26 Million Year-Old Penguin Reconstructed From Fossils

Scientists reconstruct long-extinct giant penguin

Feb 29 2012

NICK PERRY, Associated Press

This undated graphic illustration released by University of Otago on Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012 shows a giant penguin called a Kairuku. It's taken 26 million years, but scientists say getting the first glimpse at what a long-extinct giant penguin looked like was worth the wait. Experts from New Zealand and the United States have reconstructed the fossil skeleton of one of the giant sea birds for the first time, revealing long wings, a slender build and a spearlike bill that have them describing it as one elegant bird. (AP Photo/University of Otago)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — It was a slender bird, with long wings and a spear-like bill to catch swift ocean prey. And scientists say the first glimpse of the extinct giant penguin species was worth the 26 million-year wait.

Experts from New Zealand and the United States reconstructed a fossil skeleton of one of the giant sea birds to reveal a body shape unique from known penguin species with features that have them describing it as one elegant bird.

The bird they dubbed Kairuku — Maori for "diver who returns with food" — stood about 4 feet 2 inches (1.3 meters) tall and lived in the Oligocene period, about 26 million years ago. The research on Kairuku was published this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The first Kairuku bones were discovered 35 years ago in New Zealand by Ewan Fordyce, a professor of geology at New Zealand's University of Otago. He recently teamed with Dan Ksepka, a research assistant professor at North Carolina State University, to reconstruct a skeleton from multiple sets of fossils, using a king penguin as a model.

"It's pretty exciting," Fordyce told The Associated Press. "We've got enough from three key specimens to get a pretty reliable construction of its body size."

Fordyce said the bird's elongated bill may have been useful in catching swift prey and its large body size likely helped it swim farther and dive deeper than modern-day penguins.

The bird is about a foot (30 centimeters) taller than the largest modern penguin, the emperor. It would have weighed about 132 pounds (60 kilograms), 50 percent more than an emperor.

When Kairuku was alive, most of modern New Zealand was submerged beneath the ocean. The scientists believe the remaining isolated, rocky land masses helped keep the penguins safe from potential predators and provided them with plentiful supplies of food.

Fordyce said there are several reasons why the giant penguins might have become extinct: It could have been from climate change, the arrival of new predators, or increased competition for food from seals and other creatures.

What Do Sharks Eat When They're Really Hungry?

Other Sharks: Shark Swallows Shark



Divers on Australia's Great Barrier Reef recently snapped rare pictures of a wobbegong, or carpet shark, swallowing a bamboo shark whole.

Given the relative sizes of the animals, this is the equivalent of an Australian swallowing a Filipino, whole, head first.

Snake Aficionado's Reptile Collection Seized

NC man loses $49k collection of poisonous snakes

Feb 25 2012


HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. — A North Carolina man is losing his exotic reptile collection worth $49,000 after police found dozens of venomous lizards and snakes in his home.

Fifty-one-year-old Walter Kidd of Hendersonville pleaded guilty Friday to 30 misdemeanor charges of possessing endangered animals and failing to properly label containers of poisonous snakes.

Police seized the reptiles in August after Kidd was bitten by an exotic venomous snake and rushed to a hospital. Officers said his mobile home was packed with snakes in plastic containers.

Kidd's attorney says the reptiles were not a danger because they were kept inside his home. "Stay out of his house and you're safe," according to his lawyer, a local dimwit.

The reptiles were taken to the state natural sciences museum in Raleigh.

Most Bizarre President Ever

Dead ex President the 'Best,' Harris Poll

06 Feb 2012

By Jimbomax wire

In one of the most bizarre stories in modern U.S. History, the bigoted, war monger, insensitive, mean-spirited, unforgiving and Alzheimer racked Ronald Reagan was selected as the best modern U.S. President.

The man who couldn't even keep track of who the U.S. was attacking militarily at a given time and who relied on his ex movie actor wife, who consulted with clairvoyants, to advise him what to do, outdistanced both Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy in the public's opinion: 25% Reagan, 19% Roosevelt and 15% Kennedy.

Reagan's bumbling, mumbling, misinformed style and his disdain for the poor and disabled; together with his penchant for judging the character of other world leaders by the way they ate jelly beans, apparently swayed the public.

Historians were appalled by the public's selection of the classically dumb Reagan as the best President in modern U.S. history. One scholar almost lost his lunch when informed of the selection.

Flying High

previous

Will Kane

February 16, 2012

Ray Pirro was probably hallucinating while flying, a coroner says.

Cessna 172 crashed near Barstow and Garfield.



