannosaurus.

They share the same basic design, but Allosaurus

lived 77 million years prior to T. rex.  We are 

closer to T. rex at 66 million years.  Either way,

it is all a stack of infinities in human terms. 

After all this time, the apex predator has changed

little in design.  T. rex is essentially a scaled up version

of the 70 million year old Allosaurus body plan.

It has upgrades but nothing radically new.

The DNA strategy here:

Don't fix what ain't broke.

T Y R A N N O S A U R U S

T. rex.  Nine ton maniac in the forest.

Smells your presence from a thousand feet,

and more.  Binocular eyes gives it sharp, 3-D

vision.  Its powerful forearms smother your

frantic efforts to break free, drawing you up

to its waiting mouth.  Sixty spike-like teeth

cut short your dying words.

 There is no empathy shown towards those

we delight in eating.

*   *   *   *   * 

©  Tom Taylor 

 

OVER   EASY

coldValentine

Happy Anniversary Karen!

  

K  A  R  E  N

H A P P Y      A N N I V E R S A R Y !

love 

   tom

 

coldValentine

good morning jessicca

  

 S  U  N  S  E  T

 

love 

   dad

coldValentine

Dinosaur

  

  

 S  A  U  R  O  P  O  D 

 Long neck dinosaurs.  They thrived on the Earth for

130 million years.  To have a genetic lineage survive

this long requires numerous course corrections in order

to meet the planet's changing reality.

Land masses and bodies of water move about

the Earth's crust.  Ancient mountains erode

while new ranges erupt.  Wind streams are diverted

by new obstructions.  Deserts blossom with new rain

while tropical swamps evaporate in drought.

Context rules the organism.  A species conforms

to its changing challenges or it is lost.

A  L  A  M  O  S  A  U  R  U  S

 The long neck serves to save energy.

The animal can feed off leaves in a tree's canopy

or consume plant fiber from the surrounding 

low lying brush.  Food is everywhere in reach

without this sauropod having to move its 70 tons.

The Alamosaurus doesn't chew its food.

Everything is swallowed whole and passed

along to a cavernous gut where all phases

of digestion occur.  No chewing means the head

doesn't need a big jaw with massive muscles 

 for chewing.  Small pegs are all the teeth

needed to strip leaves from a branch.

Nature does not suspend big heads on the

end of a thirty foot neck.

 

 T  R  I  C  E  R  A  T  O  P  S

Triceratops, along with Stegosaurus, represent

a second branch of Jurassic dinosaurs.  This 

family of species were notable for its use of

bony armor for defense.  The Stegosaurus

is known for having large, bony plates along

its back and three spikes at the end of its tail.

Triceratops had a ten foot armored head

with three fierce horns for protection.

T. rex was its most lethal adversary.

But Triceratops was no slouch.

At 8 tons and 30 feet in length, it was

equal in size to an African elephant.

Getting gored was a very real possibility

for even T. rex, the apex of predators.

 S  P  I  N  O  S  A  U  R  U  S

 Built like a dragon with a crocodile skull and conical

teeth to grip slippery fish.  It made its living prowling the 

ancient rivers of North Africa.  Like the hippo and 

modern whale, the Spinosaurus bone's were dense,

providing the animal with ballast - weight needed 

to prevent bobbing and roll-over actions that counter

the individual's navigational control.

 

 T  H  E  R  O  P  O  D

This third branch of dinosaur development

provided the basis for both T. rex, terror of the

ages, as well as the lineage leading to modern

birds.  The animals are all bipedal - they run on

their two hind legs.  The front limbs are used for

grasping.  Note the claws.  

The skeleton above illustrates characteristics

basic to both types of animals - bird and terrestrial

predator.  The leg is built for speed, with the bones

of its foot fused to extend the leg, much like that 

of a cheetah's.  The earliest birds used their powerful

legs to launch themselves into flight.

 

 

 A  R  C  H  A  E  O  P  T  E  R  Y  X

   Around 150 million years ago, late in the Jurassic

period, the first birds appeared in the fossil record.

They were reptiles covered in feathers.  Other

reptiles also had feathers, but not ones fastened

to wings and designed for flight.  Here was a 

crow-sized reptile that could fly.

Archaeopteryx was the point when non-avian 

dinosaur transitioned into a bird.  It wasn't yet

complete.  This bird had a jaw with teeth.

It retained a lizard-like tail.  There was no large,

keeled breastbone to anchor robust flight muscles.

This primitive bird was underpowered.

Flight control could be a bit clumsy.

We're talking Kitty Hawk.

It's a beginning.

*   *   *   *   *

©  Tom Taylor 

 

 

OVER   EASY

 

 

coldValentine

Happy Birthday Karen!

  

 

E N C H A N T M E N T

H A P P Y     B I R T H D A Y !

K  A  R  E  N

 

 

love

   tom

 

coldValentine

good morning jeremy

  

 

S W A M P     D R A G O N

  

 

love 

   dad

 

coldValentine