An ichthyosaur female with embryos scattered outside her body.
Credit: UZH
It is unlikely that the body of a mother ichthyosaur exploded, say researchers who offer another explanation for the scattered remains of embryos found around her in rock that was once deep underwater.
Rather, the scattering of the embryos was probably caused by minor sea currents after the expectant mother died and her body decayed some 182 million years ago, the researchers propose.
If this scenario sounds confusing, it is important to know that ichthyosaurs, extinct marine reptiles that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs, did not lay eggs but rather carried their young in their bodies until they gave birth. Ichthyosaurs resembled fish but, unlike most fish, breathed air through lungs.
The nearly intact skeleton of the female ichthyosaur in question was found in Holzmaden, Germany. But the remains of most of the approximately 10 embryos were scattered far outside her body it. Other fossilized ichthyosaur remains have been found in similarly strange arrangements, with skeletons usually complete but jumbled to some degree.
(vía scientificillustration)
Representación por ordenador de una estrella destrozada por un agujero negro. (Foto: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHU/UCSC)
Hippocampus bargibanti, de la familia de los Syngnathidae, de menos de dos centímetros habita en los arrecifes de coral de Indonesia, Papúa Nueva Guinea, Australia y Nueva Caledonia. Más fotos
Peter of Poitiers - Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi (c. 1200).
Peter of Poitiers - Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi (c. 1200).
Metamorfosis del griego μετα (meta), que indica alteración, y μορφή (morphè), forma. Proceso por el cual un objeto o entidad cambia de forma. En este caso la transformación de un renacuajo en rana y la de una cría de un pez plano en adulto.
Vía Meridianos
Tarantula and tarantella, Athanasius Kircher
Tarantula and the musical antidote to its poison, the tarantella, from Magnes, sive de arte magnetica (1643 edn.), p. 763
Tarantula and tarantella, Athanasius Kircher
Tarantula and the musical antidote to its poison, the tarantella, from Magnes, sive de arte magnetica (1643 edn.), p. 763
via Stanford
(vía scientificillustration)
Venus standing on ball with flag in hand (1640-1660)
Nederlands Tegelmuseum
Title: Venus standing on ball with flag in hand
1640 - 1660 - Place of creation: Nederland
Nederlands Tegelmuseum
Chart of star clusters and double stars by W. G. Evans of New York for Burritt’s Atlas to Illustrate the Geography of the Heavens, 1854.
Vía flasd
Diagram of an eclipse of the sun, with the moon casting a shadow cone, c. 1260.
From The Human Body and Health by Alvin Davison, published in 1908
From The Human Body and Health by Alvin Davison, published in 1908
(vía scientificillustration)
