More bones? Well, okay.

Erin, Kate, and I went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History today. Some very neat stuff there: some specimens in jars, some skeletons, some models. This is the second time I've been there, but the first time I didn't bring a camera -- I didn't this time either, but Erin came prepared.

There's a lot to look at there, and even though it's not the largest museum in the world, it has its pick of items from Harvard's entire collection. Briefly, before I go back to roommate-hunting for this fall, here's a photo or two:

This first picture is of a kronosaur, a prehistoric marine reptile that was something like a cross between a crocodile, a shark, and a boat. Kronosaurs were fast, and probably hunted the same type of prey that a lone orca or large requiem shark might today: medium to large animals, actively hunted and chased down.

If I remember correctly, for some time it was thought that ammonite fossils found with round holes punched through them were victims of a kronosaur (or at least some similar animal; I admit I don't exactly recall) until it was shown that there was no way to puncture an ammonite shell with the kind of force that the teeth and jaws would have exerted without shattering it completely. Ammonites being extinct, nautilus shells were used, since they're the only modern cephalopod with a hard outer shell. The more likely explanation was that the shells were bored by some smaller animal, looking for either food or a free ride.

The second picture is of a pair of much larger predators: the tail-end of a sperm whale in the front, and the head of a fin whale behind it. Both are complete skeletons -- you can even see the pelvis of the sperm whale, which is completely detached from the vertebrae -- and there is a right whale hanging behind them that you can't really make out in the photo. The finback, by my estimate, was about 50-55 feet long, or about two-thirds of their maximum recorded length. (Of course, given my complete lack of natural talent in eyeballing measurements, the skeleton is probably closer to, say, two or three feet long.)