October 8/2014

(E.B.W.) Critter Corner  

Feature:

Canadian helps identify big fish  

           “A Canadian researcher has helped identify the biggest fish that ever swam in the world’s oceans, a 16.5 metre monster that fed voraciously on plankton during the Middle Jurassic era & vanished about 150 million years ago…

           The fish was named for the Victorian-era fossil hunter Alfred Leeds, who discovered the first Leedsichthys problematicus specimens near Peterborough, England, in the 1880s…fossilized traces of it have been discovered in Britain, France, Germany, Mexico, & Chile…

           The scientists concluded that Leedsichthys matched or exceeded the length of today’s biggest fishes- the whale shark & basking shark, also plankton-eating filter feeders, which top out at about 13 metres…

           ‘The giant plankton-feeders we know to live in today’s oceans are among the largest living vertebrate animals alive. The Leedsichthys was the first animal known to occupy this role,’ lead author Jeff Liston, a paleontologist- with National Museums Scotland, said…

           The researchers determined that Leedsichthys would have grown to about 9 metres after 20 years &- if it lived long enough- could have reached 16.5 metres after 38 years.

           ‘This fish was a pioneer for the ecological niche filled today by mammals, like blue whales, & cartilaginous fish, such as manta rays, basking sharks, whale sharks’…

           One of the largest fish ever documented in modern times was a basking shark caught in a herring net in Canada’s Bay of Fundy in 1851. It measured 12.27 metres in length & weighed about 19 tonnes.”

 

Randy Boswell

POSTMEDIA NEWS

The Gazette, Montreal

August 27/2013

 

Critters in the News:

*Update from last week

“The Detroit Zoo says it’s taking care of more than 1,000 turtles U.S. authorities said were…found in a Canadian man’s luggage at the city’s airport…The confiscated turtles are mostly hatchlings.”

The Montreal Gazette

Oct. 4/2014

Baby Elephant @ Zurich Zoo

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-buzz/baby-elephant-takes-a-tumble-at-zoo-zurich-herd-rushes-190429734.html?vp=1

Cute Critter Pic 

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Canadian Links: 

Humane Society: https://www.humanesociety.com/

International Fund for Animal Welfare: www.ifaw.org/canada/

Canadian SPCA: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/.../the-canadian-spcala-spca-canadienne/

U.S. Links:

Humane Hollywood: http://www.humanehollywood.org