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Critters Encountered While Fossil Hunting


Xiphactinus

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Found in a rainforest in Vietnam (no fossil hunting there it is a national park, but we hunted on that trip)

It is the biggest pill bug you ever saw (alive) kinda reminds me of an enrolled trilobite.

Those giant pill bugs are toxic.

I was at the pet shop one day looking for an aquarium pet for my evil one. I asked him what would be a good little pet for a child around 7. He said the giant pill bug would be a good one but that it had a toxic gland and she would always need to wash her hands after playing with it. I realized this guy knew nothing about kids and declined to buy it. Then one of his idiot helpers tried to get my kid interested in buying a cane toad. I asked them if they were trying to get my kid killed and promptly left. They were raided the next week by the game warden for having illegal animals in there shop and shut down. I'm guessing because of the cane toads and piranhas he was selling.

In formal logic, a contradiction is the signal of defeat: but in the evolution of real knowledge, it marks the first step in progress toward victory.

Alfred North Whithead

'Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia!'

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This is a great thread. One of my volunteers here at the Tate does a lot of prospecting but moslty he is looking for insects. He has become a verty active "citizen scientist" and has taken hundreds of pix of butterflies and moths and beetles and wasps and spiders and more. He has done talks to our local audubon cociety featuring many pix od critters found while fossiling.

Many of my persoanl best have been in southern Tanzania where troops of babboons would spend an hour passing by us. Once a pair of water monitors came down to drink a hundred yards away from us. I would quarry with binoculars around my neck to identify every bird I saw. Here in WY, I have had several rattlers slither up to me while quarrying.

No pix right now... got a field trip to go on. Two days in the hell Creek and three days in the White River.

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Those giant pill bugs are toxic.

I was at the pet shop one day looking for an aquarium pet for my evil one. I asked him what would be a good little pet for a child around 7. He said the giant pill bug would be a good one but that it had a toxic gland and she would always need to wash her hands after playing with it. I realized this guy knew nothing about kids and declined to buy it. Then one of his idiot helpers tried to get my kid interested in buying a cane toad. I asked them if they were trying to get my kid killed and promptly left. They were raided the next week by the game warden for having illegal animals in there shop and shut down. I'm guessing because of the cane toads and piranhas he was selling.

Didn't taste toxic :P

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Didn't taste toxic :P

Did it taste like chicken? :P

In formal logic, a contradiction is the signal of defeat: but in the evolution of real knowledge, it marks the first step in progress toward victory.

Alfred North Whithead

'Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia!'

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi im new to the forum but since yall are posting pics of critters i thought id add mine of a texas red headed centipede was about 10-11" long found him while i was walking along the shore at lake ray hubbard.post-4224-045782100 1287061070_thumb.jpg

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I may have mentioned this before, but sometimes good sites occur in bad parts of civilization....so on that note I've encountered street people, street walkers, and "street entrepreneurs" while afield....I'll stop there...

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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Hi friends,

I found this big goat...with huge horns walking around in North of Spain during last summer.

I was astonished due to its measurements. :wacko:

Eureka

Edited by Eureka
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This is another picture, showing one religious mantis feeding.....it is a bit sad or hard but this is true life, the grasshopper was breathing while the mantis was eating........

Eureka

post-920-011446600 1287087680_thumb.jpg

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Hi im new to the forum but since yall are posting pics of critters i thought id add mine of a texas red headed centipede was about 10-11" long found him while i was walking along the shore at lake ray hubbard.post-4224-045782100 1287061070_thumb.jpg

Dang. Those things can hurt you! My daughter yelled out the other night that there was bug in her bed. I figured a big old roach or maybe a house spider. Oh no, it was a 3 inch centipede under her pillow. really glad it didn't give her a nip. The books always put these Texas centipedes at 6-8 inches tops but I've seen bigger as well.

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i found one of those with 101 legs, but when i looked closer, i realized it was walking using a cane.

:unsure:

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ok, so like i snucked up on a blonde raccoon, but i got only a lousy picture, but it is sufficient to establish without question her/his/its blondeness.

towit:

post-488-078350900 1284908840_thumb.jpg

pfffftttt... dye job.

"There is no difference between Zen and Purgatory and Time Warner Cable, and they are trying to tach me this, but I am a dim impatient pupil."

----- xonenine

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This is another picture, showing one religious mantis feeding.....it is a bit sad or hard but this is true life, the grasshopper was breathing while the mantis was eating........

