Dunkleosteus

Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 08:28:42 -0600
From: Adam Tuck
Subject: Guardian Unlimited: The first king of the beasts

A Duncan lookalike? Only by name [perhaps not -- I have added this nice picture of a ginger Dunkleosteus. TP], and tentatively so, but still, I haven't contributed for a while.
-------

To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk

The first king of the beasts
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Wednesday November 29 2006
The Guardian



Meet Dunkleosteus, a four tonne, 10-metre, armour-plated fish that was arguably the first king of the beasts. The monster fish cruised the oceans 400m years ago, preying on creatures much larger than itself, its blade-like fangs adept at tearing its quarry in two.

Using fossilised skull remains, scientists have built up a biomechanical model of the fish's powerful jaw and surrounding musculature and reveal today that it had the strongest bite of any fish ever to exist.

Philip Anderson's team at the University of Chicago found that the predator's jaws snapped shut with a force of more than five tonnes. The jaws were articulated by a unique mechanism based on four rotational joints working in harmony, they report in the Royal Society journal, Biology Letters, today.

Dunkleosteus was the first known large predator, pre-dating the dinosaurs. It belonged to a diverse group of armoured fish, placoderms, that dominated the oceans in the Devonian period between 360m and 415m years ago. Its formidable bite allowed it to feast on other armoured aquatic animals, including primitive sharks and smaller creatures protected by bone-like casings.

"Dunkleosteus was able to devour anything in its environment," said Dr Anderson. The bladed jaws, which enabled the beast to take on prey much larger than its mouth, is a feature sharks did not develop until 100m years later.

Mark Westneat, curator of fishes at the Field Museum in Chicago added: "The most interesting part of this work for me was discovering that this heavily-armoured fish was both fast during jaw opening and quite powerful during jaw closing. This is possible due to the unique engineering design of its skull and different muscles used for opening and closing. And it made this fish into one of the first true apex predators seen in the vertebrate fossil record."

Michael Howe

Duncan lookalike or thinly disguised advertisement? I guess I'll let it pass. Just don't anybody send in that Duncan looks like some Cialis, or a hot stock tip. TP

Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2006 05:58:50 -0600
From: Harry Perrin
Subject: Duncan?

I reckon Michael Howe looks like Duncan (but I realise that I haven't seen Duncan for ages, and have forgotten what he looks like. My views on the matter are based on a lookalike website and are thus somewhat apocryphal).

Anyhow, Michael Howe can currently be seen at London's Novello Theatre, in Footloose, playing Reverend Shaw Moore, the over-zealous preacher who bans dancing inside the town limits of Bomont. (Must end 11 November).



Harry.

Steven Waddington

Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2006 03:59:48 -0600
From: "Hugo Godwin"
Subject: Re: photo

Tom

For years I have been trying to find a Duncan lookalike and think I've
finally found one - Steven Waddington. His picture is on
http://www.sherryweb.com/steven/.



Is the lookalike page still running? I hope so!!

Hugo

Daryl Hall (of Hall & Oates)

Can you tell that we've been watching VH1's Greatest Songs of the '80s?

Jon Bon Jovi

Elizabeth suggests Jon Bon Jovi -- it must be the flyaway strawberry-blond hair.

My Celebrity Look-alikes

This was done with myheritage.com, which I can't believe we didn't find before. I especially like Axl Rose -- which surprises me, since I vaguely remember someone (Richard Gowan?) suggesting it before, and me being unconvinced. How wrong I was. TP

Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2006 05:19:54 -0600
From: Harry Perrin
Subject: Duncan

Hey Tom,

You should copy and paste this into your journal.

Harry.

David Bowie

Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 15:12:09 -0600
From: Richard Gowan
Subject: Which came as some surprise...

OK, he doesn't actually look like Duncan, but it's striking that he still looks more like Duncan than one would have thought possible...

Jon Culshaw

Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:34:34 -0500
From: "Richard McKinley"
Subject: Duncan

Tom,

If this Iron chef chappy passes muster as a Duncan, then surely Jon Culshaw must get a look in:



Richard