The Japanese "Blue Dragon" that Terrorized the Pacific Seas 72 MYA

[imhotep]

Researchers have described a Japanese Mosasaur the size of a great white shark that terrorized Pacific seas 72 million years ago.

Extra-long rear flippers might have aided propulsion in concert with its long finned tail. And unlike other Mosasaurs, or large extinct marine reptiles, it had a dorsal fin like a shark’s that would have helped it turn quickly and with precision in the water.

The mosasaur was named for the place where it was found, Wakayama Prefecture. Researchers call it the Wakayama Soryu, which means blue dragon. Dragons are creatures of legend in Japanese folklore. In China, dragons make thunder and live in the sky. They became aquatic in Japanese mythology.

The specimen is the most complete skeleton of a Mosasaur ever found in Japan or the northwestern Pacific.

 

[SLHodahitha]

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[Reincarnator]

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[Stimulus mind]

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[War Fighter]

Humans try to explore the space but they haven't even explored the oceans completely.

 

[Asmodeus]

I've read that interesting fact that the blue whale's size surpasses the size of any animal that ever lived on earth—only the dinosaurs—which are close in mass and size to the blue whale.

 

[chatura_CN]

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[imhotep]

I've read that interesting fact that the blue whale's size surpasses the size of any animal that ever lived on earth—only the dinosaurs—which are close in mass and size to the blue whale.

Until recently it was believed that the Blue Whale holds the record. It can grow to five times the size of a Megalodon and larger than any dinosaur. But now there's another contender -Perucetus colossus (“the colossal whale from Peru”), lived about 39 million years ago.
Though its roughly 66-foot length doesn't break records, its weight does. The study estimates it weighed 375 tons or more and thus probably the heaviest animal ever lived.

 

[Naughtykolla48]

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[snm1990]

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[Solo Rider]

Awesome

Humans try to explore the space but they haven't even explored the oceans completely.

This true

 

[SDCR]

Humans try to explore the space but they haven't even explored the oceans completely.

true

 

[imhotep]

Humans try to explore the space but they haven't even explored the oceans completely.

Because it isn't easy. The Earth’s oceans contain roughly 321 million cubic miles of water, which covers more than 70% of our planet’s surface area and amounting to roughly 99% of the Earth’s total living-space.
Like NASA, the NOAA receives billion dollar funding but it's much less compared with what's spent on Space exploration and there's a limit to what they can do.
Also the deep seas comes with its own risk.
NASA has their own underwater exploratory vehicles too.

We don't know about all the creatures in the sea. Each year many new species are found. Remember the Coelacanth (Seel-uh-kanth), the fish that was supposedly extinct? Coelacanths are known from the fossil record dating back over 360 million years, with a peak in abundance about 240 million years ago. They were believed to have become extinct approximately 80 million years ago, when they disappeared from the fossil record.
Coelacanths can grow more than six feet long and weigh about 200 pounds, and they're covered in thick, scaly armor. It's estimated they can live up to 60 years or more. Coelacanths were thought to be the ancestors of tetrapods (four-legged, land-living animals), but a recent analysis of the coelacanth genome suggests that lungfish are actually more closely related to tetrapods. The divergence of coelacanths, lungfish, and tetrapods is thought to have occurred about 390 million years ago. Coelacanths might occupy a side branch of the vertebrate lineage, closely related to, yet distinct from, the ancestor of tetrapods.
Their movement of alternate paired fins resembles the movement of the forelegs and hindlegs of a tetrapod walking on land.
Coelacanths retain an oil-filled notochord, a hollow, pressurized tube that serves as a backbone. In most other vertebrates, the notochord is replaced by the vertebral column as the embryo develops. Also they give birth to live young.

It was rumoured that the fishermen in South Africa claimed they know this fish by the drawings and eventually a live one was found in 1938. Since then many have been found and now the scientists know where they are.

Latimeria chalumnae was discovered off the coast of South Africa in 1938. The second living species of coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis, was discovered in an Indonesian market in 1997. The Sulawesi fishermen called this fish raja laut (King of the Sea) and they knew about it's existence long before.

 

[NRTG]

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[dayt0na]

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