I was looking at cryptozoology.cm and someone posted a new picture of a Diplocaulus. It is a Salamander that has a hammer shaped head, and was supposed to have died out in the Triassic era!? I don't get it at all. If its photoshoped it is perfect! Well heres the picture.



Hmmm.... This is so pecular that its going to be bugging e for the next few days.

wow, if that is a photo shop then lucas films needs to snatch that guy\girl up

could be real, wouldnt be the first "extinct" animal found just wandering around

nice find darkside

Yeah it wouldn't but the oldest know living fossil I know about is the ceolacanth and that was alive in the late jurrasic and throughout the cretacious periods, this on the other had cam from the triassic which was before the other 2...

Remember the coalacanth? Ancient spceties are showing up all the time. But this could be a well made moddle.

No it is to life like to be a model I have had pet salamanders to and that is exactly what they look like except smaller and without the crest.

And for your other statement read my above post.

look at the picture, the detail is amazing, you can see the rib cage definition, the spine definition, the head, its amazing, i have to say its real, and if its fake, i definately want to shake the persons hand who made it

the only thing is i cant see any gills, so its either air breathing, or obsorbs air through the skin like some frogs

Iv'e been to the drumheller tyrell museum and they have a life like display with a creature EXACTY like this. It even breaths(moves up and down) with anamatronics. Thsi is not the same one but looks like an exact replica. It's not an easy thing to make but posiable.

I do think that it is a real creature and not a hoax.

Diplocaulus (Hammerhead or Boomerang Salamander)

http://www.cyberspacemuseum.com/diplocaulus.html

Good luck and blessings, Prana

Ok thanks I knew it had a name I just took a wild guess because I didn't want to go a search any stuff up.... Me and my lazyness...

NO WAY that could be fake! It is too realistic. Just look at the shape of its tail. It also fit in bowl and no one would really waste much time or moneys to make that stuff for no reason. It must be real.

I hope they put it on endangered list and protect it so they can reproduce it and observe it. That salamnder is neat though

i want one!





if its photoshopped, its absolutely perfect.

It does look to real to be a fake. I hope it is

Wow, that little critter is amazing! I want one as a pet! Or maybe an evil minion...

wow look at that things head, why does it need a head shaped like that?, is there a reason for it to be that shape, does it help it swim/hunt/hide or anything, its really odd looking though, and a great picture

by the way i don't think its fake

I would hazard a guess as to it having something to do with swimming. Could be a number of things though.

are these animals thought to be extinct?

few pictures for you, don't know if they are real or models though...

OMG THAT'S CUTE.

Great find, if it is a fake it is one fantastic job!

it definantly looks real. my mama loves diplocaulus, she printed it and is getting it framed, to hang on the wall.


oh really? thats an interesting take on it......

Mr. halo the ones you posted are models that are in mueseums.. I would won't one as a pet too. I think the crests were made of solid bone and were for defense but they all so look like they are hydrodynamic and would help it swim a great deal faster.

Resembles a hammer head shark by sorts.

Hmm... I think its head looks more like a boomerang.

Maybe aboriginal peoples of australia found a fossil of it and invented the boomerang

the two points on both sides of the head arent crests, but un-interrupted extentions of the skull bones, ie, completely part of the creatures head. rather fragile bones at that, not solid at all, and definantly not for combat. the current accepted idea is that they were for swimming, by facing into the current and angling its head up or down, the hydrodynamics would steer the critter that way quickly with almost no effort on its part other than holding its head steady. its similar to the principle of lift in airplane wings, and it may have helped with speed also.

Ok thanks mud, I wasn't really saying that they were there to attract mates only or somthing, and that they grew but I couldn't think of another way to put it.

i just wish there was a story behind the pic i would love to hear about where now it was found, if they are keeping it as a pet or if they killed it, whats the deal???

Why would they kill it!?

simple, because some people are stupid

That's an awful terribly good point.

unfortunately it is,

its like my sig says,
its a shame stupidity isnt painful

i think its just a toy/model. if you look at the toes, they look like cut plastic or something

Nethius i'm sorry to tell you but that is what salamander and newt's toes look like, and there is far to much detail on it to be a childs toy...

