Survival of Animals through the Ice Age Possible through many Adaptations

Plesiosaurs have survived the age of the dinosaurs to become a legend around the world, from places like Vermont, British Columbia and Scotland, to Hawaii, New Zealand and Japan. These distributions are consistant with many animal species that have both fresh and salt water members. The creature may use echolocation in the darkest deapths of Lake Champlain.

ABC news has recently featured a video which only captures the creatures head and long neck underwater. It resembles no fish, and does not have gills or even a dorsal fin. This is consistent with all of the eye witness reports. In the video, it can be observed that the creatures head is somewhat concave shaped to a snout. The shape of its head indicates a very well center of balance, and possible sonar abilities.

There are recordings of sonar being used underwater similar to whales. These two traits indicate extremely advanced communication skills and excellent motor control. If these creatures are indeed plesiosaurs, their nasal passage to the roof of the head that circulates water would have had to evolve into a resonance pan. This not an unusual adaptation. Forty million years ago, bats and screws parted genetic ancestors, and whales and dolpins, both marine mammals, developed sonar abilities as well.

Even if Plesiosaurs survived the Dinosaurs mass extinction, they likely did not develop the ability to echo locate until this pivot point of genetics. This is where cows developed the bacteria in the stomach to break down grass.

Modern penguins in Antarctica are interesting to note. Hibernation of woolly mammoths occurred with less o2 at -100 c or more. Thre was no o2 from plant photosynthesis. Modern horses in Yakutian decreases locomotor decrease o2 intake and suppress making fat protein.(1) he real debate is over how they breathe. Theories range from breathing through gill-like tubercles down the body, to surfacing breathing through an air pouch in the creatures hind end. The creatures living in the deepest fault of Lake Champlain, would have very alkaline metabolisms, like that of the turtle.

Turtles from Florida have been noted to go into hibernation and survived the season when exposed to a colder climate. There is also a report of an alligator surrving a winter in a country club water trap over winter. Groundsmen were surprised to find an Alligator in the spring and learned that it was a practical joke from the previous season. Many species have advanced hibernation adaptations or methods to keep their blood from freezing. Pterodactyls.

Similar evolutionary trates can emerge in different species. This is called convergent evolution. The flippers and dorsal fins of both sharks and dolphins are stiffened with collagen. This should also be true for ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. Another adaptation dolphins have aquired is advanced social skills and the ability to use echolocation. Also called biosonar, this ability has been adapted by other animals such as whales, bats and shrews.

All of these adaptations originate from the same time period, the Oligocene Age, some 40 million years ago. No animals have since evolved the ability to echolocate. During the time period, marine waters were cooling dramatically. This sent dolphins and whales deeper for food, such as giant squids which can live at great depths. Salmon at this point made a jump from fresh lake water to sea water.

There was a change in the salinity of water everywhere, which effected the migration patterns of animals everywhere. Atlantic salmon today return to North American and Eastern Europe freshwater streams to lay eggs. The developing young go to western border of Greenland which they call home. Example of genetic evolution behavior. Freshwater salmon still swim in raging currents. Seals eat salmon. Plesiosaurs likely followed schools of fish to their breeding grounds.

Back in the day, there was a huge inlet sea in north America, where hundreds of marine reptile species flourished. There was no ice at the north pole. Instead, there was an upper sea that trapped water. Global climate change caused the seas to binge and purge into oceans changed salinity everywhere. When the glaciers began to form, the land mass could no longer support the weight and bucked in the eastern United States. The land was torn apart, and when the ice melted, it eroded away a great valley, and the new land mass emerged from under salt water with the weight of the ice gone.