CineTrek # 3: Natural History Museum

 The commencement of a new CineTrek begins as we enter London's Natural History Museum. The museum contains roughly 80 million items in its possession. Throughout what I was able to examine there were pieces that intrigued me the most.

 The first piece that definitely caught my eye was this interesting creature, the Mesonyx. The Mesonyx, (Mee-son-icks) which meant middle claw, was a wolf-like predator who lived during the Eocene-Age in the United States and in European-Asia. The Mesonyx was named by Edward Drinker Cope in 1872 and was classified under the Mesonychidae family. This beautiful animal was roughly 1.5 meters long and possessed a large jaw closing muscles which allowed it to quickly kill smaller prey as well as hold on to larger animals. This predator is similar in size of the modern wolf and its overall appearance. Just like wolves these pre-historic predators hunted in packs which suggested that they contained higher levels of brain power and intelligence that are important to carnivorous mammals today. Surprisingly, this creature is not directly related to modern day wolves. Fossil evidence suggests that this creature was the ancestral father to modern day whales. The fossils suggest that the Mesonyx is the whale's ancestor due to several similarities they share like dental, cranial, as well as hunting features.

Evolution is very interesting and such a vital concept for life to survive for generations. When you think of a whales ancestral background this is something you would not expect to see!

All of my information was found Here and Here for Mesonyx

 The next piece that was very interesting was about super-volcanos. Super-volcanos is a huge volcano with a magnitude of 8, which is the highest value in the volcanic explosivity index or VEI for short. Super-volcanos are capable of erupting with a radius greater than 1,000 cubic kilometers of magma. They are capable of erupting thousands f times larger than a typical volcano. When these volcanos erupt they create a circular collapse feature called a caldera (large volcanic crater). Fortunately, these super-eruptions occur rarely, and average once every 100,000 years. Super-eruptions occur when magma in the mantle rises into the crust but is unable to break through it, which causes pressure to build up until the crust wont be able to contain it, causing it to explode. When these eruptions do occur, they create devastating impact on Earth's climate. These eruptions produce enormous fields of ash in the atmosphere, enough to bury a large city. When a tremendous amount of ash enter the atmosphere this causes long-lasting climate changes. These quick changes can possibly trigger an ice age which will deteriorate the ecosystem due to animals and humans ability to adapt to these changes would not suffice. A magnitude of 8 in the VEI scale can possibly be create the extinction of life on Earth. The most recent super-eruption was located in New Zealand, the super-volcano was named Taupo Volcano which contained a VEI of eight. This incident was responsible for the shape of the modern caldera. The Yellowstone is one of the largest known super-volcano, its diameter is so vast that it can be seen from space. Its crater is roughly 72 kilometers, would this super-volcano be the destruction of the Earth's ecosystem?

All information was found here as well as here