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| Slot: |
What Birds Mean To Me |
| Origin/Country: |
CANADA - 1968 TO DATE |
| Design Description: |
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| Item Description: |
S$15 2018 Scallop Blessings of Harmony Gilt |
| Grade: |
NGC PF 70 ULTRA CAMEO |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
Since I started this set, I wanted to find a coin that I could include where I tell everyone what birds mean to me to provide some insight into myself and my reasons for building this set of coins. It absolutely was not some random idea I had one day. There has been a lot of thought, time and emotion that has gone into this project.
This coin is entitled “Blessings of Harmony” and that is very fitting for one of the main things that birds mean to me. I’m not a religious person at all, and I do not believe in any gods or any higher powers aside from one. However, this does not mean that I am not a spiritual person as the one higher power I do revere is nature itself, the one higher power that is absolutely proven to exist. Nature gives me feelings of awe, respect, harmony, wonder and love. And of all of the elements of nature that I am privileged to experience every day that I live, birds are some of the most amazing to me. As superbly evolved living dinosaurs, birds are the most numerous and visible remains of the Mesozoic Era that are left on our planet. As such, they are also the most visible and numerous representatives left of the Earth from the time before we humans were on it. They are one of the last pieces of an Earth that disappeared 66 million years ago, a planet that would be alien to us in many ways and one that has left us a few tantalizing clues, both living and dead, that inspire and fascinate us. Simply put, birds are ambassadors of an amazing chapter of our planet’s distinct history that is over and no longer exists.
To me, the true history of the Earth and the story of this beautiful blue sphere we call home is far more amazing and inspiring than any fable or theology that has been created by humans. When I need harmony in my life, chapters of this true and amazing epic tale are always where I turn and they always deliver. Of all of the players of Earth’s history, dinosaurs have always been the most captivating to me, even from the time I was a child. As I stated in the introduction to this set, one of my dreams from my childhood was to see a living dinosaur. Of course, as a child, I thought that I would never achieve this dream. However, with advances in scientific knowledge, birds have allowed me to achieve this dream simply by existing. Realizing that birds were legitimate, living theropod dinosaurs was an absolute miracle for me, one that continues to fill me with awe and wonder over four years after the initial scientific papers that announced this discovery were published.
So, what do birds mean to me? Simply put, they mean everything to me. They are a huge part of my life. Not a day goes by where I don’t think about or go look at some birds. I love almost all living things (there are a few species of mammal that I dislike, most notably dogs, rodents and opossums.), but birds are magical. These flying dinosaurs represent so many different things to so many different people. They are national emblems, they represent freedom and mobility, they inspire awe, respect and tranquility and they remind us that there was a life filled Earth before us, and there will be one after us. They represent resilience and overcoming massive adversity as they survived the holocaust that was the first years of the Paleogene. More importantly, they not only survived, they thrived to the point where dinosaurs are still the most numerous and successful group of tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates, basically all vertebrates aside from fish) on the planet. Through the very fact of their existence, birds tell us that even in the worst of times, life goes on and things will get better.
I hope that this essay has shown you what birds mean to me and has shown you the depth of my love and respect for them. I hope that by viewing this collection, I impart some of what I feel every time I see a bird to you and that it shows how amazing and precious all life forms are. We never know the next secret that life on Earth will reveal to us. We on this planet are all interconnected and we are all a part of nature. We are all related, even though those relations may be very distant and buried in the primordial past, and we are all needed. We humans have a unique ability among all extant animals. We can reason. We can observe nature and hopefully revere it. We can discern the true history of our planet and hopefully use this true history to replace archaic folk tales and superstition, which not only benefits the Earth but also benefits us as well. We alone can take steps to care for the Earth and all of the other life forms that we share it with.
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| Slot: |
Dove Family |
| Origin/Country: |
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| Design Description: |
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| Item Description: |
S1P AH1400//1979 EGYPT MOHAMMED'S FLIGHT 1400TH ANNIVERSARY |
| Grade: |
NGC MS 64 |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
When one thinks about theropod dinosaurs, typically a vicious predator comes to mind, but this coin shows a different side to modern dinosaurs. I'm not certain of the exact species of dove represented on this coin, but a little about doves anyhow.
Doves have long been a symbol of peace and tranquility. The dove and pigeon family is the Columbidae, and includes over 300 species so this coin is going to be tough to get specific with. The name dove tends to refer to the smaller members of the family, while pigeons are the larger members. All members of this family have relatively small heads and bills with short legs on a robust body with large wings, giving them a unique profile and appearance among modern dinosaurs. The fossil record for this group goes back to the Miocene, which lasted from 23.3 to 15.97 million years ago.
