Monday, November 7, 2011

Saber-Toothed Squirrel From Age of Dinosaurs Discovered

BY LUCA PISTOR


http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/1103/Saber-toothed-squirrel-from-age-of-dinosaurs-discovered

An acorn-crazy pre-historic saber-toothed squirrel known as Scrat reacts to the onslaught of a new Ice Age in the 2002 animated film 'Ice Age.'
Twentieth Century Fox


17 comments:

Chloe said...

This is quite amusing. The genes were altered from either a squirrel or a sabertooth tiger into a Saber toothed Squirrel. It is also odd that the movie made a character very similar to this real animal. It is weird but cool.

Sergio said...

Does anybody think that the cronopio was actually from the area around Argentina since it seems to be way to small a creature to have migrated from the countries up north where other dryolestoids were found. This would be a very large distance even if you consider that the continent were completely connected in prehistorical times.

Alex G. said...

I think this article was really weird. It is kind of ironic that the movie came up with this made up animal and now people actually found it. I would like to see this animal. I think it would be really odd.

Ava S. said...

Wow, that was really cool and interesting! I did not even consider the fact that the saber-toothed squirrel even existed. It was so odd-looking and strange that I thought it was just something the animator came up with.

Nate said...

That is really weird that there is actually a saber-toothed squirrel. It seems very unlikely that Ice Age has such a comical character that was not known to have existed, but actually did. It is almost impossible for me to believe because it seems very impractical for a squirrel to have long teeth, especially if they ate more primitive versions of what is in a modern squirrel's diet.

Aaron said...

It is really funny because in ice age there is that same squirrel. People that heard of it must be really astonished.

Cypress said...

Wow! This is really cool! I wonder why they didn't discover this before, since they have discovered so many other species. But, in our science textbook it also said that they probably haven't discovered even close to half of the species that there are in the world. I thought that any sabertooth species were extinct, but this article proves me wrong. Alex, I agree, it would be really cool if I could see that animal. I wonder what it would look like and what the difference is between the animated one and the real one.

Esther said...

I think that Chloe might be right about there being some sort of gene alteration involved with this creature.

Esther said...

I think that Chloe might be right about there being some sort of gene alteration involved with this creature.

Luca said...

Yes, this is a very interesting article. I wonder how it happened that the genes (possibly from the saber-toothed tiger or the saber-toothed frog) got implanted into this little guy. And I agree that it is interesting how the Ice Age creators discovered this animal before the media.

Sam Nanda said...

Wow, it's so amazing how the genes from a saber-toothed tiger and a squirrel were combined, and how the Ice-Age creators incorporated the animal into the movie from their imagination, and later, that very animal was discovered! Strange, but still interesting.

Gwen said...

I really love ice age, and Scrat was always my favorite character. I can't believe that there is actually something like him in real life. I wonder if the cronopio was actually addicted to acorns, or if there were even nuts back in the age of the dinosaurs. Also, it would be really interesting to know what this creature used his fangs for, or if that squirrel some how migrated from another place where the adaptation was more suitable, like if there was a kind of fruit that needed a long fang to break the shell. Or this creature was actually addicted to nuts and the fangs were used as a tool to open nuts.

Emma said...

I think that it is very interesting that the Saber-Toothed Squirrel that Ice Age made-up is real, but they said that the first Cronopio was found in 2002, and that the Ice Age movie was made in 2002, so maybe the Cronopio was found before Ice Age came up with Scrat.

Caroline said...

It is strange how the creature looks like the one from the movie. Like Ava s I did not consider that a saber toothed squirrel existed. I wonder if this animal is related to a squirrel at all. It is so weird that they just came up with a creature for a movie and then scientists discovered it. It is kind of creepy.

David said...

It’s funny to think that a saber-toothed squirrel like Scrat was actually running around on the earth 100 million years ago! But it was probably an insect-eater, not a nut eater. It may have been prey for terrestrial crocodiles. It’s strange to think of giant crocodiles on land. There may have been tall confers where it lived in Argentina. Its bones were preserved because of the dry climate. This pre-historic animal is important in the evolution of mammals.

Samantha said...

This was hilarious! The genes were moved from one squirrel to another.

Nick said...

I wonder if squirrels and sabertooth tigers are somehow genetically connected. Also, I also find it interesting that something made up is actually real. Who knows, maybe the missing link is actually Frankenstein.