Dreadnaughts

            Dinosaurs dominated the earth for hundreds of years, until meteor strikes, volcanic eruptions, and Mayan calendars killed them all off. Kind of sad really that such a cool group of animals ceased to exist, I always wanted a velociraptor as a pet. Dinosaurs are amazing, everyone knows that, they are giant reptile dragons that roamed the world, being all-around awesome creatures. T-Rexes, Pterodactyls, and 50-ton monsters are some of examples of the king of the reptiles, the great ones that dominated our pre-historic world with their strength and power.

            This last week, Archaeologist digging around for more fossils discovered and identified gigantic bones belonging to the mighty and not so majestic Dreadnaught. These creatures are unbelievable. First off, they’re name sounds like some cool Power Ranger super-villain. “Dreadnaught, destroyer of worlds” just fits perfectly. The tank of a creature was actually named after the largest battleship of its time, Dreadnaught (fears nothing).

           

            The Dreadnaughts fear nothing due to their mind-boggling size. Classified now as the largest land animal without doubt. More than seventy percent of its fossils have been recovered, meaning this species shows a prime example/structure to other creatures like it or even bigger than it (Brachiosaurs, Argentinosaurus, etc). No matter if it’s the biggest or not, these beasts weighed 60 tons!  That’s more than a Boeing 373.  Also it is about 20 tons heavier than the second largest animal right now, the Futalognkosaurus. Dreadnaughts are herbivores as well, which is amazing considering they gained all that weight by eating salad. Like others of its kind, Dreadnaughts must eat constantly 24/7 because they are so dang huge, luckily they have very long necks to reach for every last bit of food.  This dinosaur is almost too large for it’s own good.  If it fell over it would actually crush itself from its own weight.

            Every boy wants a dinosaur, they got cool T-Rexes on their lunchboxes, clothing, backpacks, and watches to show it. Dreadnaughts will be the next big thing in a little kid’s world because of the Dreadnaughts amazing size and their amazing name. 

The Most Dangerous Animal

            We aren't the strongest or the fastest creatures out there, yet we dominate the world. We use intelligence and advanced communication to be top of the food chain.  WE ARE HUMANS!

            Tens of thousands of years ago, our ancestors (Homo Sapiens) first began to roam the planet. Located around the East Africa/Middle East region of the world, humans hunted and scavenged, living in groups while raising kids and having a wail of a time doing pre-historical activities. Hunting was done through patience, either by getting the whole clan and slowly killing a large prey, or out-running a prey in a long distance game of cat and mouse. Humans don’t have the physical capabilities that most animals have.  We can’t jump as high and we don’t have anything special when it comes to strength.  And we definitely can’t run as fast. Human bodies are not built too kill a tiger with our bare hands or out sprint a cheetah.  Humans bodies are built to run long distances, we run on two legs that are complicated springs consisting of muscle and tendons.  No other animal has this skill set.  Being able to run long distances gives humans a huge advantage. If our ancestors wanted food, they would chase an animal for miles and miles until the prey becomes too tired to continue, leaving our ancestors a free meal.

            Humans can also adapt and learn any set of situations. We live all over the world, adapting to the cold, hot, dry and extremely wet. Humans are the only creatures that have been able to spread across the world, adapting extremely quickly to the environments around us. Using our higher intelligence and adaptation abilities and inventions such as clothing, shelters, and air conditioning can help us live with comfort in these harsh environments. 

            Adapting to not only an environment around us, but also using problem solving abilities too stay alive is what makes humans so deadly. The Fight or Flight response in our brains gives us honed decision making skills in times of stress. Weapons and other hunting techniques make it possible for humans to kill any beast, large or small. The spear for example is an example of the ingenuity to solve the problem of hunting prey. Spears and other weapons allowed humans to make any animal prey. As weapons continued to advance, some of the most physically talented animals could die in seconds at the hands of a human and his ingenuity.  

            Lastly, and most importantly, humans communicate and interact like no other species does. Teamwork wins fights, and our highly advanced communication through language and signals allows us survive much easier. Working together to adapt to an environment, hunting, or scavenging helps us as humans become stronger and dominate the animal kingdom.  Communication today along with our advanced minds and capabilities has made us dominate the world with cities of millions of people. You can’t go anywhere in the world without finding humans. We eat anything and kill anything that gets in our way of living, making us top of the food chain and the most dangerous animals on the planet.  

Big Guy

            Fear of spiders is one of the most prominent phobias in the world, with good reason too, spiders are freaking scary. They bite with venomous fangs and spin those terrorist webs to trap everything in its path. They’re also even more scary when they’re big - the bigger they are the more frightening they become. One of the biggest and scariest of all is the tarantula. They’re hairy, gigantic, and have terrifying fangs. They’re extremely popular in Hollywood and in the movies for being the prime example of the fear of spiders.

Tarantulas have over 900 different species.  They are identified by their extremely large and hairy bodies. The different types of tarantulas are dispersed all over the world, from the tip of Africa to California. Although they’re very big, there are many predators to the Tarantula. Most wasps are trained to kill these beasts even though they are a lot smaller than the arachnid. The hairs on the spider’s body are one of their only defenses against wasps and other insects such as giant centipedes. The hairs create irritation on the predator.

            Now you might be thinking these guys are not that dangerous because all they have is some hair to protect them. Technically, tarantulas do have fangs to eat their prey but the venom is quite minimal and being bitten multiple times can only cause some minor hallucinations. They actually are the gentle giants of the spider kingdom.  They are very large and scary looking but not that deadly. They are so gentle that they have become domesticated and have become quite a common pet. Removing fangs and feeding them are quite simple.  And tarantulas are easy to find and catch which makes them an inexpensive pet.  So now you don’t have to quiver in your boots whenever you run into one of these giant arachnids, they are actually sort of nice creatures.