Members of this family vary greatly in size. The largest member is the turkey-sized Crowned Pigeon and the smallest are the ground doves, which are the size of the House Sparrow. The Columbidae also have a unique feature in that they lack gall bladders, but secrete gall directly in the gut. They have a near global distribution, living in all areas aside from the Sahara Desert, the high Arctic and the Antarctic. This wide range of habitats as well as high adaptability have led feral pigeons, descendants of domesticated doves and pigeons, to becoming a major avian pest in many urban areas.
This coin shows a mated pair in a nest with eggs. Many species in this family, as with many other species of avians, mate for life and have complex child rearing behaviors. These same types of complex child-rearing and nesting behaviors seem to have been the norm with many non-avian theropods during the Mesozoic Era as well. One interesting feature of this family is the use of crop milk to feed their young. Crop milk is a protein rich secretion made in the bird's crop, an enlargement of the upper esophagus otherwise used to store food. This crop milk bears little resemblance to mammalian milk, being much thicker. Caring for the young, known as squabs in this family, is a job undertaken by both parents. Depending on the species, the young leave the nest in 7 to 28 days.
I love this coin, which was a gift from my girlfriend, because it shows modern dinosaurs exhibiting nesting behavior, which is a distinctive trait among all theropod families, and is one of the major behavioral links which allowed scientists to determine that our feathered friends are actually modern dinosaurs.
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| Slot: |
Marabou Stork |
| Origin/Country: |
GERMANY - MODERN 2 |
| Design Description: |
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| Item Description: |
S10M 1984A E. ALFRED BREHM |
| Grade: |
NGC PF 65 ULTRA CAMEO |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
This coin depicts one of the most formidable and powerful of all modern dinosaurs, the Marabou Stork, species name Leptoptilos crumenifer.
When I first bought this coin, I thought the stork on the coin actually looked cute. I was wrong, oh so very wrong. The Marabou Stork is not cute. Rather, it is a mind-numbing horror of a dinosaur with a height of 5 feet, a 12 foot wingspan, a maximum weight of up to 20 pounds and a head like a spear. They are black and white in coloration with a bald, pink head. There is no sexual dimorphism among Marabous. Both sexes look exactly the same and one would have to watch their breeding behavior or genetically test them to determine gender. Their heads are bald because they are frequently covered in blood, entrails and other pieces of animals. Adding to its intimidation factor, it is extremely ill tempered and quick to attack. While it is often viewed as a scavenger, the Marabou Stork is also a highly efficient and extremely vicious predator. Marabou Storks will destroy and consume any animal that they can overpower and impale with their spear-like beak, from other birds to crocodile hatchlings and juveniles and anything made of meat in between. They have even been noted killing and eating full grown pelicans and flamingos.
And onto Marabous raising young....These modern dinosaurs live up to all of the terror inducing power of their ancestors when raising young. As parents, they move from ill-tempered to a level of extreme aggression bordering on emotional and psychological disturbance. If a Marabou Stork parent thinks you are a threat to its young, it will do its very best to destroy you. And with its size and that huge, razor sharp beak, it can make a very good attempt. These guys can actually kill you if you threaten them or their young. Do not doubt this. Marabou Storks are one of the most dangerous living dinosaurs. A Marabou Stork can fight off, seriously injure or kill most animals in its ecosystem, really only having to fear full grown Nile Crocodiles and Hippopotami. They can be fought off by Shoebills, another large and powerful modern dinosaur that rightly views Marabous as a threat. Typically, these fights between Shoebills and Marabous end without injury to either combatant as Marabous are, for some reason, fairly quick to retreat from an encounter with a Shoebill. Adding to the already nightmarish Marabou scenario is the fact that though Marabou Storks are monogamous animals that keep the same mate for their whole lives, they nest communally and they protect their young the same way. If you want to have the Jurassic Park experience, go mess with a baby Marabou Stork. You'll have a pack of very large, angry and violent modern theropods running after you with murderous intent in no time. Marabou Storks can live for between 25 and 41 years.
Adding to the horror is what Marabou Storks do to the nests of other modern dinosaurs. They will fly up into trees as a group and just destroy whole nesting colonies, first killing and ingesting the parents before moving on to devour all of the nestlings and eggs. I saw a video of this recently and it was honestly the first time I saw an animal exhibit a natural behavior that disturbed me.
Marabou Storks are one of the modern dinosaurs that have actually benefitted from human habitation and have evolved behaviors to take advantage of these benefits. Marabou Storks heavily colonize human landfills all across the African continent, eating all sorts of putrid refuse. They also walk through towns and villages, looking for garbage, vermin and any house pets unlucky enough to get in their way. There have been cases of people feeding Marabous. This is extremely stupid to do. If a Marabou Stork comes to associate a person with food and that person doesn't have any, the stork will likely attack them. This is definitely a modern dinosaur that needs to be experienced and respected from a safe distance.
