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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 07/30/2008 : 07:58:22
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These things are fun, and I haven't missed one yet.
| This is an actual monster, some sort of rodent-like creature with a dinosaur beak. A tipster says that there is "a government animal testing facility very close by in Long Island[.]" |
it's a defunct capybera from South America, and the only challenge here is finding out why it washed up in New Jersy. 
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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Coat Of Arms
Skeptic Friend
USA
58 Posts |
 Posted - 07/30/2008 : 10:48:16 [Permalink]
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Where are the guys from monster quest when you need them?
If it is real???????I'am glad it's dead
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Paul C. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/30/2008 : 11:47:27 [Permalink]
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World's largest rodent. This one has been happily decomposing in the water for a while and has lost most of it's hair along with enough facial tissue to show it's teeth. The ones in the rear of the jaws are molars, as befits a vegetarian specializing in tough, fibrous vegetation. The tail is rudimentary and all but unnoticeable in the living animal. I'd call it "vestigial," but I'm terrified of irritating Ken Ham. Or Bill Dembski. Or some other sanctimonious ostrich.
Like most medium to large rodents, they make ok pets and I'd tentatively suggest that this one is an escapee from someone's backyard pen -- they are also proficient diggers, and can gnaw like a beaver. | On another note, they apparently make decent pets. I've been looking for a more exotic pet (that I will be getting maybe 10-15 years down the road). Do you know much about them Filthy? |
Only a little. But be careful to throughly research your pet's species before deciding on one. If you want a rodent, I'd suggest a prairie dog(s). A friend of mine had a pair and they were nothing short of neat. Due to their natural gregariousness, they were quite affectionate. But I must warn, all rodents can deal a really nasty bite -- I'd hate like hell to get whacked by a capybera, which too, by the bye, is gregarious. And they must constantly gnaw to control their incisor growth.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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| Edited by - filthy on 07/30/2008 12:05:52 |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 07/30/2008 : 14:06:55 [Permalink]
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The capybara is a strange animal indeed.
I saw a few of them at the Zoo-visit I made two weeks ago.
They make the most funny noises. Like a cros between 1980's hand held game console (and videogames) and R2D2 (or other Star Wars droids). Bleeps and boinks.
I was searching the Animal Diversity Web for it when I stumbled onto beavers. I never thought about it, but they are rodents too.
Eutheria/Rodentia/Castorimorpha/Castoridae/Castor = Beavers.
Eutheria/Rodentia/Hystricomorpha/Hystricognathi/Hydrochaeridae/Hydrochaeris = Capybara
Eutheria = placental mammals
Unfortunately, no audio files of Capybara on Animal Diversity Web.
But it's a great resource on biology, and specifically, classification of species. It's easy to lose a lot of time just surfing taxonomy.
Edited to add:
I had a look at the pic in the opening post, and the neck of that creature looks too long for a capybara.
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
| Edited by - Dr. Mabuse on 07/30/2008 14:08:25 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 07/30/2008 : 16:18:07 [Permalink]
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Ok, this thing is a wayward corpse and really not worthy of much comment, but I should have gone into it a little farther. The coats of most mammals are made up of two types of fur: the undercoat and the guard hairs. The undercoat is usually short, fine and quite dense while the guard hairs are long and thick, protecting the undercoat, which insulates the animal. In capyberas, which are highly aquatic, the guard hairs are quite long, giving the animal the aspect of a giant version of it's distant cousin, the guinea pig. In short, it looks like hairy lump with eyes, often a wet one.
The guard hairs have entirely gone on this specimen, leaving it only some remnants of it's undercoat. So now you see what it really looks like, albeit not as fresh as it could be.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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| Edited by - filthy on 07/30/2008 16:20:54 |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 07/30/2008 : 16:35:15 [Permalink]
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Capybaras are pretty common here. They're cute. It's not unusual to see bands of them appear near rivers in even in intensely populated areas such as Sao Paulo, where I lived.
