How did a civil war cannon end up in Denmark?
Posted on 05/17/2008 10:37:50 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Dr David Waterhouse, assistant curator of Natural History at Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service, could not resist the Monty Python associations after the discovery of a fossil which he says is the oldest parrot ever found. The dead parrot in the classic sketch was a Norwegian Blue, but the one which Dr Waterhouse has been studying was found on the isle of Morse in the northwest of Denmark... Officially named Mopsitta tanta, the bird has already been nicknamed the Danish Blue, and like John Cleese in the sketch, his first task was to establish it actually was a parrot. He said: "Obviously, we are dealing with a bird that is bereft of life, but the tricky "As with many fragile bird fossils, it is a wonder that anything remains at all, and all that remains of this early Danish parrot is a single upper wing bone (humerus)... When Mopsitta was alive, most of Northern Europe was experiencing a warm period, with a large shallow tropical lagoon covering much of Germany, South East England and Denmark. We have to remember that this was only 10 million years after the dinosaurs were wiped out, and some strange things were happening with animal life all over the planet. No Southern Hemisphere fossil parrot has been found older than about 15 million years old, so this new evidence suggests that parrots evolved right here in the Northern Hemisphere before diversifying further south in the tropics later on... Dr Waterhouse said: "It's a lovely image, but we can say with certainty that it did not. This parrot shuffled off its mortal coil around 55 million years ago, but the fjords of Norway were formed during the last ice age and are less than a million years old."
(Excerpt) Read more at eveningstar.co.uk ...
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Gods |
Many versions available, but a source from Ipswich was irresistable. :'D |
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Actually, Danish Blue is a cheese. Mr. Wensleydale doesn't have any of it or any other cheese in his Old Cheese Emporium.
When Mopsitta was alive, most of Northern Europe was experiencing a warm period, with a large shallow tropical lagoon covering much of Germany, South East England and Denmark.
Nope, don't believe it. Today is the hottest day Europe has ever had. Tomorrow will be even hotter.< /sarc>
Earliest fossil records of Hooters.
After they had established that it was indeed a parrot, did they determine that it was bereft of life and resting in peace? That its metabolic processes were extinct? That it had shuffled off the mortal coil, rung down the curtain, and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible?
;’)
Oh no! ‘’Es just resting!
LOL!
This is an ex-parrot!
(The second-funniest line ever said on television.)
How did a civil war cannon end up in Denmark?
I think the soldiers must have used a bit too much powder...
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