While the Marabou Stork is nothing short of a living, walking and flying Mesozoic nightmare, it is also a vital member of its ecosystem. Nicknamed the Undertaker Stork due to its scavenging and killing habits, Marabous clean up many carcasses across the African wilderness. Marabou Storks, with their large size and immense strength, can often open carcasses that other scavengers cannot, so these ghoulish storks which deal out so much death and destruction also provide opportunities for life for other scavengers. However, these other scavengers have to wait until the Marabous are done feeding to reap this benefit if they don't want to end up as a part of the Marabou's dinner along with the carrion.
The Marabou Stork has also found its way into the lore of many African cultures, typically as either a harbinger of death or, in many cases, the embodiment of death itself. In some of these cultures, a Marabou Stork, in the role of the embodiment of death, is the final judge of a deceased person's actions and life and decides the fate of their essence or soul. It's interesting to contemplate that in some cultures, the Marabou's relative the White Stork is the bringer of new life in the form of infants while the Marabou ends life and is the final judge of the deceased. In a way, these mythical roles taken by these two storks mirror nature itself, with life and death being parts of the same family and cycle.
In closing, I think a small handicraft I saw online sums up this formidable theropod best.......this stork doesn't deliver babies. It delivers nightmares. Horrible, scarring nightmares.
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| Slot: |
Golden Eagle |
| Origin/Country: |
GERMANY - STATES 3 |
| Design Description: |
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| Item Description: |
3M 1913A PRUSSIA - NAPOLEON DEFEAT |
| Grade: |
NGC MS 63 |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
In the Golden Eagle (species name Aquila chrysaetos), we once again have a formidable predator among modern theropods. These dark brown eagles can grow to over 3 feet in length with a wingspan of almost 8 feet and a weight between 8 and 20 pounds. They are one of the most familiar, common and best known raptors in the Northern Hemisphere. This eagle ranges across most of the Holarctic if visiting and breeding ranges are considered.
In all ecosystems the Golden Eagle calls home, it is a formidable and preeminent apex predator. It is a generalist feeder, generally consuming any animal that it can bring down. Its prey can range in size and content from hares and squirrels up to deer, wolves and other hoofed mammals and canids. As far as animals that prey upon it, there really are none, though in parts of its Asian range, Golden Eagles often fight with Steller's Sea Eagles over prey and territory. Rarely, these fights can be fatal for one or both combatants. While the coin pictures a decent depiction of a Golden Eagle, that depiction is out of scale as most snakes would be tiny compared to the size of the bird. Further, the Golden Eagle is a Northern Hemisphere animal. The possibility of it meeting a snake that would make the coin's depiction in scale, such as a python or boa constrictor, is very unlikely. Most snakes that a Golden Eagle would encounter wouldn't make much of a meal for it and it's unlikely that one would waste its time hunting such a snake unless food was very scarce. Though it is a generalist predator, mammals are the Golden Eagle's preferred prey.
The Golden Eagle's hunting technique is quite amazing and has taught us much about how its closest extinct theropod relatives may have hunted. It also shows their high intelligence. Golden Eagles soar and scan the ground, seeking potential prey animals. Once the eagle finds a good potential prey item, it swoops down at the animal, often herding the animal using strategic advances and retreats so that the prey animal thinks it has a real chance to escape the eagle. The eagle uses this technique to move the prey animal to an ideal spot for the eagle to make the final death blow.....a strike on the neck and shoulder region of the prey animal with its massively strong feet, which each have four talons which can be up to two and a half inches long. Smaller prey animals, such as hares and squirrels, die almost instantly from one strike. Large prey items require a slightly different approach. When taking down a prey animal like a deer or a wolf, the Golden Eagle does what is called prey-riding. The eagle literally rides the prey animal, flapping its wings for stability, while continuing to dig its talons deeper into the prey until it causes paralysis by breaking the spine or death due to blood loss or organ failure. Smaller prey are typically swallowed whole while the eagle (or eagles if it is a mated pair or a pair cooperatively hunting) will strip the flesh from larger prey, leaving little aside from a bloody skeleton. Golden Eagles are also very adaptable when it comes to hunting strategies. They have been observed hunting in pairs or groups to tackle larger prey and herding larger prey animals toward cliffs, allowing the fall to do much of the work for them. They have even been videotaped dragging mountain goats off of cliffs directly and killing them that way.
The hunting technique of Golden Eagles has changed the way that paleontologists hypothesize that dromaeosaurs and extinct avialans hunted. Most of the extinct dinosaurs in those groups had large retractable talons on the second toes, which were assumed to be slashing weapons for many years. The realization that birds are dinosaurs has changed that view. The view now held is that these extinct dinosaurs hunted in a similar way to Golden Eagles, swooping on the prey if they could fly and jumping on it if they were flightless, and the large claw was used to prey-ride the prey animal in a manner similar to that still used by the Golden Eagle while flapping their wings for stability. It is further theorized that this prey-riding by early feathered theropods who could not fly may have been an essential step in the evolution of flight among dinosaurs.
