Prehistoric 'Bear-Dog' Fossil Unearthed

Wired (AP) ^ | February 23, 2005 | AP

[Rakkasan1]

[Rakkasan1]

[LibertarianInExile]

You know, I'm all for fossil research and I love reading about this stuff, but I loathe when scientists and the press puff up finds that can't possibly indicate everything they claim with any certainty.

"...his team found a jaw bone and an inch-long fang from what they estimate was a 200-pound creature. 'They look something like a large pit bull,' Stewart told the San Francisco Chronicle. 'They're very tough customers.'"

I cannot buy that with a jawbone and a tooth alone you can in any way shape or form predict that a creature "looks something like a large pit bull" or is a "very tough customer" without engaging in a lot of far-too-speculative hypothesizing. Science can't be well served by the use of extremely hypothetical comments like this from very small pieces of data.

[aculeus]

Ping.

[FastCoyote]

"They look something like a large pit bull," Stewart told the San Francisco Chronicle. "They're very tough customers."

Imagine the size of the meth lab it must have been guarding!

[cripplecreek]

Oft confused with the bare dog.

[donmeaker]

Wolverines routinely take on Cars. They lose, but often penetrate the radiator, leaving the driver and his vehicle out of action.

[PatrickHenry]

EvolutionPing

A pro-evolution science list with over 240 names. See list's description at my homepage. FReepmail to be added/dropped.

[Tench_Coxe]

"Nah. More a giant badger. If you look at living badgers, they're ornery critters. You don't want to cross paths with one. I wouldn't think about crossing a path with this pre-historic beast and don't ever have to."

Pound for pound, the members of that family ( badgers, wolverines ) are the meanest creatures on God's green earth. Best to leave them alone if they're in the vicinity.

[RightWhale]

It just blew me out of my mind

It takes a while to totally inhabit a language. Some never do.

[mtbopfuyn]

How can they have a story like this without pictures?

I was hoping for a pic of a cross between Hillary and Madeline.

[msnimje]

I have always thought bears and dogs look alike.

[NorCalRepub]

you said it.....I'm in Calif and there are some in the foothills but my mom and dad are from Michigan...My dad said he saw a few out in the woods in N. Michigan and told me when I was young that they were the most ferocious little bas**rds around......

[HairOfTheDog]

I have always thought bears and dogs look alike.

Thinking the same thing... I nearly shot a Newfoundland that woke us up wandering through our campsite in the dark... Only thing that stopped me was I don't think bears ~pant~. ;~D

Friendly guy - was camping not too far from us, we found out the next day.

[kaylar]

As Hunster S Thompson put it, in his book on the Nixon presidency:

"Badgers don't fight fair. That's why god created dachshunds".

[kaylar]

And the bare dog is often confused with the much smaller

Mexican barking rat.

[537cant be wrong]

hey wait a minute.
isn't this one of those threads that get attacked by freepers for already being posted earlier?
i could have sworn that susan estrich was already being talked about.

[frithguild]

monstrous predator that looks like a cross between a bear and a pit bull ... an entirely new genus within the same family as otters, skunks and weasels.

Missing link to the modern slip and fall lawyer?

[marktwain]

I nearly shot a Newfoundland that woke us up wandering through our campsite in the dark... Only thing that stopped me was I don't think bears ~pant~. ;~D

This shows good judgment on your part. ;-)

[zebra 2]

They are distantly related. Racoons too.