The Jurassic Sea: The Most Dangerous Place for Me

The Jurassic seas are probably one of the most dangerous seas of all time. Now the dinosaurs may have been pretty big on land, but the only things that could outweigh them were the animals underwater.

Now we start out with one large, meat-eating land carnivore called eustreptospondylus. They were about as big as a giraffe. Now these animals aren't as big as t-rex, probably not even as big as an allosaurus. Maybe bigger maybe not.

But let me tell you something, these carnivores would still eat plenty of food. And I don't know, maybe one small, juicy, rhamphorhynchus. Rhamphorhynchus are these small pterosaurs. They may be a bit small but they're worth the fight.

 But now we will talk about the underwater world. Now underwater: one huge enormous reptile is about to strike. The reptile is called liopleurodon. The liopleurodon is the biggest meat-eater that ever lived. And this large predator is about to strike the ophthalmosaurus. The ophthalmosaurus is in the ichthyosaur family. And they have good night vision probably because of eyes the size of softballs. But even with those softball sized eyes, they won't be able to see the enormous, monstrous liopleurodon who is about to strike.

But wait a second, liopleurodon sees another animal. It's called hybodus, a very small shark but it lived for quite a long time. These creatures survived from the Permian period to the Cretaceous. But even the small hybodus will never be able to fight the liopleurodon. Liopleurodon eat sharks like we eat fish. Well we do eat sharkfin soup. And the shark takes its last look and then WHAM! the shark gets eaten.

But what's in the shadow over there? It's the largest fish ever. It's called leedsichthys. It's a pretty slow swimmer and it's a very, very, vulnerable animal. One of them has fallen behind and it's getting eaten alive by some hybodus and a marine crocodile called metriorhynchus. Metriorhynchus is one of your stranger crocodiles. It's like the leedsichthys is getting mosquito bites. Eventually leedsichthys will die. 8 hours later, now leedsichthys is dead. And now the liopleurodon are snacking on that humungous leedsichthys.

And well well looky here it's the ophthalmosaurus and he's trying to make a snack out of these ammonites. Ammonites are related to today's nautilus. Now imagine it as a unpoppable ballon. and when it is poppable, it will squirt out the air, which is the ink.

(image of Eustreptospondylus from walkingwith.wikia.com)

(image of Rhamphorhynchus from kidsdinos.com)

 (image of Liopleurodon from seamonsters.wikia.com)

 (image of Opthalmosaurus from http://www.abc.net.au)

(image of Hybodus from http://www.abc.net.au)

(image of Leedsichthys from bbc.co.uk)

(image of Metriorhynchus from bbc.co.uk)

(image of an ammonite from fossilmoldsandreplicas.com)

How Smart are Animals

Animals are actually very very smart. There was once a dog that was so smart, that he knew the name of every single toy that he had and there were like a 1,000 toys. And even when he got a new toy, he would still know it. Perhaps a new chew toy of Einstein?

And dolphins are also very smart. There is one pod of dolphins that are very very smart. You may think a beach with not many underwater objects would be a paradise for dolphins, but really it is a tough place for dolphin survival. Now since fish are pretty small they can go in really shallow water. Dolphins can't really swim in shallow water, they are the size of a human. Well, they can skim across the water. Its quite dangerous and they could get trapped. It is a quite risky mission.

And you may think that not much brain power comes out of a mollusk, well actually it does. You know how much brain power it takes with those cells that change color?  Well it take a lot of brain power to do that. And some people say that things like cuttlefish can't change in any colory patterns. Well actually they kind of can. One time some people experimented to see if a cuttlefish can change to the checkered colors of a chess board. And you know what, it did work! The cuttlefish did make the back and white pattern. It wasn't exactly camouflage, but it got the job done.

Gray Wolf

The gray wolf is an amazing predator. In fact, they were one of the few animals to survive the Ice Age. But there's this bigger wolf that didn't make it, called the dire wolf. Here's how the big ones did not survive and the smaller ones did.