The Golden Eagle isn't all blood-soaked genius dinosaur inflicted animal murder. It has a complex family life. Golden Eagles mate for life, with a matriarchal social structure. Upon reaching maturity at about 5 years, golden eagles choose their mates. Males undertake courtship displays and are either accepted or rejected by the female. If there are no other interested females, there is no violence involved. If there is a dispute between females over a male, there can be violent battles. This is the time of greatest mortality risk for female golden eagles. Golden Eagles typically have one or two chicks and are devoted parents. They see to their chicks' every need and defend them ferociously from any and all threats. Typically, two chicks can and do co-exist with one another, but there are incidences of siblicide if the older chick is female, though it is rare compared to siblicide in other bird species. Male chicks are rarely siblicidal. The young are born white, fuzzy and helpless. They begin to fledge at about 25 days old, with brown and white feathers replacing the down, this process is completed at around 75 days old. The white feathers are slowly replaced by more brown feathers as Golden Eagles mature. At around 80 days after completing fledging, young golden eagles begin hunting their own prey, though they may stay near their parents for a considerable time after this, up to the full five years it takes to reach full maturity. Golden Eagles can live for up to 60 years.
The Golden Eagle is one of my favorite modern dinosaurs. The fact that they are becoming quite common in my area in the summers and that they are essentially a flying dromaeosaur is absolutely amazing to me. Because of the Golden Eagle, the ecosystem where I live still has a dinosaur as the apex predator. They are also extremely beautiful and intelligent animals that, if you live in the right area, are easy to see and observe. This is an animal that deserves admiration and respect.
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| Slot: |
Red Junglefowl |
| Origin/Country: |
TUVALU |
| Design Description: |
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| Item Description: |
S50C 2017P YEAR OF THE ROOSTER COLORIZED-EARLY RELEASES |
| Grade: |
NGC PF 69 ULTRA CAMEO |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
After the ferocity of the Marabou Stork and the Golden Eagle, it's a nice time to change direction and take a look at a gentler modern dinosaur. The Red Junglefowl (Species name Gallus gallus) brings us to what is and is likely to remain the most adorable dinosaur coin ever made and my favorite dinosaur coin in my whole collection.
The Red Junglefowl is a tropical fowl, native to Southeast Asia. There are 6 different subspecies of the Red Junglefowl, five of which range wild across their Southeast Asian range. As for the sixth...that's covered at the end of this essay. Unlike some other species, the Red Junglefowl is a very vocal bird, with different vocalizations for food, attracting a mate, and warning other Red Junglefowl to the appearance of predators. Red Junglefowl are gregarious animals that live together in flocks with a distinct "pecking order" with some members of the flock dominating the others. These dominant fowl get first access to food, water and other resources. Adding members to a flock of Red Junglefowl disrupts this established order and often leads to violence in the flock as the pecking order is re-established.
Red Junglefowl also exhibit sexual dimorphism. Males are usually larger and have longer tail feathers along with larger combs and wattles. Males are also more vibrantly and brightly colored than females as well. Males also have spurs on their legs, which they use for fighting other males over females and in defending their territory.
Unlike the previous dinosaurs in this collection, who are altricial and have young who are born helpless, Red Junglefowl are precocial, where the chicks are born ready to walk and interact with the environment on their own in a manner of hours. Though they are precocial, the chicks still require parental care and guidance for several weeks after hatching. And, as you can see from the coin, they are still all fuzzy and absolutely adorable! In contrast to the Golden Eagle, who are highly monogamous, Red Junglefowl are polygynous, with one or two males mating with several females in the flock. This strategy leads to high genetic diversity among the flocks.
Dietwise, Red Junglefowl are omnivorous, eating plant material, seeds, insects and small vertebrates such as mice and lizards. Their predators include birds of prey, large snakes and crocodilians and mammalian predators, including humans.
The coin itself is a departure from the other coins in that it shows a baby Red Junglefowl rather than a full grown example. Isn't he adorable? I think it's important to try to show dinosaur depictions from all life stages in this set as it is all part of the story......and fuzzy baby dinosaurs are just so cute!!!
