There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
--- Peter Broekhuijsen ---

  Largest Carnivourous Dinosaur Ever Found in Europe
Posted by: Pckts - 09-16-2014, 03:44 AM - Forum: Dinosaurs - Replies (8)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In Europe 150 million years ago, this dude was the biggest, baddest bully in town. Two scientists in Portugal announced on Wednesday that they have identified the largest carnivorous dinosaur ever found in Europe, a 33-foot-long (10-meter-long) brute called Torvosaurus gurneyi that was the scourge of its domain in the Jurassic Period.
 
"It was indeed better not to cross the way of this large, carnivorous dinosaur," said paleontologist Christophe Hendrickx of Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Museu da Lourinhã in Portugal.Torvosaurus gurneyi was an imposing beast. It was bipedal, weighed four to five tons, had a skull almost 4 feet long, boasted powerful jaws lined with blade-shaped teeth four inches long, and may have been covered with an early type of feather, Hendrickx said."Torvosaurus gurneyi was obviously a super predator feeding on large prey like herbivorous dinosaurs," Hendrickx said.Remains of the new species were unearthed in Portugal by an amateur fossil hunter in 2003 in the rock cliffs of Lourinhã, a small town about 45 miles north of Lisbon, Hendrickx said. He said fossilized embryos probably belonging to this species were identified last year in Portugal.The findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE.At the time that Torvosaurus prowled the landscape, the region was a lush river delta with abundant fresh water and vegetation. The area teemed with dinosaurs and flying reptiles known as pterosaurs, primitive birds, crocodiles, turtles and mouse-sized mammals, according to paleontologist Octávio Mateus, also of Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Museu da Lourinhã.Plant-eating dinosaurs living in the area included the huge, long-necked Lusotitan, the armored, tank-like Dracopelta and the spiky-tailed Miragaia, Mateus added.The two scientists said this is the second species of the genus Torvosaurus. The other one, Torvosaurus tanneri, lived at the same time in North America. It was known from the states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and was identified in 1979.Its genus name, Torvosaurus, means "savage lizard." Its species name, gurneyi, honors James Gurney, the author and illustrator of the popular "Dinotopia" book series.Torvosaurus gurneyi was not the only meat-eating dinosaur in its neighborhood. For example, there was a European species of the well-known North American Jurassic predator Allosaurus, but the Torvosaurus found in Portugal was larger.Torvosaurus gurneyi not only is the largest known meat-eating dinosaur from Europe, but is the biggest land predator of any kind ever found on the continent, they added.There were larger dinosaur carnivores elsewhere, however.Tyrannosaurus in North America, Carcharodontosaurus and Spinosaurus in North Africa and Giganotosaurus in Argentina all were bigger, but appeared on Earth much later than Torvosaurus, during the Cretaceous Period that followed the Jurassic Period."This animal, Torvosaurus, was already a fossil for 80 million years before the T. rex ever walked the Earth," Mateus said.During the Jurassic Period from about 200 million years ago to 145 million years ago, carnivorous dinosaurs generally were medium-sized, with an average length of about 7 to 16 feet. Larger ones like Torvosaurus, Allosaurus and Saurophaganax arrived in the late Jurassic Period.(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Grant McCool)
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  All about Gaur (Bos gaurus)
Posted by: Roflcopters - 09-15-2014, 01:52 PM - Forum: Herbivores Animals - Replies (321)
Scientific name: Bos gaurus
Species Authority: C.H. Smith, 1827

Taxonomic Notes:

The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (2003) ruled that the name for this wild species is not invalid by virtue of being antedated by the name based on the domestic form. Therefore, IUCN considers the wild species of Gaur under Bos gaurus, while referring to the domestic form (Mythun, Mithan or Gayal) as Bos frontalis Lambert, 1804 (see Gentry et al. 2004).

Traditionally, three subspecies of Gaur have been recognized: Bos gaurus gaurus in India, Nepal, and Bhutan; B. g. readei in Myanmar (Burma), southern China, Lao PDR, Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Thailand north of the Isthmus of Kra (Lydekker 1903); and B. g. hubbacki in Thailand south of the Isthmus of Kra and in West Malaysia (Lydekker 1907). (In addition, Hubback (1937) thought that there may be two subspecies of Gaur in Malaysia, one with a well developed dewlap and one without.) However, this trifid arrangement, based largely on differences in coloration and size, is no longer widely recognized (Grzimek 1990, Corbet and Hill 1992).