The dire wolf was eating the really big prey. And the bigger the creature is, the harder it is for that creature to evolve. And the really big prey was disappearing.

Meanwhile the gray wolf was feeding on small things like rabbits and moles. So that's how the gray wolf survived.

And the gray wolf can run pretty fast. And it has this special pace where it can run very far. When it isn't in its pace and it's just sprinting, it can run 40 mph. And when its in its marathon runs, it can run up to 18 mph.
Us humans can run up to 23mph, so the gray wolf can run faster than a human when it's in sprinting mode. And anyway, a human can't run as far as a gray wolf.

Now wolves hunt in packs. The more wolves in a pack, the bigger prey they can take down. But the biggest and hardest to eat is the Moose. Moose can run 35 mph, but they can not run as long. But the moose's weapon is the horns. But they only work on one wolf. But the moose can swim.

Here's how you can tell if the paw prints are really gray wolf's. The gray wolf's paw prints are much bigger than a coyote's or a fox's.

(photo from en.wikipedia.org)

Wolverine

The wolverine is the largest member of the weasel family. It's a pretty vicious creature. And "the nose knows," because if a carcass is under an avalanche the wolverine can smell it. The wolverine can smell a carcass 20 feet deep under snow. The wolverine can run on snow very well. Its got built in snow shoe. It can run up to 30 mph on deep snow. In fact, snow is what the wolverine is all about. But unfortunately they're quite endangered because of lack of habitat. Wolverines like to live around very snowy places, that's why they live around Alaska.

(photo from animal.discovery.com)

The Desert

In this post I will be talking about the desert.

Now the first creature we will meet around here is the desert jackrabbit. Now it may look very toasty in that fur coat of his but really the fur is actually fine and anyway it had ear conditioning. The wide ears help more air go into its ear and that cools the jackrabbit off.

Well you don't usually see the desert tortoise out of its burrow - it's burrow is a place where it keeps out of the sun.

And this place is a haven for collared lizards. Collared lizards can run on their hinds legs so they can get away from their arch enemy the road runner. Because the collared lizard can run faster on two legs.

But one of the meanest reptiles you can fine at the desert is probably the Gila Monster, a venomous animal. The venom isn't exactly the strongest venom in the world but hey this monster is still a monster you would not want under your bed.

For the most part, desert hummingbirds and bees do the pollination for the flowers at the desert.

But at night the bats take over that (the pollination).

Big Bang for Big Beginner

In this blog post I will talk about the Big Bang, the creation of our universe.

Now how did the Big Bang bang? Because it turned just nothing into an extreme KABOOM! Well actually, the Big Bang did start out as this ball of particles and, you know, energy. And then it exploded! And it exploded faster than the speed of light.

But wait, isn't that against one of the laws of nature? Well there's a bit of a loophole. You see everybody says nothing can go faster than the speed of light - and remember when I told you that "nothing" is something, so that means "nothing" can go at the speed of light. And that is saying that the fabric is able to go at the speed of light. And that was the beginning of the fabric - the Big Bang was the beginning of the fabric so the explosion indeedly-did go faster than the speed of light.

And you need just enough gravity for the perfect universe. Now I'm not sure what happens when you put too much or not enough, but here's something amazing: you see, if things get really, really, really, hot, you can turn energy into matter. And that's pretty much what happened at the Big Bang.

But then the Big Bang had to go with one of its biggest rivals: anti-matter! Anti-matter is the total opposite of matter. It was made from the opposite things. Whoever had more leftover matter won. And luckily the Big Bang won! Whoo! Yeah!

But like I said, a universe is going to come to an end, but maybe Big Bangs are happening all over the place. And maybe there will be another universe that will make life and suppport many other objects as well. But still, this universe may be coming to an end. It shall collapse.

But as some people say, death is just about the same as birth.

