Jurassic Otter

I just saw this in today's New York Times.

And while a part of me would like to believe that I was a T-Rex or Velociraptor in a previous life...I think my true Jurassic identity has been revealed.

A new fossil has been discovered; that of a small "part beaver, part otter, part platypus" mammal that lived in China 164 million years ago! Before it was thought that mammals could have spent that much of their lives in water.

I think I was one of these mammals.

Reasons why I think this:

1.

NY TIMES: "The extinct species appears to have been an amalgam of animals."

DAVE: I like all kinds of animals.

2.

NY TIMES: "Its likely lifestyle — burrowing in tunnels on shore and dog-paddling in water — reminds scientists of the modern platypus."

DAVE: I like to burrow. Metaphorically. And am terrified yet intrigued by the platypus. I also like water. As long as there are no sharks or snake-like creatures in it.

I also have just discovered that I like the phrase "metaphoric burrowing."

3.

NY TIMES: "It had a broad, scaly tail, flat like a beaver's."

DAVE: I have a broad, scaly tail, flat...just like a beavers!

4.

NY TIMES: "Its skeleton suggests that it was about 20 inches long, from snout to the tip of its tail, about the length of a small house cat. "

DAVE: I once had to put my pet cat Frosty to sleep. It made me very sad. But she was old and had lived a long life. She also had a gross tumor growing out of her face.

And if you play that drag queen name..."Your drag name is the name of your first pet and the first street you lived on"...my drag name would be Frosty Fairy Glen. But I am not a drag queen.

I do; however, like cats.

5.

NY TIMES: "the fossil skeleton showed that some mammals occupied more diverse ecological niches than had been suspected in the Jurassic Period, an age dominated by dinosaurs. "

DAVE: Come on. That is just so me. Diverse ecological niches!!

6.

NY TIMES: "The semiaquatic mammal was uncovered in the same hilly country where paleontologists have collected fossils of feathered dinosaurs and two 130-million-year-old animals that did not fit the lowly image of mammals of that period. One of them, the size of an opossum, had feasted on a small dinosaur just before dying. "

DAVE:

More sophisticated than the other "lowly" mammals of the period!

Uncovered in the hilly country!!

Feasting on dinosaurs, but probably deep down inside actually a little envious of their natural drive and violent charisma!!!

Me, me and me.


I was feeling a little sad today. But sometimes it's nice to take a little visit to the past and realize who you truly are...




For more in-depth Jurassic Otter information, check out the article...HERE.