Predator X (TV Program)
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Predator X (TV Program)
''Predator X'' is a 2009 television special on the cable television channel History. The show documents the excavation of a giant pliosaur on an island in the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago. The special follows Dr. Jørn Hurum and a team of paleontologists from the University of Oslo as they excavate the site. The specimen — claimed by Hurum at the time to be a new species — had not received a taxonomic classification by the time of the television special and was, therefore, codenamed " Predator X". The team initially called their discovery "The Monster", and the nickname has been used extensively by the media. The initial discovery was made in 2006, as part of a find of dozens of pliosaur and plesiosaur specimens. First estimates were of nearly 15 m (49 ft) in length, "The Monster" is the largest pliosaur skeleton ever discovered, considerably larger than ''Kronosaurus''. This estimate was later downsized. In 2012, it was given the taxonomic name ''Pliosaurus fun ...
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History (U
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of these events. Historians seek knowledge of the past using historical sources such as written documents, oral accounts, art and material artifacts, and ecological markers. History is not complete and still has debatable mysteries. History is also an academic discipline which uses narrative to describe, examine, question, and analyze past events, and investigate their patterns of cause and effect. Historians often debate which narrative best explains an event, as well as the significance of different causes and effects. Historians also debate the nature of history as an end in itself, as well as its usefulness to give perspective on the problems of the p ...
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Pliosaur
Pliosauroidea is an extinct clade of plesiosaurs, known from the earliest Jurassic to early Late Cretaceous. They are best known for the subclade Thalassophonea, which contained crocodile-like short-necked forms with large heads and massive toothed jaws, commonly known as pliosaurs. More primitive non-thalassophonean pliosauroids resembled pleisiosaurs in possessing relatively long necks and smaller heads. They originally included only members of the family Pliosauridae, of the order Plesiosauria, but several other genera and families are now also included, the number and details of which vary according to the classification used. The distinguishing characteristics are a short neck and an elongated head, with larger hind flippers compared to the fore flippers, the opposite of the plesiosaurs. They were carnivorous and their long and powerful jaws carried many sharp, conical teeth. Pliosaurs range from 4 to 15 metres and more in length. Their prey may have included fish, sharks, i ...
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Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of Norway. Bouvet Island, located in the Subantarctic, is a dependency of Norway; it also lays claims to the Antarctic territories of Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land. The capital and largest city in Norway is Oslo. Norway has a total area of and had a population of 5,425,270 in January 2022. The country shares a long eastern border with Sweden at a length of . It is bordered by Finland and Russia to the northeast and the Skagerrak strait to the south, on the other side of which are Denmark and the United Kingdom. Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. The maritime influence dominates Norway's climate, with mild lowland temperatures on the se ...
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Svalbard Islands
Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range from 74° to 81° north latitude, and from 10° to 35° east longitude. The largest island is Spitsbergen, followed by Nordaustlandet and . The largest settlement is Longyearbyen. The islands were first used as a base by the whalers who sailed far north in the 17th and 18th centuries, after which they were abandoned. Coal mining started at the beginning of the 20th century, and several permanent communities were established. The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 recognizes Norwegian sovereignty, and the 1925 Svalbard Act made Svalbard a full part of the Kingdom of Norway. They also established Svalbard as a free economic zone and a demilitarized zone. The Norwegian Store Norske and the Russian remain the only mining companies in place. Re ...
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Jørn Hurum
Jørn Harald Hurum (born November 4, 1967) is a Norwegian paleontologist and popularizer of science. He is a vertebrate paleontologist and holds an Associate Professor position at the Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo. He has studied dinosaurs, primitive mammals and plesiosaurs. Media Hurum is known as a popularizer of science with a high media profile. He is the author of the book ''Menneskets utvikling'' ("The Evolution of Man") and the host of the segment ''Jørns hjørne'' ("Jørn's Corner") on the popular-science program "Newton" on Norwegian television. He also co-hosts the radio program ''Hurum og Ødegaard'' ("Hurum and Ødegaard") with astrophysicist Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard on Norwegian radio. In 2001, Hurum was awarded Oslo University's "Formidlingspris," an award for the popularization of science, which he shared with Hans Arne Nakrem and Geir Søli. He was awarded the prize again in 2009 for his work publicizing "Ida", the ''Darwinius'' find. ...
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University Of Oslo
The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world and as one of the leading universities of Northern Europe; the Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked it the 58th best university in the world and the third best in the Nordic countries. In 2016, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings listed the university at 63rd, making it the highest ranked Norwegian university. Originally named the Royal Frederick University, the university was established in 1811 as the de facto Norwegian continuation of Denmark-Norway's common university, the University of Copenhagen, with which it shares many traditions. It was named for King Frederick VI of Denmark and Norway, and received its current name in 1939. The university was commonly nicknamed "The Royal Frederick ...