The Red Junglefowl also holds an important place in human life and history. It is the wild ancestor of a very common modern dinosaur....the domestic chicken. The fact that this sweet little baby rooster appears on this coin is a testament to the place that the Red Junglefowl's domesticated descendant has played in human history. It found its way into the Chinese Zodiac as one of the most noble signs. However, it is important to note that the chicken exhibits some very different behaviors and is much less intelligent than the Red Junglefowl due to inbreeding by humans during the domestication process. For the purposes of this set, I decided that the Red Junglefowl is the right bird to discuss with this sweet baby rooster coin as it is the original model that nature and evolution intended and not the one that we ruined to serve our own purposes.....and in case you were wondering, no, I do not eat chicken :)
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| Slot: |
Bald Eagle |
| Origin/Country: |
United States |
| Design Description: |
MODERN COMMEMORATIVES |
| Item Description: |
50C 2008 S BALD EAGLE |
| Grade: |
NGC PF 69 ULTRA CAMEO |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
With the Bald Eagle (Species name Haliaeetus leucocephalus), we have another raptor and another baby dinosaur coin, keeping in theme with the two previous coins, but the Bald Eagle is a much different type of a predator than the Golden Eagle.
For starters, the Bald Eagle is a member of the Haliaeetus genus, which are the Sea Eagles. The Golden Eagle is an Aquila, or a true eagle. The Bald Eagle is, like most eagles, a rather large raptor with a wingspan that ranges from 5.9 to 7.5 feet, a length range from 28 to 40 inches and a weight range between 6.6 to 13.9 pounds. The "bald" in the Bald Eagle's name is from an archaic definition of the word meaning white headed rather than bare of integument, and was so named because of the striking white head found on adult specimens of the bird. The tail of adults is also bright white, while the body feathers are brown. Young Bald Eagles have what is sometimes described as a "messy" look to their plumage, being predominately brown with white streaking, gaining the white head and tail at maturity, at the age of five years. Though they can be confused for young Golden Eagles at a distance, young Bald Eagles have distinctive differences such as a legs which aren't fully feathered down to the feet, a stiffer wingbeat when flying and a black beak with a yellow tip, which turns yellow at maturity. The Bald Eagle has wide range within North America, the only continent it naturally inhabits. The Bald Eagle's habitat is along waterways with plenty of fish for prey and old growth trees for nesting.
As with most Sea Eagles, the majority of the Bald Eagle's diet is fish of various species. Fish comprises between 90 and 56 percent of the Bald Eagle's diet depending on the location of individual birds. Other prey items taken by Bald Eagles include waterbirds and aquatic mammals. The Bald Eagle is also a notorious kleptoparasite, always ready and willing to steal prey from other predators. The Bald Eagle, with its large size and ferocious nature, is capable of stealing kills from foxes, coyotes, bobcats, red-tailed hawks and peregrine falcons. They are also noted as being able to drive Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures away from carrion.
When the Bald Eagle is engaged in kleptoparasitism, it attacks the victim much more viciously than it would attack prey that it hunted and killed on its own and is typically very successful in driving the initial predator or predators away. Given that this behavior is a large part of Bald Eagle feeding strategy, it is nearly impossible to make a list of the various kinds of animals they may consume by stealing kills. On the other hand, Bald Eagles are dominated by Golden Eagles and bears in scavenging situations. Bald Eagles rarely try to steal kills from Golden Eagles as the Golden Eagle has a much stronger beak, is stronger on the ground and more aggressive than the Bald Eagle and can easily fight off a Bald Eagle attempting to steal a kill. Such a conflict would have a real chance of ending fatally for the Bald Eagle. However, bears are a different situation and Bald Eagles can steal food from bears occasionally if they're quick and catch the bear off-guard.
What they lack in size, ferocity and hunting prowess compared to the Golden Eagle is made up for by amazing flying strength. A Bald Eagle was sighted flying with a 15 pound deer fawn, the heaviest flying load ever verified for a flying bird of any species and an amazing feat, especially when the maximum weight of 13.9 pounds for a Bald Eagle is considered.
Like most raptors, Bald Eagles mate for life. They engage in spectacular aerobatic courtship displays, the most spectacular of which involves the mating pair locking talons and free-falling, separating right before hitting the ground. The Bald Eagle is female dominant like the Golden Eagle, but Golden Eagle female dominance is much more strict and violent. Bald Eagle mate selection rarely, if ever, results in violence between individuals. Bald Eagles also mate and nest earlier than all other North American raptors, with nest building or reinforcing taking place in February and egg laying taking place later in that same month. Most other raptors lay eggs in April or May, by comparison. Bald Eagles make huge nests which they use for many years. These nests can be 13 feet deep and weigh a metric ton, the largest tree nests known for any animal. Both parents take turns incubating the eggs and caring for the young. At least one parent is present at the nest almost 100% of the time.
