Meet Terry. She’s a chipper little flyer who would love to scramble up onto your shoulder and nibble your ear (just a little nibble, it tickles). And could she please, pretty please have a tiny bit of that sandwich?
Terry always likes a snack, especially small morsels like snails, grubs, and worms she digs up. That sandwich looks quite tempting though, and she won’t turn her nose up at an opportunity to snatch it out of your hand, so keep an eye and a firm hold on it. 😀
She might not look it, but this little pterosaur (not dinosaur), is very good at walking and running around on the ground. She spends a lot of her time poking her sensitive snout in the dirt for all sorts of burrowing creepy crawlies. When she feels one, she nabs it with her tiny teeth and gulps it down. Yum! Continue reading →
Meet Bowser. Those horns may look intimidating, and his toothy grin can be downright fearsome. But you know what they say about books and their covers… 😉
There we go, he smells it! See these nice big strips of jerky? He’ll love it. I brought some for you too if you want to give him a special treat.
See him cock his head off to the side a little? Bowser can see a little bit in front of his nose, but he has trouble seeing very much past those bony ridges in front of his eyes. He still has better binocular vision than his cousin Alfred though!
Here you go, just take a strip of jerky with these tongs, and we’ll get to see the size of Bowser’s chompers. Bowser’s teeth are some of the longest for a dinosaur his size.
Yep, hold the tongs just like that, so we keep our fingers out of the way. There we go! Good boy Bowser! Listen to him grunt. 😀
Oh he wants more. Ok big guy! Wow, look at the size of those teeth! Personally, I’m glad he usually keeps his mouth shut…
The teeth on this mount may be extra long, because teeth tend to slip out of the socket when there’s no soft tissue to hold them in, but they’re still super long! This is a younger individual, so the horns aren’t as big as Bowser’s. Photo courtesy and copyright of Dr. John Meck. Obtained from qilong.wordpress.com
Bowser always reminds me of a pit bull. Kinda short (compared to Alfred), thick muscle, big head…he’s the pit bull of Jurassic predators. He’s buff, he’s tough, and he’ll stop at nothing to protect his special person.
He has an unfortunate reputation for being aggressive and nasty, but animals are only as bad as their owners train them to be.
Give them a good home and healthy training- you’ll have a loyal friend that is sweet and adoring.
Well, I’m not sure how adoring Bowser can be…he’s not exactly the sharpest tack. But Pete’s trained him well, and he never shows his teeth except when he’s chomping down on a meal.
That’s a good boy Bowser, here’s another piece of jerky for ya. 🙂
Meet Ron. He’s the flying ace. He’ll swoop from the sky, dive into the water, and swim anywhere for a shiny fish. 🙂
Rrr- just how do you pronounce that? I wasn’t 100% sure on that myself, so I looked it up on Youtube…
There, mystery solved. 🙂 I wonder if there’s one for all the really hard paleo-critter names out there. I may have to include something like this from now on until I figure out a better system.
Oh, and before you ask, yes, there is evidence that pterosaurs can swim. 🙂 Ron here seems to spend most of his time in water, which might be why we have so many perfect fossils of this little guy. 🙂
He’s fast though. It took a whole bucket of fish to entice him to come over for a quick chat.