A Tracy man who stole a single-engine plane from the Concord airport before crashing it in Fresno was so "extraordinarily" high on methamphetamine that he probably couldn't see straight, authorities said Wednesday.

Ray Pirro, 52, died when the four-seat Cessna he was flying apparently ran out of gas and crashed in a Fresno field Feb. 5. No one else was injured.

It wasn't the first crash for Pirro, who didn't have a pilot's license and went to prison in 2003 and 2008 for stealing cars. He crashed his own plane in 1988 when he ran out of gas, but he suffered only minor injuries, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

An autopsy conducted after last week's crash showed that Pirro had a methamphetamine concentration of 2,500 nanograms per milliliter of blood, said David Hadden, the Fresno County coroner. A concentration of around 300 is considered toxic, Hadden said.

"This indicates that's he's a heavy user; we feel that this guy has been using for a long time," Hadden said. "But he was still too high to fly an airplane, that's for sure."

Hadden said Pirro would probably have been hallucinating, paranoid and suffering from extreme mood swings when he was flying the plane.

"That's almost certainly what caused him to crash," Hadden said.

Felix Boston, 61, the owner of the stolen plane, said that when emergency crews arrived at the crash site, they found that the cockpit was filled with "Pop-Tarts, energy drinks, chips and Cheez Whiz."

Pirro had to take drug tests as part of his parole for auto theft, authorities said. He passed a test Feb. 2, two days before the plane was stolen, said Luis Patino, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Pirro was not a licensed pilot, although he was listed as the owner of a single-engine, 1959-vintage Cessna plane, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

Pirro crashed that plane just 17 days after he bought it in 1988. The National Transportation Safety Board blamed inadequate training after he ran out of gas and crashed just short of the Tracy airport, records show.

The plane was found nosed over. Pirro fled the scene without notifying authorities, according to records.

Boston, a retired Air Force officer who lives in Walnut Creek, said investigators had told him it appeared his plane ran out of gas before Pirro crashed it in Fresno.

The plane was taken early Feb. 4 from Buchanan Field in Concord. It was spotted in a hangar at the Byron airport later that day, but no one knew then that it was stolen, Boston said.

The Fresno crash happened about 4 p.m. the next day.

Boston said his plane had been locked but that, like most small planes, it could easily be opened with a screwdriver.

"It had a full tank, the headsets were all there, it was ready," Boston said.

He said he had just reupholstered the cockpit.

"I loved that plane, it was my baby - it was the first real plane I ever had," Boston said. "This would make a great movie, wouldn't it?"

Boston was arrested and charged with gross stupidity. Bond was set at $3 billion Euros because Boston was considered a "flight" risk. Ha. ha.

Sexy Couple Shot Down By Voyeur Cops

Naked, bound woman in Subaru was part of a sexy romp



Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY
Updated 2012-02-15

A little Valentine's Day romantic role-playing went wrong for a Portland, Ore., couple after police found the woman bound and naked in the back of a Subaru driven by her lover, the Portland Police Bureau reports.

By Portland Police Bureau
The woman quickly told the cops that she was playing a role, voluntarily, but the couple was arrested anyway. Nikolas Harbar, 31, and Stephanie Pelzner, 26, were booked on charges of disorderly conduct in the second degree.

After police were tipped that a naked woman was seen bound and
gagged in the back of the blue Subaru Legacy at a supermarket, police went on the lookout. The witness provided police with a license plate number even though the driver reassured him the couple was just fooling around.

The cops were waiting in force -- nine squad cars -- when Harbar and Pelzner pulled their car into the driveway at home. Embarrassed? We suppose.

But nine (9) police cars? A few voyeur cops maybe? Come see the show, fellas.

Would You Want This Man To Be Your Son-In-Law?

Workman charged with bestiality with a Labrador retriever



By Douglas Stanglin, USA TODAY
2-22-12

A popular building superintendent at an apartment complex in New York state has been arrested on charges of bestiality involving a tenant's Labrador retriever, The Journal News reports.

Kujtim Nicaj, who lived and worked at the Rye Colony apartment complex in Rye, N.Y., until his arrest, is also charged with burglary.

Nicaj's lawyer, Steven Davidson, says his 41-year-old client is "humiliated" by the charges, which he denies, and is worried about providing for his wife and two kids.

The police say Nicaj allegedly broke into the tenant's apartment with a key on Feb. 8 and sodomized the dog.

The newspaper, quoting authorities, says the incident was captured on a "nannycam" set up by the tenant, who had suspected that someone had been entering the apartment.