Some people breed them in captivity over here for meat and they're actually tasty, too. But I'd discourage taking them as pets unless you know what you're dealing with and where they come from - animal trafficking is the most common source, I'd think, and that is nothing less than cruel most of the time.
That does look like a capybara corpse. The tail makes me wonder a bit, but the rest, especially the skull, fits. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 07/30/2008 : 18:24:48 [Permalink]
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D'oh! I blew it! It's a nutria. The size of the thing put me off, but I too, was bothered a bit by the tail.
Which makes the question of what it was doing in northern climes more interesting.
And that what I get for not researching first.... 
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2008 : 03:15:15 [Permalink]
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Wiki mentions it being introduced in North America by fur ranchers. It could be an explanation for its presence.
Or, indeed, as a pet, escaped either from a backyard or a passing ship... |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2008 : 04:00:42 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Simon
Wiki mentions it being introduced in North America by fur ranchers. It could be an explanation for its presence.
Or, indeed, as a pet, escaped either from a backyard or a passing ship...
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I've done a bit of reading on it and now think that it is a reminant of an all but exterminated, Chesapeak Bay population, possibly drifting north on the currents, post mortem.
These things are a real problem in southern wetlands, especally in LA. I would say it's a pity there's no commercial market for them, but that's what introduced them here in the first place.
Maybe, if we could make a nutria recipe book popular, their numbers would thin a little. They really are good eating.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Coat Of Arms
Skeptic Friend
USA
58 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2008 : 05:33:22 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
These things are fun, and I haven't missed one yet.
| This is an actual monster, some sort of rodent-like creature with a dinosaur beak. A tipster says that there is "a government animal testing facility very close by in Long Island[.]" |
it's a defunct capybera from South America, and the only challenge here is finding out why it washed up in New Jersy.
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Complete Unassembled Skeleton, this real capybara skeleton, featured on Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs episode featuring Skulls Unlimited. This was the "marinating rat", as Mike Rowe put it, that caused quite a "stink". This is the actual specimen cleaned by Mike Rowe in the filming of the "Skull Cleaner" episode. Now you can own this piece of Skulls Unlimited / Dirty Jobs history. Click on the thumbnails below, to see scenes of this specimen from the Dirty Jobs episode. This specimen's skull has some damage to the underside of the cranium. See photos for detail.
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Paul C. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2008 : 07:00:38 [Permalink]
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| Yeah , Nutria are quite common in the southern U.S., post 1930, they also have the prominent teeth seen in the picture. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2008 : 07:04:44 [Permalink]
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LA offers 4$ a head for the rodents, who are causing all sorts of problems,
"iling at other attempts to thwart the nutria, which now number in the millions, state officials have recruited the state's top chefs and set aside a marketing budget of $2 million to create a demand for nutria meat, which they say is lean, low in cholesterol and rich in protein."
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_n33_v32/ai_21064355 |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2008 : 07:07:31 [Permalink]
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My only excuse is that aside from fueling the snakes, rodents are not really one of my more intense studies.
Howsomever, I am still scoring 100% on IDs because I nailed this one on the rebound! Some of you skeptics should have caught it before I did, but you didn't! So HAR-DE-HAR-HAR on you! 
Looking at the maps, these animals are expanding their range almost by the day. As the climate warms, I think we can expect them to speed it up considerably. Hardy and prolific, with virtually no natural enemies on this continent -- except alligators and, in the 'Glades, Burmese pythons and the Flordia panther-- we might well see them approaching the Great Lakes sometime not too far down the road.
I've read that a serious cold snap will kill them due to their hairless tails getting frost-bitten and then going septic. I'm not sure if I buy this or not, as there are quite a few naked-tailed mammals doing just fine up north. And if it is indeed the case, dat ol' debble Evolution just might provide a population with more capillaries in their tails, and then Canada can share in the joy.
Excellent pics, Dave. Thanks!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Monster! It's a freakin' MONSTER!