Bald Eagles have 1 to 3 chicks a year. They typically have two chicks, which can usually coexist but there are rare instances of the older chick killing the younger one. This is typically if the older chick is female as male chicks rarely, if ever, engage in siblicidal behavior. Like the Golden Eagle, and as the coin shows, the young are born fuzzy and helpless but Bald Eagle babies are grey rather than white. Typically, two chicks survive to fledge at between 8 and 14 weeks of age and they leave their parents about 6 weeks after fledging is completed. An interesting thing about Bald Eagles is that they will occasionally adopt the fledglings of other raptor species into their nests and raise them alongside their own chicks. The reasons for this fascinating behavior are, at the present time, unknown. But if my inspiration for this modern dinosaur set has taught me anything, it's that we never know what amazing answers are waiting just around the corner. Bald Eagles typically live for between 20 and 38 years in the wild. The oldest known Bald Eagle was a captive who made it to 50 years of age.
This coin in the modern dinosaur collection also has a unique distinction in depicting an actual, living animal and not just a general depiction of a member of the species. This eagle is Challenger, who is depicted in profile ( and looking very theropod-y by the way) on the reverse of this great coin. Challenger is a non-releasable male Bald Eagle in the care of the American Eagle Foundation who is also the first Bald Eagle trained to free fly at events.
And, stating the obvious, the Bald Eagle is the national bird (or national dinosaur as I prefer to think of it) of the United States. But if Benjamin Franklin had gotten his way, it would not have been. Franklin had real issues with the kleptoparasitic nature of this modern theropod and favored the Wild Turkey instead. I can see how Franklin would find this behavior less than noble, but nature is nature and living beings evolve behaviors for a reason. I personally feel that this dinosaur is doing what it evolved to do, and it exhibits the rather charming and endearing behavior of adopting chicks of other species and raising them as their own. One cannot apply morality to nature. No matter how one feels about its behavior, there is no doubt that the Bald Eagle is a fascinating and beautiful example of a living dinosaur.
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| Slot: |
Great Blue Heron |
| Origin/Country: |
United States |
| Design Description: |
QUARTER DOLLARS - AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL, PROOF |
| Item Description: |
25C 2015 S SILVER BOMBAY HOOK |
| Grade: |
NGC PF 69 ULTRA CAMEO |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
With our next modern dinosaur, we’re going to get semi-aquatic! It’s time to splash around with the Great Blue Heron, species name Ardea herodias.
The Great Blue Heron is the third largest extant heron, after the Goliath Heron and the White Bellied Heron. The Great Blue Heron has a head to tail length range from 3 to 4.5 feet, a wingspan from 5.5 to 6.6 feet, a height from 3.75 to 4.5 feet and a weight from 4 to 7.9 pounds. The Great Blue Heron gets its name from its bluish-grey flight feathers. The grey part of the coloration is pigment derived, but the bluish hints are due to structural pigmentation. Our eyes see the bluish hints due to the way light refracts through the feathers. No theropod dinosaur, either known only from fossils or extant, has been discovered that can produce blue pigments.
Other coloration on Great Blue Herons includes red-brown thighs, a paired red-brown and black stripe up the flanks, a rusty grey neck with black and white streaking down the front and a nearly white face. Mature herons also have long plumes on the lower neck with additional plumes on the lower back during their breeding season. There is also an all-white population of Great Blue Herons in Florida and the Caribbean that is so strikingly different in appearance than other Great Blue Heron populations that these individuals were considered a separate species for years. There is currently an ongoing scientific debate whether this is true or not.
Great Blue Herons range across North America, though some populations may overwinter in northern South America as well. The northernmost and some eastern populations are migratory in the winter but not all populations migrate. It is actually not how the temperature affects the birds that spurs migration as Great Blue Herons are extremely hardy and cold resistant. It’s whether or not they have unfrozen flowing bodies of water to hunt in or not over the winter. Great Blue Herons can call almost any body of water home, provided they have prey and nesting grounds.
Great Blue Herons are predatory. They mainly prey on small fish, though they will also consume invertebrates, small amphibians, small mammals and small birds and other small reptiles. They mainly hunt by wading in the water, finding prey by sight and spearing it with their long, pointed and very sharp beak. Since they eat small prey, they typically swallow their prey whole. Great Blue Herons are typically solitary hunters, but they will occasionally hunt in groups when there is a large school of fish or some other gathering of a large group of prey animals. Great Blue Herons also exhibit considerable adaptability in their hunting strategy, with behaviors ranging from floating on the surface of the water and spearing prey, jumping in the water to ambush prey, hovering over the water and capturing prey and diving head first into the water to ambush prey
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Like the Marabou Stork, Great Blue Herons breed in colonies but these colonies are far less terrifying. These colonies, called heronies, are established in are that are difficult to reach on foot in order to protect the eggs and young from mammalian predators. Other waterbirds and even some raptors will also breed in these heronies for the protection they offer. While most raptors can easily fight off any mammalian predators threatening their young, the herony offers an environment where they don’t even have to worry about it. This symbiotic community makes the eggs and chicks of all involved quite safe. Unlike raptors, which mate for life, Great Blue Heron pairs are only monogamous for a single breeding season. They almost always choose different mates each season.
