University of Alberta PhD student discovers 130-million-year-old bus-sized crocodile
By Michael Platt, Calgary Sun
First posted: Wednesday, January 13, 2016 10:26 PM EST | Updated: Thursday, January 14, 2016 12:42 AM EST
Thankfully for fans of fossils and prehistoric monsters, Tetsuto Miya****a’s parents didn’t buy him a book on space exploration, or he’d probably be studying the latest mineral discovery on Mars.
Instead, that fateful Christmas morning 20 years ago in Tokyo led directly to what’s being hailed as a massive paleontological find — both in importance and stature, as Miya****a’s team celebrates the discovery of a bus-sized marine crocodile.
“This is the biggest crocodile that ever lived in the sea. This animal was an ambush predator,” says Miya****a, of the nearly eight-metre long crocodile found beneath the sand of Tunisia, where it has lain for 130-million years.
“The shape of the teeth ... look exactly like an armour-piercing bullet the military uses.”
It’s a moment Miya****a has been looking forward to since opening that book under the Christmas tree, written by noted Alberta paleontologist Philip Currie, and describing the Royal Tyrrell Museum curator’s greatest dinosaur discoveries.
“As a kid, yes, I dreamed of being a part of a big discovery,” says Miya****a.
Most kids just dream — but Miya****a was a get-things-done sort of 10-year-old.
He decided then and there that he had to live in Canada, and work with the great Dr. Currie — and by the time he was 15, he’d learned enough English to write the Royal Tyrrell expressing his admiration.
Currie was both honoured and kind — and the kid from Tokyo and the keen world-famous Canadian dinosaur expert become paleontological pen pals.
Soon Miya****a asked for advice about how to pursue his career, and whether it was better to move to Canada after high school or university — to which Currie suggested moving right away, finishing high school in Drumheller and volunteering at the museum.
Miya****a parents took some convincing, but soon he was on his way to Canada and the life he’d longed for.
“The hardest part is that I had to establish myself as a grown-up from ground up,” says Miya****a.
“The best part, obviously, is that I was doing exactly what I wanted to do and what I believed I should be doing.”
Now, the University of Alberta PhD student is doing exactly what his hero wrote about in that childhood book — and their relationship remains so close that the protégé can now tease his mentor.
“The crocodile is larger than almost all meat-eating dinosaurs that Phil works on,” laughs Miya****a.
“So I’ve been playing a little ‘my-crocodile-is-bigger-than-your-dinosaur’ game and poking a little fun at that.”
The monster’s name is Machimosaurus rex, and was the largest and the last survivor of the marine crocodiles that terrorized the seas during the age of the dinosaurs, devouring turtles like popcorn.
Miya****a was summoned in 2014 after a team of Italian and Tunisian scientists found what appears to be a complete specimen near Tataouine, Tunisia, but only the 5-foot-long skull was recovered before political turmoil forced the dig to pause.
Still, that was enough for Miya****a and study leader Federico Fanti of the University of Bologna, who had three fast days to clean the skull and a day to study it — but as Miya****a says, “that was enough for us to be convinced it’s a new species.”
“We had to be a little brutal about it — we basically used our hands to scrape off the sediments and used litres of glue to stabilize the skull,” he says.
The team’s work, published in the journal Cretaceous Research, marks a major breakthrough in the study of prehistoric reptiles, and obviously, a very happy day for that kid from Japan, though he admit the really giddy part took place in Tunisia.
“Pretty much all the excitement is in the earlier phase of the research, when you see the fossils, work on the fossils, and write the paper about them,” he says.
“I’m sure musicians are thrilled most when they are playing, than when they release the album. I think that’s the same thing.”
University of Alberta PhD student discovers 130-million-year-old bus-sized croco
By Michael Platt, Calgary Sun
First posted: Wednesday, January 13, 2016 10:26 PM EST | Updated: Thursday, January 14, 2016 12:42 AM EST
Thankfully for fans of fossils and prehistoric monsters, Tetsuto Miya****a’s parents didn’t buy him a book on space exploration, or he’d probably be studying the latest mineral discovery on Mars.
Instead, that fateful Christmas morning 20 years ago in Tokyo led directly to what’s being hailed as a massive paleontological find — both in importance and stature, as Miya****a’s team celebrates the discovery of a bus-sized marine crocodile.
“This is the biggest crocodile that ever lived in the sea. This animal was an ambush predator,” says Miya****a, of the nearly eight-metre long crocodile found beneath the sand of Tunisia, where it has lain for 130-million years.
“The shape of the teeth ... look exactly like an armour-piercing bullet the military uses.”
It’s a moment Miya****a has been looking forward to since opening that book under the Christmas tree, written by noted Alberta paleontologist Philip Currie, and describing the Royal Tyrrell Museum curator’s greatest dinosaur discoveries.
“As a kid, yes, I dreamed of being a part of a big discovery,” says Miya****a.
Most kids just dream — but Miya****a was a get-things-done sort of 10-year-old.
He decided then and there that he had to live in Canada, and work with the great Dr. Currie — and by the time he was 15, he’d learned enough English to write the Royal Tyrrell expressing his admiration.
Currie was both honoured and kind — and the kid from Tokyo and the keen world-famous Canadian dinosaur expert become paleontological pen pals.
Soon Miya****a asked for advice about how to pursue his career, and whether it was better to move to Canada after high school or university — to which Currie suggested moving right away, finishing high school in Drumheller and volunteering at the museum.
Miya****a parents took some convincing, but soon he was on his way to Canada and the life he’d longed for.
“The hardest part is that I had to establish myself as a grown-up from ground up,” says Miya****a.
“The best part, obviously, is that I was doing exactly what I wanted to do and what I believed I should be doing.”
Now, the University of Alberta PhD student is doing exactly what his hero wrote about in that childhood book — and their relationship remains so close that the protégé can now tease his mentor.
“The crocodile is larger than almost all meat-eating dinosaurs that Phil works on,” laughs Miya****a.
“So I’ve been playing a little ‘my-crocodile-is-bigger-than-your-dinosaur’ game and poking a little fun at that.”
The monster’s name is Machimosaurus rex, and was the largest and the last survivor of the marine crocodiles that terrorized the seas during the age of the dinosaurs, devouring turtles like popcorn.
Miya****a was summoned in 2014 after a team of Italian and Tunisian scientists found what appears to be a complete specimen near Tataouine, Tunisia, but only the 5-foot-long skull was recovered before political turmoil forced the dig to pause.
Still, that was enough for Miya****a and study leader Federico Fanti of the University of Bologna, who had three fast days to clean the skull and a day to study it — but as Miya****a says, “that was enough for us to be convinced it’s a new species.”
“We had to be a little brutal about it — we basically used our hands to scrape off the sediments and used litres of glue to stabilize the skull,” he says.
The team’s work, published in the journal Cretaceous Research, marks a major breakthrough in the study of prehistoric reptiles, and obviously, a very happy day for that kid from Japan, though he admit the really giddy part took place in Tunisia.
“Pretty much all the excitement is in the earlier phase of the research, when you see the fossils, work on the fossils, and write the paper about them,” he says.
“I’m sure musicians are thrilled most when they are playing, than when they release the album. I think that’s the same thing.”
University of Alberta PhD student discovers 130-million-year-old bus-sized croco
