Comments on: Blue Whale Excavation

By: greg laden

greg laden — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:37:12 +0000

Cameron:I personally think, and this is really at this point not too supportable, just call it a hunch, that these estimates may be old by a large margin.Polar bears are cicumpolar, but right, when were humans in the subarctic in the old world? (we can include Neanderthals, of course). That is a bit harder to kinow.

By: Cameron

Cameron — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:50:37 +0000

Apparently genetic studies on ursid phylogeny indicated a date of a million to a million and a half years for polar bear/brown bear divergence - but they do recognize that the oldest fossils are 1/10th of this.Yu, Li et al. 2004. Phylogeny of the bears (Ursidae) based on nuclear and mitochondrial genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (32), 480ï¿½494One of the fossils in question is Ursus maritimus tyrannus, discussed hereI think the early Wurm is about 100 k years ago, before our species got there but long after other hominids. U. m. tyrannus was apparently very large even compared with polar bears and could have been one of the largest mammalian land hypercarnivores known (if not the).

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:15:29 +0000

It is my opinion that this divergence was likely observed by humans.

By: Zach Miller

Zach Miller — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:59:45 +0000

Well, the fact that grizzlies and polar bears are known to produce hybrid offspring indicates a very recent divergence.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sun, 18 May 2008 21:59:06 +0000

Laurisa. Technically, the largest land carnivore is the polar bear because there is this one polar bear that is the largest bear of any living/recent population. However, if you go around and measure a bunch of kodiak bears, you will find that they are big on average, and the average kodiak will be bigger than the average polar.Yet, it is also true that all the brown bears (kodiak and griz) as well as polar bears are pretty much the same species if you look only at the DNA phylogeny.My view is that polar bears are a different species that has very recently arisen. Possibly in the last few thousand years.

By: laurisa

laurisa — Sun, 18 May 2008 16:25:14 +0000

ah, largest land animal. correct me if i’m wrong: the largest land CARNIVORE is the Kodiak brown bear. bitches measure 1 meter from one ear to the other. sucks to be a hiker in a hungry bear’s path.

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:55:49 +0000

You are right. I mean to way “the largest land animal” … and somehow that came out.Several whales are larger.

By: Cameron

Cameron — Sun, 18 May 2008 11:26:38 +0000

Elephants are definitely not the second largest animals on the planet.

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Sun, 18 May 2008 10:58:13 +0000

PEI, home of Confederation, L.M. Montgomery and now, the big stinky whale.Did you really find information about people moving out? The major industry in the area is fishing (at least until July, when you can add tourism), which is stinky by nature, although it is a different stink. And with the winds around there, there have to be several localities–not neighborhoods, way too tiny for neighborhoods–afflicted with the smell.Speaking of wind, the Atlantic Wind Test Site is just cool, especially in person, and only four to five miles from the whale. Turbines of all different designs, packed together and running:http://www.weican.ca/