Great Blue Herons lay between three to six eggs asynchronously at two-day intervals and hatch asynchronously after being incubated for around 27 days each. Both parents incubate the eggs and care for the young. The young are fed by the parents by regurgitating food and there is some aggression and competition among the chicks, which can end in siblicidal behavior, though it is more common that all chicks survive but the oldest grows more quickly. Great Blue Herons grow quickly; by the time they are 45 days old, they weigh 86% of their adult weight. At the age of between 55 and 80 days, Great Blue Herons take their first flights. They stay with their parents for around 3 more weeks after this and then disperse on their own by the following winter. Great Blue Herons live for around 15 years.
Given its large size, strength and very long and sharp beak, a full grown Great Blue Heron has few predators. The only predators a full grown Great Blue Heron really has to worry about are Golden Eagles and Bald Eagles over the course of most of their range and American Alligators and American Crocodiles in the southern portion of their range. Young herons may be preyed upon by Red-Tailed Hawks and Harris Hawks as well. Raccoons, Turkey Vultures, Common Ravens and Black Bears will consume heron eggs when the opportunity presents itself, which is pretty rare. Full grown Great Blue Herons are very strong and will defend themselves ferociously if they are in danger. The Great Blue Heron is one of the few animals that has been seen successfully fighting off a full grown Golden Eagle, which is absolutely amazing when you think about the power and hunting prowess of the Golden Eagle.
The Great Blue Heron has a special place in my heart. Last year, I was having a somewhat bad time with things. One day, I came home and I went to get the mail out of our mailbox and I saw one of these guys standing in a creek near our house. He just stood there while I watched him and glanced at me but he didn’t fly away. He seemed to know that I meant him no harm and that I just wanted to watch him. He just kept looking for fish for a bit while I watched him. After a few minutes, there apparently weren’t any fish in the creek to his liking, so he glanced at me again and flew off to better hunting grounds. This heron immediately snapped me out of my bad mood and put a smile on my face. This interaction has always stuck with me and is a constant reminder of how amazing all living things are and how they deserve our admiration, care and respect.
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| Slot: |
Peregrine Falcon |
| Origin/Country: |
United States |
| Design Description: |
QUARTER DOLLARS - STATES & TERRITORIES - PROOF |
| Item Description: |
25C 2007 S SILVER IDAHO |
| Grade: |
NGC PF 69 ULTRA CAMEO |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
Yesterday (7/23/2017), I read a new study that announced that biomechanical studies done on Tyrannosaurus Rex skeletons have determined that Tyrannosaurus was something of a slowpoke, with a maximum speed of 17 MPH (To put this in perspective, the fastest humans max out at 28 MPH, and we’re certainly not hunters of large but fleet footed Ornithischian dinosaurs). This casts some doubt into the predatory abilities of this famous theropod. It’s looking like the dromaeosaurs and avialans were the true hunters of the Northern Hemisphere during the Cretaceous. I figured, in light of this new study, it was a good time to examine a modern dinosaur that is definitely a proficient hunter and lives life in the fast lane: The Peregrine Falcon, species name Falco peregrinus
The Peregrine Falcon is a strong contrast to its extinct slowpoke cousin. It is actually the fastest animal known to have ever existed, reaching speeds of up to 242 MPH when performing its hunting stoop, a high-speed aerial dive. It is also the world’s most widespread raptor, inhabiting all ice-free landmasses aside from New Zealand.
Peregrine Falcons are small but mighty. They range in length from 13-23 inches with a wingspan between 2.4 to 3.9 feet. As with most raptors, females are considerably larger than the males, with females weighing up to 50% more than the males. Males average less than 1.5 pounds while females average over 1.8 pounds. The back and the wings of the Peregrine Falcon are a bluish black to slate grey with a white to rusty underside that is barred with dark brown or black. They have a yellow cere (the part of the bill with the nostrils) and feet with a black beak and claws. There are 19 different subspecies of the Peregrine Falcon, which vary in coloration and size.
Peregrine Falcons differ from the two eagles discussed previously in some important feeding behaviors. The first is in prey selection. While the Golden Eagle primarily preys on mammals and the Bald Eagle preys on fish and whatever it can steal, the Peregrine Falcon is similar to prehistoric predatory dinosaurs in that it primarily preys on other dinosaurs. Common prey items for the Peregrine Falcon include pigeons, waterbirds, songbirds, waders and other small to medium size birds. It will even prey on some of the smaller falcons and hawks.
