Think hyena.
Posted on 02/24/2005 4:22:48 PM PST by aculeus
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Scientists are marveling at a fossil find in California's San Joaquin Valley that has produced the remains of a never-before-seen badger-like creature and a monstrous predator that looks like a cross between a bear and a pit bull.
Among the discoveries was the skull of an animal that appears to be an entirely new genus within the same family as otters, skunks and weasels.
"It just blew me out of my mind," Xiaoming Wang, associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, said after seeing the fossil of the badger-like animal. "It looks like it was very ferocious."
A team led by paleontologist J.D. Stewart recovered bones from 25 species of vertebrates, as well as birds and snails, that date to roughly 15 million years ago. The best-preserved 1,200 specimens now make up a permanent collection at the University of California, Berkeley's Museum of Paleontology.
The dig is a legacy of California's power crisis of 2000-2001. The fossils were unearthed during construction of new electricity transmission lines at the so-called Path 15, the infamous utility bottleneck in the state's north-south electricity conduit near Los Banos.
Also found on the site just west of Fresno were the most complete remains yet discovered in the San Joaquin Valley of a bear-dog creature that ruled what once was a savannah-like environment.
Stewart, a research associate at the National History Museum in Los Angeles, said 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."
Also found was the most complete skull ever of the early horse Merychippus californicus, Latin for "ruminant horse of California."
The three-toed horse stood only 3 1/2 feet tall from its shoulders to the ground, said Stewart, adding that the animal marks a milestone on the evolutionary path of horses.
"Horses are getting bigger," he said. "They've got one toe, and their teeth are getting longer. You may not want to call it evolution. Call it what you want. That's what the evidence shows."
Long after the dinosaurs, the horses thrived in the middle part of the Miocene Epoch, during what the Florida Museum of Natural History's Web site calls "the heyday or `hayday' of horses," referring to the change in diet.
Another find _ two-thirds of a giant tortoise shell _ marked the most complete remnant of the ancient creature ever found in California.
"Very little is known about the West Coast tortoises," said renowned turtle expert and retired paleontologist Howard Hutchison. "It's really about the first time ever when you can say with some certainty that it's linked to the ones found in the Great Plains."
Copyright © 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Think hyena.
While we were pheasant hunting a couple years ago, my son stepped on something in the tall grass. It was a badger and it was not happy! The badger didn't back off but came after my son and got a grip on the cuff of his jeans, tripping him. My son bounced back off the ground and ran out of the grass with the badger hot on his trail. I fired a shot into the grass and the badger finally turned around and went away.
I can't imagine what a 200 lb. creature of that type would behave.
That sounds like it would leave a mark.
Found the article online: http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0206/feature3/index.html
Even though NatGeo has been infiltrated by Red Diaper babies, I'll still read them occasionally (taking care to watch for the Red-Green propaganda, of course!). :-)
Sorry, I have only been telling the truth, it is the evolutionists who have been telling stories.
We were specially created, in the types of beings we are now.
And evolution never happened.
I bet your car has nothing like 385 horses.
It is a 1964 Ford Galaxie XL coupe. Not the best classic, a bit heavy, but it still holds its own. The original 390 is not in it of course(I still have it however) but the new one is just a Ford racing crate engine with some mods.
Next I am working a 1968 F-100 Ranger. All original, 360, 3spd on the column, one owner, (my dad).
As a racing car I'd take a Mini Cooper S over a Galaxie anyday.
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