Because I Can't Wait for Jurassic World .... Dinosaurs!!!

I am a HUGE dinosaur person! I've always loved them. At the beginning of my first book, Acea and the Animal Kingdom, Acea would spend his recesses in elementary school digging through rocks at his playground looking for dinosaur fossils. This was actually me. I used to come back to class with pockets full of rocks that I thought were fossils or footprints. Naturally, dinosaurs were then featured prominently at the end of my trilogy in Acea and the Adventure Thru Time.

So, I can't wait for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to come out! Part of it is nostalgia with wanting to re-live my memories of being enthralled with Jurassic Park as a kid. But the other part of it is that it's just way awesome to see dinosaurs on the big screen!

In anticipation of JW, we went to our local dinosaur museum (Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, Utah).  We loved it!  We'll skip to animal facts for today - and instead just post some pics of the dinosaur fossils we encountered:

One of the coolest things we did was cleaning fossils of fish - real fossils that came from a Wyoming quarry. I'd been wanting to go to that quarry for a while now, and so getting to finally see those fish fossils in person was great. And we got to keep them!

Worm from Hell? It's the Hyrdothermal Worm!

Ever watched tremors and wondered if worms like that really exist? They don't. But something that's just a creepy-looking-cool does exist: the Hydrothermal Worm!

The little guys are ... well ... little! The below image is zoomed in 525 times and was taken by an electron microscope. They are actually about the size as bacteria. But most people will never encounter these things, so no need to fear. They are deep sea creatures that live primarily next to hydrothermal vents deep in the sea.

Still ... there's something about this picture that makes me thing "Worm From Hell."

(Photo credit: Philippe Crassous & FEI)

Amazing Fact of the Day: Ostrich Eyes

Amazing Animal Fact of the Day:

An Ostrich eyeball is about as big as a billiard ball. Their eyes take up so much room in the skull that each eyeball is larger than the size of the Ostrich's brain! They may be good a running, but they're not very good at outsmarting predators due to that small brain. They tend to run in circles!

The Longest Living Animal Is...

What's the longest living animal ever discovered? The answer may surprise you!

Most people would probably think it's a Galapagos Tortoise, whose lifespan is over 100 years. But you'd be wrong.

Before we get to the winner, the runner-up is the Greenland Shark. The oldest recorded living Greenland Shark was 392 years old! They live in the Northern Atlantic Ocean and live on average of 200 years. They don't reach their adult size until 100 years old! 

Though it's the runner up of all animals, it does win the award for longest known living vertebrate animal.

The winner is .... the Ocean Quahog Clam!  

The animal can live over 400 years on average, and the oldest known living one was discovered at 507 years old!!! It was given the name 'Ming' because it would have been alive during the Chinese Ming Dynasty. Like the Greenland Shark, these Clams also live in the Northern Atlantic Ocean. 

This is Ming:

But I have a feeling that once the Loch Ness Monster is caught, we'll have a new winner!

Monarch Migration Madness!

I'm about to tell you one of the most fascinating animal facts I've heard in a long time. And it's about the Monarch Butterfly.

Every year, all Monarch Butterflies migrate south for the winter. They do this for 2 reasons: they can't survive the cold weather in the northern climates, and their larval foot plants that they eat don't grow in the winter.  So they fly south, to these locations (Mexico, S. California, and S. Florida):

Obviously butterflies aren't the only animal to fly south for the winter. So no big deal, right? Well - this is where their migration becomes unique and fascinating:

Every year, the Monarch migration to each location is 2,500 miles away. And every year the butterflies return to the same exact tree - again - 2,500 miles away. However, by the time that they reach that same tree, it is no longer the same butterfly that is doing the migration from the prior year. By the time the next year's migration occurs, the migrating butterfly is four generations younger than the last year's migrating butterfly!!!

Think about that. In one year, the Monarch goes through four generations of butterflies. And the new butterflies are migrating to the exact same tree 2,500 miles away that their great-great grandparents migrated to. Exact same tree. This is one of nature's most fascinating animal facts - and mysteries!

By the way! The Living Planet Aquarium in Salt Lake City, Utah now has an interactive butterfly exhibit! My kids loved it!

Hilarious Panda vs. Snowman Video

I'm not sure who wins this hilarious battle.... (fun starts at about 50 seconds)

(Source: Toronto Zoo)

Happy 2018 - Year of the ....

DOG! 

That's right, 2018 is the Chinese Year of the Dog. Even if you already own a dog, you probably didn't know some of these amazing and interesting facts about them:

• Dr. Roger Mugford invented the "wagometer" which was a device that claimed to determine a dog's mood by measuring the wag of its tail. Can this really be done? Only dog-owners know...
• There is a dog that cannot bark! It's the Besenji breed, but they can yodel.
• A dog's sense of smell is 10,000 times stronger than a human's sense of smell!
• There a more than 150 dog breeds, divided into 8 classes: sporting, hound, working, terrier, toy, non-sporting, herding, and miscellaneous.
• When a puppy is born, he is deaf, blind, and toothless.
• The Norwegian Lundehund has six toes on each foot!
• The Newfoundland breed has webbed feet - helping them be good swimmers.
• The most popular dog name is Max.

Happy New Year!