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Post by Grey on May 31, 2015 10:27:00 GMT 5
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Post by theropod on May 31, 2015 15:50:23 GMT 5
What a strange selection of "river monsters", over half of the featured animals are actually marine taxa (Xiphactinus, Leedsichthys, Dunkleosteus, Helicoprion), but the most formidable marine species were still ignored (even if we exclude tetrapods, all lamniforms were still strangely omitted, and they can’t tell me they only used bony fish, because they intentionally included both chondrichthyans and placoderms).
Nonetheless it is nice to have Helicoprion featured at least this one time. Next to nothing is known about eugeneodontids, even though they seem to include the largest predatory chondrichthyans except for lamniforms.
It’s more of a collection of the more obscure, less popular aquatic predators. But then, it also included Xiphactinus and Dunkleosteus, which are rather well-known.
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Post by Grey on May 31, 2015 21:46:35 GMT 5
You need to follow the whole show,"river monsters" is a non-scientific designation including any bony fishes and freshwater sharks. Wade is a primarily a river fisherman. Hence no giant shark, nor any marine reptiles.
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Post by theropod on May 31, 2015 23:55:37 GMT 5
I know, that’s not the the first episode of River Monsters that I’ve watched (more like one of the few I hadn’t watched actually). The point is that half the animals they included in this episode are not actually freshwater species–they had no problem including animals that were neither bony fish, nor freshwater sharks, nor native to rivers.
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Post by Grey on Jun 1, 2015 0:16:38 GMT 5
Seems like they've focused on bony fishes/river sharks here, but I fairly agree with the conclusion, Rhizodus corresponds to the greatest "river monster" as far as predatory freshwater bony fishes go. It's true some of these taxa are really frightening.
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Post by theropod on Jun 1, 2015 0:20:02 GMT 5
It’s a shame there doesn’t actually seem to be any reliable sources about Rhizodus. But yes, from what is shown it seems formidable and deserving of the title (excluding crocodilians and other plausible river-going marine reptiles of course).
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blaze
Paleo-artist 
Posts: 766
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Post by blaze on Jun 1, 2015 1:16:41 GMT 5
Don't be surprised if Rhizodus shrinks just like Hyneria, I've been tracking publications since I knew of the show.
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