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Favorite prehistoric animals.

Discussion in 'Zoo Cafe' started by Komodo99, 24 May 2017.

  1. Kakapo

    Kakapo Well-Known Member

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    I would love to see:
    Longisquama insignis
    Nyctosaurus gracilis
    Pterodaustro guinazu
    Helicoprion ferrieri
    Stethacanthus altonensis
    Tanystropheus longobardicus
    Opabinia regalis

    I'm surprised that nobody mentioned them before!
     
    Last edited: 23 Aug 2017
  2. SealPup

    SealPup Well-Known Member

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  3. Sarus Crane

    Sarus Crane Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    You used my organizing style. Nice!
     
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  4. SealPup

    SealPup Well-Known Member

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    Teleost - Xiphactinus
    Basal gnathostome - Dunkleosteus
    Non-gnathostome vertebrate - Pteraspis
    Early palaeogene mammal - Leptictidium, Oxyaena
    Oligocene mammal - Arsinoitherium, Paraceratherium
     
  5. Pleistohorse

    Pleistohorse Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    American mastodon.
     
  6. SealPup

    SealPup Well-Known Member

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    How about a dwarf elephant (kawaii desu) or a shovel tusker?
     
  7. UngulateNerd92

    UngulateNerd92 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

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    I don't want to be that guy, but may I make a correction here? Embolotherium actually lived during the late Eocene, not the Miocene.
     
  8. UngulateNerd92

    UngulateNerd92 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

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    This is a tough question for me to answer, but if fauna from the early Holocene can be included in this thread, I am going to have to go with Myotragus blearicus... With regards to paleontology, though my main interest is the Cenozoic era, a friend of mine made a Facebook post the other day asking people what their favorite dinosaur was, and this is what I had to say in response;

    "Wow *****, that is a tough one... If I had to choose a taxonomic grouping, it would be the suborder Ceratopsia.

    Being that I like my zoo and natural history museum exhibits to be arranged by taxonomy, I like some of the ceratopsian exhibit displays I have seen in different museums. Two noteworthy examples include the one at the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City showcasing the skulls of 12 ceratopsian genera and the skull display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History with an Torosaurus, Styracosaurus, and Einiosaurus next to each other so guests can make comparisons.

    If I had to narrow it down to a specific species within the Ceratopsia suborder, I am going to have to go with Zuniceratops christopheri which is the sole species in that genus. There are a few reasons I would choose them as my favorite. One being their smaller size in comparison to other ceratopsians. The other reasons are having seen and handled the holotype specimen and having met one of the authorities that discovered and described the material. The holotype specimen is housed at the Arizona Museum of Natural History where I used to work/volunteer. Dr. Douglas Wolfe along with Jim Kirkland described Zuniceratops christopheri in 1998. Dr. Wolfe named the species after his son Christopher who was 7 or 8 at the time if memory serves me right. Zuniceratops christopheri was discovered in the Zuni Basin which is on the Arizona New Mexico border. You can read more about this project here. Zuni Basin Paleontological Project | Arizona Museum of Natural History

    For Sauropod dinosaurs, I would have to say that may favorite species is Sonorasaurus thompsoni which again is the sole species in their genus. Having worked/volunteered at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum where the holotype specimen is kept, I have seen material from this species and had the privilege of learning about the story of its discovery and plans that the ASDM had to display a full skeleton, but unfortunately not being able to. Like Zuniceratops christopheri, Sonorasaurus thompsoni was described in 1998, but by Ronald Paul Ratkevich who was based at the ASDM.

    Next comment I said;

    Here is a photograph of the Ceratopsian display I mentioned from the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

    And here is the link from which I sourced the image https://www.google.com/amp/s/anthrozoologyinterests.wordpress.com/2018/06/23/dinosaurs/amp/

    Next comment I said;

    And here is a photograph of the Ceratopsian display at the Utah Museum of Natural History.

    And here is the link from which I sourced the image. https://www.google.com/amp/s/svpow....tory-museum-of-utah-wall-of-ceratopsians/amp/

    Next comment I said;

    I am sorry for this long post...

    She then said;

    The LA County Nat Hist Museum is one of my favorites. I’m DYING to work there in the future. There is never a need to apologize for long posts about dinosaurs.

    I then said;

    Have you ever visited or not yet? I used to work/volunteer at the LACM from 2014 to 2016. It was an enjoyable place to be! With my interest in the Cenozoic era, my favorite exhibit there was the Age of Mammals Hall.

    After my time at LACM, I transferred to the Western Science Center in Hemet, Riverside County, California. The main specialty there is Late Pleistocene fossils from Diamond Valley Lake. Diamond Valley Lake is an artificial lake that was excavated in 1996 and then finally finished and filled in 2006. After the fossils were excavated, they were transferred to the San Bernardino County Museum (SBCM) in Redlands, San Bernardino County, California where I also used to work/volunteer in their biological sciences and earth sciences departments. There were too many fossils from Diamond Valley Lake for SBCM to store in their repository, that they had to build a whole new museum and repository for that material. Anyway, the reason I bring up the Western Science Center (WSC) is because soon after I left, their Curator of Paleontology Dr. Andrew McDonald who was a dinosaur specialist started to expand the dinosaur and mesozoic fossil collection. One noteworthy taxon in the collection was a genus and species he discovered and described from the Menefee Formation in New Mexico. The notosaurid ankylosaur, Invictarx zephyri. You can read more about that in the link below.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pe...illion-years-old-are-new-to-hemet-museum/amp/

    I then said;

    Thank you, I am glad you don't mind my long posts. I am glad other people share my interest in paleontology."
     
  9. LowlandGorilla4

    LowlandGorilla4 Well-Known Member

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    Homotherium
    Parasaurolophus
    American Lion
    Tyrannosaurus
    Carcharodontosaurus
    Brachiosaurus


     
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  10. FBBird

    FBBird Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Cnemiornis
     
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  11. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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  12. evilmonkey239

    evilmonkey239 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Not sure I have a favorite species, but in general my favorite prehistoric animals are creatures from the late Pleistocene epoch, anything from Arctodus to megalania to Paleoxodon. I’ve always been more interested in living animals than ones only known from fossilized remains, but I have a soft spot for Pleistocene megafauna because of just how recently in earth’s geologic history these animal were alive. In fact if not for humans, many of these great beasts might still roam the earth to this day.
     
  13. amur leopard

    amur leopard Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I'd have to go with either Panthera pardus spelaea or Quetecsaurus rusconii :)
     
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