Eureka

I was working in the back yard at my old house, very peaceful, lots of flowers in bloom, lots of herbs, hummingbirds and butterflies used to visit all the time. I'm watching this beautiful swallowtail butterfly flit from flower to flower, when suddenly,... one of its wings falls off!

"Holy snarge! How did that happen?" I'm thinking.

Then the other wing falls off. Now I move closer to see what the heck is going on and I see a praying mantis holding the body of the butterfly in its claws and munching on the body. I knew they were predators, but that really brought the fact home.

"There is no difference between Zen and Purgatory and Time Warner Cable, and they are trying to tach me this, but I am a dim impatient pupil."

----- xonenine

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Dang. Those things can hurt you! My daughter yelled out the other night that there was bug in her bed. I figured a big old roach or maybe a house spider. Oh no, it was a 3 inch centipede under her pillow. really glad it didn't give her a nip. The books always put these Texas centipedes at 6-8 inches tops but I've seen bigger as well.

yea they have a nasty bite.ive seen some large ones but that big boy was the largest by far ive ran across here in TX. needless to say i was glad to be wearing my steel toed boots :D

here is a pic from the same trip of a praying mantis taking advantage of our bug zapper :Dpost-4224-011090800 1287112536_thumb.jpg

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Okay so if you didn't catch this on my hunting thread here is some picts of the snake who decided to join me for lunch today. I was sitting on a rock and this guy just popped up out of the water with a catfish in his mouth. He stayed there at the edge of the water till the fish finally stopped fighting him and then slipped back down into the water under a rock. I really hope the fins on that catfish don't hurt him. I believe it was a diamond back water snake but I could be wrong. His tummy was really pretty red colored.

post-1082-025307900 1287280160_thumb.jpg post-1082-017196500 1287280162_thumb.jpg

post-1082-028186900 1287280164_thumb.jpg post-1082-031113800 1287280166_thumb.jpg

post-1082-008713300 1287280168_thumb.jpg post-1082-094976800 1287280169_thumb.jpg

In formal logic, a contradiction is the signal of defeat: but in the evolution of real knowledge, it marks the first step in progress toward victory.

Alfred North Whithead

'Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia!'

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I just loved seeing that! Have never seen a snake eat something whole before so

this is as close as I will probably get... So glad you were quick with your camera...

Welcome to the forum!

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Okay so if you didn't catch this on my hunting thread here is some picts of the snake who decided to join me for lunch today. I was sitting on a rock and this guy just popped up out of the water with a catfish in his mouth. He stayed there at the edge of the water till the fish finally stopped fighting him and then slipped back down into the water under a rock. I really hope the fins on that catfish don't hurt him. I believe it was a diamond back water snake but I could be wrong. His tummy was really pretty red colored.

post-1082-025307900 1287280160_thumb.jpg post-1082-017196500 1287280162_thumb.jpg

post-1082-028186900 1287280164_thumb.jpg post-1082-031113800 1287280166_thumb.jpg

post-1082-008713300 1287280168_thumb.jpg post-1082-094976800 1287280169_thumb.jpg

Great snake photos, Tera! Others might know better, but it looks like a banded water snake of some kind...vivid colors.

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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Nice pictures. I cant tell you how many Softshelled turtles I ate as a kid, toss in truck loads of Gophers back in the late 70s early 80s absolutely the best meat you will ever eat.... Of course today 2010 better not event touch a gopher and I think there is a limit on Softshells now. It was a youth experience, there were plenty and we had some serious cook outs on the creeks, nothing was wasted!

Today you would be in jail so fast, it would make Lindsey Lohans time seem like seconds!

Turtle meat is awesomely delicious!

Steve

:) Agreed.Don't leave out Alligator turtle.Taste like chicken.Dont laugh,if you ate a famous brand's chicken and ?soup of the 60's and 70's youhelped nearly wipe them out. :D Sheesh I'm dating myself in this thread.I'D better leave out the burma shave signs. :blush:

Edited by bear-dog

Bear-dog.

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Here's a few from a couple weeks ago on my Whiskey Bridge trip. Saw hundreds of the big spiders. I see the vultures every time I go that way. They were there in the morning and the evening. I guess they just wait up there for road kill. :P

post-534-034249500 1287328889_thumb.jpg

post-534-005724600 1287328888_thumb.jpgpost-534-098698300 1287328886_thumb.jpg

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