Erich Fitzgerald holding a tooth from an extinct sperm whale discovered in Australia. (Photo: Museum Victoria)

Five million years ago, a massive sea monster may have eviscerated sharks and whales using gigantic teeth like this.

Murray Orr, an amateur fossil hunter, stumbled on this not-so-pearly-white in February while exploring Beaumaris Bay, a popular site for digging up ancient remains near Melbourne. At first, he had no idea what he was yanking out from the rocks.

“For a moment it looked like an artillery shell, and I thought I might blow my arm off,” he said in an email. “But then I saw the curving pointed end and knew it was a sperm whale tooth.”

Unbeknown to Mr. Orr, the fossil was unlike anything ever found in Australia. It measured about a foot long, nearly twice the size of any living sperm whale’s tooth, and was larger than the daggers that lined a Tyrannosaurus rex’s jaws.

The extinct sperm whale tooth beside a T-rex tooth, left, and a present-day sperm whale tooth, right. (Photo: Museum Victoria)

When he returned home, Mr. Orr, who works as a real-estate appraiser during the day, emailed a picture of the fossil to Erich Fitzgerald, a paleontologist at the nearby Museum Victoria. Dr. Fitzgerald’s response came quickly:

“Crikey!!!! I’d like to find out more about this tomorrow on the phone if at all possible!!!!”

Dr. Fitzgerald instructed him to wrap up the mud-covered fossil to prevent it from drying out. The next day Mr. Orr brought it to the museum to be examined.

“Ironically enough, we did use toothbrushes to clean this fossil tooth,” said Dr. Fitzgerald.

After brushing away the dirt and analyzing the tooth’s enamel, Dr. Fitzgerald determined that it belonged to a relative of an extinct group of marine behemoths called Livyatan melvillei. He said the newly found Beaumaris beast could have been similar in size to these 60-feet long, 88,000-pound predators.

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By Nicholas St. Fleur

Source: nytimes.com

A UBC researcher says he noticed signs of stress in four out of five dogs in online images of people hugging dogs.

Owners may love hugging their pooches, but a canine expert says, for most dogs, the feeling isn't mutual.

Stanley Coren, UBC professor emeritus of psychology and a canine expert who has published 17 books on the subject, says some dogs may be alright with cuddling from their owners, but the majority find the experience stressful.

Coren says he became interested in studying dogs’ reactions to hugs from humans when he brought his own dogs to a "Doggy De-Stress Day" on the campus of a local college.

"You could see lots of students going over and hugging the dogs and the dogs were showing all sorts of stress signs. They were yawning and their ears were down, that sort of thing," he told CTV Vancouver.

Coren wrote, in an article published in Psychology Today, that dogs’ first instinctive line of defence is to run away. By hugging the animals and restricting their ability to flee, it could lead the dog to bite instead.

Surprised at the lack of research on the matter, Coren began looking at photos of humans hugging dogs online. Based on his analysis of 250 photos, Coren says four out of every five of the dogs showed signs of stress.

"I'm not saying you shouldn't love your dog, I'm saying you shouldn't hug your dog. There are other ways of expressing your affection to them," he said. "You can give them a pat, you can talk to them, that "sing-song" voice that we use for our dogs 'oh what a cutie you are!' or you can give them a treat, but hugging is an inappropriate expression."

However, some dog owners don't agree with the findings.

"I don't believe that at all. I think dogs love hugs, and I know personally, I love hugs too," a dog owner named Brandi told CTV.

Coren acknowledges some people may disagree, but he says there is a safety element to consider.

Children are more likely to hug dogs, Coren says, and if it stresses a dog, the interaction might not end well.

"If we hug our dogs all the time, whether they like it or not, our kids see us doing this and they will go over to unfamiliar dogs and hug them. That's a precipitating factor when kids get bit by dogs. It's not trivial, it's a matter of safety."

For those dog owners who do want to make their pooch happy, Coren has a simple solution.

"You want to make a dog happy? Reach into your pocket and give him a dog cookie."

By Nick Wells, CTVNews.ca

Source: CTVNews.ca. CTV

PASSENGERS collecting their baggage at the Lynden Pindling International Airport on Thursday were in for a surprise welcome to Nassau as they found themselves outnumbered by a cast of escaped crabs in the arrivals area...

The Humane Society of Grand Bahama's Annual General Meeting will be held Tuesday, August 19th at 6:00 p.m. at the Garden of the Groves Garden Cafe. All current members of the HSGB are invited to attend this important meeting.

Please consider what you can do to help the HSGB to continue in our very important work. Several current board members are stepping down this year due to moving and other reasons. As a non-profit organization; an energetic, enthusiastic Board of Directors is crucial to us meeting our goals and helping as many animals as we can, which also improves our community.

We welcome anyone who is interested in being elected to our Board and helping Grand Bahamian animals, to come out as well. We can only be as good as the community enables us to be!

Please email info@hs-gb.org or call Joe Darville (President) at 727.0212 or Tip Burrows at 352.2477 for more information. Or, just come out for the AGM next Monday evening! Our animals need all the help they can get - please consider helping us help them!

We would like to feature a very special puppy this week, who needs a very special home.

Bingo came in as a tiny puppy with a badly mangled leg.

Bingo