Megalosaurus
Zoochat Wildlife Quiz
- Thread starter German Zoo World
- Start date
Well, it was a bit of a Megalosaurus, and that was the accepted name, but it wasn’t the caption for the first illustration!
The person involved (I forget his name) initially described it as something else, I believe the end of the thigh bone of a (Roman ?) war elephant. He gave it (I believe it was common to give geological artifacts Latin names then) the name 'Scrotum humanum'.
He did indeed call it Scrotum Humanum! Your turn to set a Prehistoric question...
Although today’s platypus are Australian, there is one known platypus from an entirely different continent. What is its Latin name, and which continent was it found on?
Monotrematum sudamericanum from Argentina
Of course, go ahead with your question.
Which enigmatic fossil, not yet confidently placed even to phylum, is the state fossil of a US state, and has been hypothesised as the animal behind the Loch Ness Monster?
Is it the Tully Monster (Tullimonstrum gregarium)?
It is the Tully Monster! Over to you...
Which animal was thought to walk on stilt-like legs and to have tentacles on its back?
Hallucigenia
That's right, Tetzoo Quizzer
The reconstruction was made with the fossil upside down, so scientists couldn't work out what kind of animal it was. When it was reconstructed with the tentacles on the ground, it was considered to be related to velvet worms.
It's your turn, Tetzoo Quizzer
The reconstruction was made with the fossil upside down, so scientists couldn't work out what kind of animal it was. When it was reconstructed with the tentacles on the ground, it was considered to be related to velvet worms.
It's your turn, Tetzoo Quizzer
Once upon a time (meaning I cannot locate the reference) a scientist named an unusual species of snail from cave deposits; the strange feature was that there were approximately equal numbers of right and left coiling individuals found. Later, a different scientist discovered why this was; what was the explanation?
Is it because the left-spiralling snails are better able to survive predation by snail-eating snakes?
No. I think it was somewhere in the Balkans where no snail eating snakes are known. Let’s give you the clue that there was a misidentification involved!
Think (bi)laterally!
Looks like we need help; each organism in the caves actually possessed two “snails”; one coiling each way.
And the “snails” were tiny.
Is this linked to Amphidromus shells found in Sampoeng Cave in Java?