Ok well I was just talking to my friend, who is by luck an amatuer palientologist. He said that this is indeed a Diplocaulus but it is not one, but a direct desendant. He says that they are a rare species of amphibian. He also said that there are "live" specimens at the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta. I will find out more after The Doctor of palientolgy of vertabrates e-mails me back.

Most of the cryptozoologists at Cryptozoology.com are convinced this is nothing more than a model, a nice one but nothing more. It should also be noted that the animal in question was not a salamander, so you can't really say that it's real because it "looks like a salamander".

"To clarify something for those reading this post, Diplocaulus (with other "boomerang-head" amphibians of the order Nectridea, as Diploceraspis) are not salamanders. All extant amphibians (anurans, caecilians, & urodeles) are grouped as Lissamphibians, while nectridians (late Carboniferous [lower Pennsylvanian] to lower Permian) are an aquatic group of the Lepospondyls - a certain labyrinthodont group of which probably gave rise to the Urodela. Rather than the metamorphic life progression generally shared by the Lissamphibia, it is believed that nectrideans utilized a two-stage 'saltation' ontogeny."

Look at the site under "hammerhead salamander". Most (but not all) of the cryptozoologists think it's a hoax.

I have kept quite a few salamanders a newts as pets and I have to say this imay could be a salamander or well more likley a newt. I say a newt because this specimen has no costal grooves and seems to be more developed for life in water at adult hood. Salamanders are very amazing creatures some species even have a ploidity of 16 which means that they have 8 sets of chromosomes. We are diploid we have 1 set. With some species containing all of those who knows what could happen mutation wise wether it be natural or artificial.

Welcome to UM Atreyu, though i'll have to warn you, that reviving topics more than a year old is not generally considered cosher.

Regardless, this anceint topic covered a very well done fake, though it is not a salamander or newt. It was a model of a prehistoric amphibian whose name I can never recall.

Joel.

+1. Cool, but fake.

Diplocaulus is the name. Please stop reviving dead threads.

I guess if the expert cryptozoologists say it's a fake, then it is probably a fake...but I gotta say, with how well done it is, it would've fooled me.

It's a clever fake! A very nice model, though!

A HELL OF A MODEL AT THAT!

wow it looks so real.. like the newt being held in the hand it has the slimy/shiny textture to it... hah very well done.

AAAHH Why do people keep saying dont revive dead threads? If you are new here and/or have not read it, then it is not dead to them. I dont mean to be rude ( and I dont mean just you capoeiranger, but everybody who complains about older threads) but if it is a thread you have read and are bored with then, well, very simply, Don't read it again. I never saw this before and have enjoyed reading it. ( Fake or not) Sorry I really don't mean to be rude.

TOUCHE GOOD SIR.

I also agree with almost every other post made in this topic. It is an excellent fake. I posted this topic several years ago, thinking it was real then, I still would believe it to be real. I even went as far as e-mailing the Royal Tyrell Museum in the Alberta Badlands to ask about its possible authenticity.

This is what someone in the image gallery said:

cheesemonkeyhobo posted on Dec 04, 2004 at 07:12 PM
It was proven to be fake. A model maker from Japan created this. But someone took the picture from the modeler's site and re-released it causing a people to belive this is real.
But this animal was real at one time.

I think it is probably a model too.

Thank you, however I am a Lady.

It is very realistic. They did a good job. I wish it was real, I'd get one for a pet cause it's so cute.

Naaah..it's alright. I've read this thread almost a year ago anyway. I was just doing them a favor before the mods warn them in. I've seen once that one of the mods remind a certain member not to necropost. It was on the rules also when you sign up for the first time. Don't worry, I won't remind anyone again. I'll let the MODS do their job.

Hmm. I checked the rules and could not find a rule against it. Maybe they changed it.

^Maybe, let's not talk about it any further, shall we? I have proposed my apology. What else do you want from me? Let's go back to the topic itself. I know it was a toy, though.

No it isn't photoshopped. It is a model that a kid made for class. He admitted to it.