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Predator X
''Pliosaurus'' (meaning 'more lizard') is an extinct genus of thalassophonean pliosaurid known from the Kimmeridgian and Tithonian stages (Late Jurassic) of Europe and South America. Their diet would have included fish, cephalopods, and marine reptiles. This genus has contained many species in the past but recent reviews found only six (''P. brachydeirus'', ''P. carpenteri'', ''P. funkei'', ''P. kevani'', ''P. rossicus'' and ''P. westburyensis'') to be valid, while the validity of two additional species awaits a petition to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Currently, ''P. brachyspondylus'' and ''P. macromerus'' are considered nomen dubium, dubious, while ''P. portentificus'' is considered undiagnostic. Most species of ''Pliosaurus'' reached in length and in body mass, while ''P. rossicus'' and ''P. funkei'' may have reached or even exceeded in length and in body mass, being the largest plesiosaurs of all time. Species of this genus are differentiated from othe ...
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Pliosaurus
''Pliosaurus'' (meaning 'more lizard') is an extinct genus of thalassophonean pliosaurid known from the Kimmeridgian and Tithonian stages (Late Jurassic) of Europe and South America. Their diet would have included fish, cephalopods, and marine reptiles. This genus has contained many species in the past but recent reviews found only six (''P. brachydeirus'', ''P. carpenteri'', ''P. funkei'', ''P. kevani'', ''P. rossicus'' and ''P. westburyensis'') to be valid, while the validity of two additional species awaits a petition to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Currently, ''P. brachyspondylus'' and ''P. macromerus'' are considered dubious, while ''P. portentificus'' is considered undiagnostic. Most species of ''Pliosaurus'' reached in length and in body mass, while ''P. rossicus'' and ''P. funkei'' may have reached or even exceeded in length and in body mass, being the largest plesiosaurs of all time. Species of this genus are differentiated from other pliosaurids ...
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Plesiosaur
The Plesiosauria (; Greek: πλησίος, ''plesios'', meaning "near to" and ''sauros'', meaning "lizard") or plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared in the latest Triassic Period, possibly in the Rhaetian stage, about 203 million years ago. They became especially common during the Jurassic Period, thriving until their disappearance due to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous Period, about 66 million years ago. They had a worldwide oceanic distribution, and some species at least partly inhabited freshwater environments. Plesiosaurs were among the first fossil reptiles discovered. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, scientists realised how distinctive their build was and they were named as a separate order in 1835. The first plesiosaurian genus, the eponymous ''Plesiosaurus'', was named in 1821. Since then, more than a hundred valid ...
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Kronosaurus
''Kronosaurus'' ( ; meaning "lizard of Kronos") is a potentially dubious genus of extinct short-necked pliosaur. With an estimated length of , it was among the largest pliosaurs, and is named after the leader of the Greek Titans, Kronos. It lived in the Early Cretaceous period (Aptian to Late Albian).Hampe O. 1992. Ein großwüchsiger Pliosauride (Reptilia: Plesiosauria) aus der Unterkreide (oberes Aptium) von Kolumbien. ''Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg'' 145: 1–32.Kear BP. 2003Cretaceous marine reptiles of Australia: a review of taxonomy and distribution ''Cretaceous Research'' 24: 277–303. Fossil material has been recovered from the Toolebuc Formation (middle to late Albian) and Wallumbilla Formations (Aptian) of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia. Discovery In 1899, Andrew Crombie of Hughenden discovered a "scrap of bone" containing six conical teeth, and gave this fragmentary fossil to the Queensland Museum. Twenty-five years later, then-director He ...
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National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of world culture and history. The National Geographic Society's logo is a yellow portrait frame—rectangular in shape—which appears on the margins surrounding the front covers of its magazines and as its television channel logo. Through National Geographic Partners (a joint venture with The Walt Disney Company), the Society operates the magazine, TV channels, a website, worldwide events, and other media operations. Overview The National Geographic Society was founded on 13 January 1888 "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge". It is governed by a board of trustees whose 33 members include distinguished educators, business executives, ...
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2000s American Television Specials
S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. History Origin Northwest Semitic šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative (as in 'ip'). It originated most likely as a pictogram of a tooth () and represented the phoneme via the acrophonic principle. Ancient Greek did not have a phoneme, so the derived Greek letter sigma () came to represent the voiceless alveolar sibilant . While the letter shape Σ continues Phoenician ''šîn'', its name ''sigma'' is taken from the letter ''samekh'', while the shape and position of ''samekh'' but name of ''šîn'' is continued in the '' xi''. Within Greek, the name of ''sigma'' was influenced by its association with the Greek word (earlier ) "to hiss". The original name of the letter "sigma" may have been ''san'', but due to the complic ...
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