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'Sea monster' whale fossil unearthed
BBC News ^ | June 30, 2010 | Pallab Ghosh

Posted on 06/30/2010 9:36:54 PM PDT by shibumi

Researchers have discovered the fossilised remains of an ancient whale with huge, fearsome teeth.

Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists have dubbed the 12 million-year-old creature "Leviathan".

It is thought to have been more than 17m long, and might have engaged in fierce battles with other giant sea creatures from the time.

Leviathan was much like the modern sperm whale in terms of size and appearance.

Continue reading the main story At the same time in the same waters was another monster... they might have fought each other Dr Christian de Muizon

Natural History Museum, Paris But that is where the similarity ends. While the sperm whale is a relatively passive animal, sucking in squid from the depths of the ocean, Leviathan was an aggressive predator.

According to Dr Christian de Muizon, director of the Natural History Museum in Paris, Leviathan could have hunted out and fed on large sea creatures such as dolphins, seals and even other whales.

"It was a kind of a sea monster," he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Pets/Animals; Science
KEYWORDS: fossil; godsgravesglyphs; leviathan; teeth

1 posted on 06/30/2010 9:36:57 PM PDT by shibumi
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To: Salamander; Slings and Arrows; Markos33; JoeProBono; humblegunner; Eaker; kanawa; ...



"Destruction of Leviathan" by Gustav Dore'

2 posted on 06/30/2010 9:40:14 PM PDT by shibumi ((Topop Gigiop!!!!!))
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To: shibumi; SunkenCiv

But could it beat a hippo? hmmmmmmmmm

3 posted on 06/30/2010 9:46:54 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: martin_fierro
Despite the vast difference in size, the opening of the maw would be about the same.


4 posted on 06/30/2010 9:51:57 PM PDT by shibumi ((Topop Gigiop!!!!!))
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To: shibumi
Despite the vast difference in size, the opening of the maw would be about the same.

You leave my maw out of this.

or I'll call my paw.

5 posted on 06/30/2010 9:56:02 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: martin_fierro; SunkenCiv

lol


6 posted on 06/30/2010 10:07:09 PM PDT by GeronL (Just say NO to conservativecave.com, it rots your teeth!)
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To: shibumi

It was a whale of a whale.


7 posted on 06/30/2010 10:08:22 PM PDT by TigersEye (Greenhouse Theory is false. Totally debunked. "GH gases" is a non-sequitur.)
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To: shibumi
Can you imagine the size of the laser we could put on its frickin' head?


8 posted on 06/30/2010 10:12:23 PM PDT by JRios1968 (The real first rule of Fight Club: don't invite Chuck Norris...EVER)
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To: shibumi
Mike Church will be excited that Leviathan is dead.
9 posted on 06/30/2010 10:27:29 PM PDT by deltaromeo11 (if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36b)
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To: martin_fierro; shibumi; JoeProBono

10 posted on 06/30/2010 10:28:07 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: wildbill; martin_fierro; GeronL; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; ...

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·

 
Gods
Graves
Glyphs
Thanks martin_fierro and GeronL.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

·Dogpile · Archaeologica · Mirabilis.ca · LiveScience · Biblical Archaeology Society ·
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google ·
· Archaeology · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·


11 posted on 07/01/2010 4:05:22 AM PDT by SunkenCiv ("Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others." -- Otto von Bismarck)
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To: shibumi

The good news is that you can load 45/70 ammo to stop anything...


12 posted on 07/01/2010 4:45:51 AM PDT by wendy1946
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To: shibumi

13 posted on 07/01/2010 5:21:44 AM PDT by Revelation 911 (How many 100's of 1000's of our servicemen died so we would never bow to a king?" -freeper pnh102)
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To: shibumi

Wow! So different from the gentle, vegetarian Sperm Whale....


14 posted on 07/01/2010 6:32:22 AM PDT by Eepsy (www.pioacademy.org)
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To: Eepsy

Not “Very Like a Whale” is it?


15 posted on 07/01/2010 6:37:35 AM PDT by shibumi ((Topop Gigiop!!!!!))
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To: shibumi

Very Like a Whale

One thing that literature would be greatly the better for
Would be a more restricted employment by the authors of simile and metaphor.
Authors of all races, be they Greeks, Romans, Teutons or Celts,
Can’t seem just to say that anything is the thing it is but have to
go out of their way to say that it is like something else.

What does it mean when we are told
That that Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold?
In the first place, George Gordon Byron had enough experience
To know that it probably wasn’t just one Assyrian, it was a lot of
Assyrians.

However, as too many arguments are apt to induce apoplexy and
thus hinder longevity.
We’ll let it pass as one Assyrian for the sake of brevity.
Now then, this particular Assyrian, the one whose cohorts were
gleaming in purple and gold,
Just what does the poet mean when he says he came down like a
wold on the fold?

In heaven and earth more than is dreamed of in our philosophy
there are great many things.
But I don’t imagine that among them there is a wolf with purple
and gold cohorts or purple and gold anythings.
No, no, Lord Byron, before I’ll believe that this Assyrian was
actually like a wolf I must have some kind of proof;

Did he run on all fours and did he have a hairy tail and a big red
mouth and big white teeth and did he say Woof Woof?
Frankly I think it is very unlikely, and all you were entitled to say,
at the very most,
Was that the Assyrian cohorts came down like a lot of Assyrian
cohorts about to destroy the Hebrew host.
But that wasn’t fancy enough for Lord Byron, oh dear me no, he
had to invent a lot of figures of speech and then interpolate them,
With the result that whenever you mention Old Testament soldiers
to people they say Oh yes, they’re the ones that a lot of
wolves dressed up in gold and purple ate them.

That’s the kind of thing that’s being done all the time by poets,
from Homer to Tennyson;
They’re always comparing ladies to lilies and veal to venison,
And they always say things like that the snow is a white blanket
after a winter storm.
Oh it is, is it, all right then, you sleep under a six-inch blanket of
snow and I’ll sleep under a half-inch blanket of unpoetical
blanket material and we’ll see which one keeps warm,

And after that maybe you’ll begin to comprehend dimly
What I mean by too much metaphor and simile.

— Ogden Nash


16 posted on 07/01/2010 7:03:29 AM PDT by Eepsy (www.pioacademy.org)
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To: shibumi

According to some geneticists, the hippo is the closest land-living relative of the whale.


17 posted on 07/01/2010 10:27:33 AM PDT by ComputerGuy (HM2/USN M/3/3 Marines RVN '66-'67)
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To: ComputerGuy

Or Michael Moore.


18 posted on 07/01/2010 10:36:34 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim (Live jubtabulously!)
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To: ComputerGuy; Tijeras_Slim
"Well ..... There it is!"


19 posted on 07/01/2010 12:02:47 PM PDT by shibumi ("In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.")
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