Food Chain Lane

In this blog post I will be talking about the African food chain.

Ok, I'll start out around the very bottom of the African food chain: the grain of grass. Most herbivores in the Savannah eat grass. And they also like to eat Acacia trees. The Acacia tree is the logo for the show "Nature," so these Acacia trees are pretty much famous.

Well what's higher on the food chain are the herbivores like harvester termites and gazelle. Here are some facts about those 2 creatures. The Thompson's gazelle can run up to 50 miles per hour. And here are 2 facts about the harvester termite. The harvester termite isn't like the one that builds ginormous towers. They're a bit like ants, they live in holes. And here's another fact about those harvester termites: all the harvester termites in one tower could eat more grass than all the other herbivores. Because hey, it's like tiny mighty!


Now what eats harvester termites and what eats Thompson's gazelle? Well bat eared foxes would probably like to eat the termites. And if a gazelle is wounded it would be vulnerable to the python. Here are some facts about these 2 predators. The bat eared fox can hear termites through ground. And pythons are constrictor snakes - that means they have a very tight squeeze. That's their way of killing their prey: squeezing them to death. But believe it or not, we're not at the higest part of the food chain.

We need to go to the top predators. There's only one top predator in Africa: the lion. The lion fact is they may not be able to sprint very well but they are good at tackling. So what did you learn from this blog post? Well, you learned that a herbivore eating grass is no worse than a lion eating zebra.

Acacia Tree

(Photo from parsha.blogspot.com)

 African Grass

(Photo from anthonymattox.com)

Gazelle

(Photo from awf.org)
Termites

(photo from remotecamera-sa.blogspot.com)
Python

(photo from arkive.org)
Bat Eared Fox

(photo from arkinspace.com)

Lion

(photo from razorianfly.com)

 

Groundhog

Just for a bit of information, this was made on Groundhog's Day, 2012.

Groundhogs aren't only called groundhogs, they are also called whistle pigs because when danger is near, they whistle. Now this creature does not like to swim, but it can hoggy paddle. And technically it could be called a treehog because if a groundhog wants to, it can climb a tree. And there is even a third name for a ground hog. Its other name is the woodchuck.

But instead of chucking wood, it digs holes. And the holes aren't just a messed up home - they are a lot like the human home, but just underground. Now first the ground hog starts to dig down and then up for the flood stopper, just in case too much water comes in or else the hole could flood. And their ears don't get dirty because they have ear flaps. Their teeth do a little work in the digging. They can chomp through roots and move rocks.

Now the groundhog isn't too fast. It can run as fast as an average 4th grader. Now it may be slow but it isn't picky with homes or food. Here's what it will eat: veggies, fruits, grains, grass, clover, greens. Here are the homes: fields, rocky areas, woods, thickets, under sheds.

But here's the hibernation part. Step 1 for hibernation: fill your stomach with tons of fat because who knows when the groundhog gets hungry during its hibernation.

Now step 2 of hibernation: pack yourself tight with tons of dirt by closing up the entrance and sleep for many weeks and maybe months. And while the groundhog is sleeping, everything starts to slow down. And just like its cousin the beaver, its teeth never stop growing but when the groundhog hibernates, then it stops.

Step 3 of hibernation: start looking for more food and hopefully find a mate to pass on the next generation. And here's how they greet each other when a male and female like each other: they rub cheeks and noses. And these groundhogs don't seem to have any weapons but actually it does: it can chatter its teeth loud enough to get rid of the predators.

Here are the predators: Coyotes, dogs, birds of prey, and foxes.

And the groundhog can really see you from his hole like a periscope - he can see if anyone is approaching his hole. And even if something went past him, he would still be able to know because he's got a good enough nose to know if any other creature has been trying to sneak into the den.

Recommended reading: "Groundhog Gets a Say", by Pamela Curtis Swallow & illustrated by Denise Brunkus.

(photo from uptake.com)