Groves and Grubb (cited in National Research Council 1983) concluded that there were only two subspecies: Bos gaurus gaurus in India and Nepal and Bos gaurus laosiensis in Myanmar (Burma), Lao PDR, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Thailand, and West Malaysia (and presumably southern China). More recent work by Groves and colleagues (e.g., Groves 2003) also supports this division into two subspecies. Analysis of skull and horn measurements revealed little multivariate overlap between Indian and Southeast Asian specimens: Southeast Asian specimens are much bigger, with relatively shorter nasal bones, a less wide horn span and a narrower occiput; and in South-east Asian specimens the ascending branch of the premaxilla generally does not reach the nasal, whereas in Indian specimens it usually does. Specimens from Bhutan, Chittagong (Bangladesh), Upper Chindwin (north Myanmar), and Mogok (north Myanmar) were intermediate, but tended more towards the South-east Asian type. The locations of these specimens suggest that the Gaur in north-east India are also likely to be intermediate but more similar to southeast Asian animals than to the Gaur in the rest of India (C. Groves pers. comm. 1995). In recognition of these phenotypic differences, B. g. gaurus and B. g. laosiensis are provisionally accepted here pending further morphometric and genetic study.

The extinct subspecies B. g. sinhaleyus survived on Sri Lanka into historic times (Grubb 2005).

 
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  Spinosaurus News ~
Posted by: brotherbear - 09-12-2014, 02:42 AM - Forum: Dinosaurs - Replies (152)
http://news.msn.com/science-technology/a...r-unveiled
 
The beast, called Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, was already known to scientists from a long-ago fossil discovery, but most of those bones were destroyed during World War II. Now, 70 years later, a new skeleton found in Morocco reveals that the beast was far more aquatic than originally thought.

Spinosaurus had a long neck, strong clawed forearms, powerful jaws and the dense bones of a penguin. It propelled itself in water with flat feet that were probably webbed, according to a study released Thursday by the journal Science. The beast sported a spiny sail on its back that was 7 feet tall when it lived 95 million years ago.

"It's like working on an extraterrestrial or an alien," study lead author Nizar Ibrahim of the University of Chicago said, while standing in front of a room-sized reconstruction of the skeleton at the National Geographic Society. "It's so different than anything else around."

Ibrahim described the creature as "so bizarre it's going to force dinosaur experts to rethink many things they thought they knew about dinosaurs."

Scientists had thought that all dinosaurs stuck to the land, with occasional brief trips into the water. But the new skeleton shows clear evidence of river and lake living: hip bones like a whale's, dense bones that allowed it to dive for food, and nostrils positioned high on the skull, allowing Spinosaurus to mostly submerge.

It could walk and would probably nest on land, but on land it moved more awkwardly than on water, said study co-author Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago. It lumbered on its two hind feet because its powerful forelegs with sharp curved claws were designed more for killing than walking, he said.


 
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  Support for Blog and Article Section
Posted by: sanjay - 09-10-2014, 10:16 PM - Forum: Miscellaneous - Replies (5)
We have launched the Blog and Article section of wildfact -  see main domain - http://wildfact.com

I request members to write blog and article
  1. Article should be written by you and should not be copy pasted from anywhere else.
  2. Don't use books scan for showing texts, Instead write them in your words.
  3. You can write almost in any subject related to wild animals
  4. I have made category, But can be added more on your request.

You can start by writing basic information of wild animals, Like their characteristics, food, lifespan, etc.
Just think you are giving a common knowledge to site visitors. If you have not very deep knowledge, then you can write only basic information. For example you can write about profile of Lions, tigers, Or subspecies of tigers, Type of big cats etc.

Remember - try to use some good images along with posts.

====================================================

Now about website -
  1. If you are finding it hard to navigate for writing blog, tell us here, we will guide you.
  2. Currently their is no content so website will look empty. Once you will start adding content it will look more good.
  3. You will need to register on http://wildfact.com blog section once again, sorry for inconvenience. Currently you may have to wait to get approve by administrator for sometime (to stop spammers). So once you registered there, please tell us here. We will activate your account.

Basically this thread is for providing support for writing blog and related things. If you have any question just ask here.
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  Copyright Policy of Wildfact
Posted by: sanjay - 09-06-2014, 08:32 PM - Forum: Suggestion, Feedback and Complaint - Replies (1)
Wildfact.com do not hold the copyright permission of any images, video or other content posted by members. For precaution we put a copyright warning below each images in posts and try to give proper credits especially for images
 
If you are not a member here and seeing images, videos or other content that belong to you (or you own all copyright permission) anywhere in forum and if for any reason you want us to remove your content, we will immediately remove it, if you will provide proof of ownership of all copyright of content (Images, videos etc).

You need to contact us at [email protected]
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  Leopard Predation Thread
Posted by: Safaricam - 09-06-2014, 08:08 PM - Forum: Leopard - Replies (801)




I was lucky enough while out in the Masai Mara last year to witness a leopard hunt in the region of Intrepids Camp.

We arrived as the female leopard (who I have been since told is called Bahati - meaning Fortune - and daughter of Olive, granddaughter of Bella from Big Cat Diary) had come down from a tree and then emerged from bushes by the track. As you can see from the video above, she rolled in the dust and then appeared to spot gazelle nearby. Instantly her posture changed, she slunk down onto her haunches and crept into the long grass. It was amazing to see how low she could stay, and the stealth with which she moved. As she approached the oblivious gazelle, we watched on from the jeep, and despite standing and looking down at the scene, eventually we lost sight of her too in the grass. Such incredible camouflage when seen in their natural environment!

we waited patiently, holding our breaths, and with my camera trained on the gazelle. Minutes passed but we were all intently waiting and watching. Suddenly, as you see in the video, she exploded out of the grass and around the closest gazelle, who didn't stand a chance, gripping it by the windpipe. Such speed and power was phenomenal to watch - you can see how I jumped on the video!

After it's prey was subdued, Bahati paused to give us a few more photo opportunities and then dragged the gazelle off back to through the bushes. It made me realise how small a leopard is compared to some of the larger cats, as it seemed quite unwieldy for it. We watched it toy with its food in the bushes for a few minutes, and then it disappeared into thick bush (presumably back up a tree again - though sadly I didn't get to witness that). 

The he while event lasted about 15 or 20 minutes I should think, and I barely breathed through all of it. It felt a real privilege to be there to witness such a moment..

Hopefully you can enjoy the video and get a taste of the moment for yourself here:

​https://youtu.be/cljFHUDq8tw


if anyone has further knowledge of the hunting behaviour here I'd love to learn more. Thanks. 

Safaricam

 

 

 
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  Some pictures from my trip's
Posted by: Pantherinae - 09-05-2014, 02:41 AM - Forum: Miscellaneous - Replies (14)
 

Here are some pictures I'll post more could not find them all, The pictures are very bad! 
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  Felids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts
Posted by: Pantherinae - 09-02-2014, 05:13 AM - Forum: Wild Cats - Replies (1363)
Felines all over The world has competition with other carnivores. All from The famous battles between Lions and Hyenas to The scottish wildcat's competition with The red fox. 
Aswell as their own kind, some leopards and Lions may eat a rival from their own spicies.

Post images, and videos only.
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  Wildlife Photographer Talk
Posted by: sanjay - 09-02-2014, 12:53 AM - Forum: Forum Rules & Announcement - Replies (16)
We are very pleased to announce that we have launched the wildlife photography section for wildlife photographers. http://photos.wildfact.com.

Now any professional wildlife photographer can share his/her photographs of wild animals to world through this.

If you are professional wildlife photographer, please share your images on http://photos.wildfact.com. If not then please tell about it to all wildlife photographers whom you know on real life or on social networks.

Before sharing your photos please read http://photos.wildfact.com/guidelines for posting your images on http://photos.wildfact.com.

Any further suggestion for improvements are most welcome here and this thread is dedicated to http://photos.wildfact.com for any issues.

Please help us to grow.
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  Need help in categorization of wild animals
Posted by: sanjay - 08-30-2014, 01:47 AM - Forum: Forum Rules & Announcement - Replies (6)
I need help from other sincere members for adding category on the website about wildlife photography. This website will be created for wildlife photographers to post their picture of wild animals. Website is under construction and I need help in adding categories. You can take example from http://indianaturewatch.net (INW) . I need something similar but better categorization for wild animals.

Our website will be more modern and good viewable on mobile and computer. Also unlike INW we are allowing whole world's photographer to upload their pictures.

So please help me in categorization of current living wild animals which are photographed by wildlife photographers.

@peter , @GuateGojira , @Apollo , @Roflcopters , @Pckts , @tigerluver , @Richardrli , @Kingtheropod , @Amnon242 , @" TheLioness" , @Vijay Rajan , @vizions , @Pantherinae and others
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