The hunting technique of the Peregrine Falcon is also different than those of the eagles and larger raptors. Peregrine Falcons search for prey by soaring or from a high perch. Once a suitable prey animal is sighted, the Peregrine Falcon pursues the prey animal until it gets in a good position to enter its stoop. Then it dives at the prey animal, hitting it mid-air at speeds of up to 242 MPH. The force behind this blow is absolutely devastating and is often fatal in and of itself. The Peregrine then grabs the prey animal in its talons. If the prey is dead, they will land and begin to eat. If the prey is not dead, they will drop the prey from the air and land, finishing the prey off with its beak, which has special “pseudo-teeth” on the sides for this purpose, allowing the Peregrine to sever the spinal cord and kill the prey. This killing with the beak rather than the feet is one of the differences that set falcons apart from other raptors.
The high-speed dive of the Peregrine Falcon has called for the evolution of traits to help the falcon itself deal with the stresses of moving at such a high speed. Notably, they have special nostril tubercules to protect their lungs from the air pressure encountered when making an aerial dive at over 200 MPH. Their nictitating membranes, a kind of third eyelid that most reptiles (as birds are a kind of dinosaur, they are classified as reptiles as well) have as do sharks, are also strengthened to protect the Peregrine’s eyes when making these dives. The Peregrine Falcon is superbly evolved for its role as a high-speed, aerial predator.
Peregrine Falcons mature at between two and three years of age. Like other raptors, Peregrine Falcons mate for life and they too have an elaborate courtship ritual. The male courts the female with a mix of aerial aerobatics, spirals and dives. When a female accepts a male as her mate, the male passes a prey animal he has caught and killed to the female in mid-air. She actually flies upside down for a bit in order to make this catch. While they are normally not territorial against members of their own species, Peregrine Falcons become territorial while nesting and raising young. Due to this, Peregrine nests are always at least a kilometer apart from one another, usually much more if the space is available.
Peregrine Falcons nest on cliffs, buildings and bridges. They are yet another example of an avian dinosaur that has used our changing of the environment to their advantage and many Peregrine Falcons live in our cities and towns. They will also occasionally ground nest. Both parents incubate the eggs, but the male only incubates during the day. Females are the only ones that incubate at night, and the reason for this behavior is presently unknown. Peregrine Falcons are capable of vicious defense when their nests, eggs or young are threatened. Ground-nesting parents have to defend eggs from mammalian threats including foxes, wolverines, felids, bears, wolves, and mountain lions. These mammalian predators typically do not cause much of a problem for Peregrine parents.
However, avian predators are a more serious threat. Herons, gulls and ravens will try to eat Peregrine eggs while other raptors, such as Golden Eagles, Bald Eagles, Snowy Owls and Great Horned Owls will attempt to eat young Peregrines. The small but mighty Peregrine is capable of holding its own against these larger raptors. Bald Eagles and Snowy Owls have both been confirmed to have been killed outright, at the nest, by Peregrine Falcon pairs in defense of their eggs and young. Golden Eagles, the raptor that is actually the least likely to prey on Peregrines and their young due to its mammal preference, have also been successfully fought off and they often come away with injuries from encounters with Peregrines. Some of these injuries have been found later to have been fatal to the Golden Eagle, an animal that can be from 8 to almost 10 times the weight of the Peregrine Falcon that is also a formidable predator of some very large animals such as deer and canids.
Peregrine pairs typically have one or two chicks after an incubation period of around 33 days. The young are born tiny, fuzzy, white and helpless with endearingly large feet. Both parents hunt and feed the chicks, which fledge between 42 and 46 days after hatching. They then remain with their parents for two more months before leaving on their own. Given the huge geographic range and large numbers of subspecies, breeding takes place at many different times of the year. Peregrine Falcons live for around 15.5 years.
The coin used to represent the Peregrine Falcon is my absolute favorite State Quarter. I’d also like to point out how dinosaur-like the Peregrine Falcon on the coin looks in profile in this depiction. This is a great coin to help make the connection between birds and their dinosaur kin and to, sadly, continue the dethronement of the Tyrannosaurus Rex (sorry Rexy, but I still love you even if you were slow!!)
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| Slot: |
Anhinga and Roseate Spoonbill |
| Origin/Country: |
United States |
| Design Description: |
QUARTER DOLLARS - AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL, PROOF |
| Item Description: |
25C 2014 S SILVER EVERGLADES |
| Grade: |
NGC PF 69 ULTRA CAMEO |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
With our next coin, we have two different modern dinosaurs to discuss: The Roseate Spoonbill (species name Platalea ajaja) and The Anhinga (species name Anhinga anhinga). I was unable to find the breadth of the information on these guys that I’ve been able to find on some of the other species, but that works to my advantage on this coin as I can comfortably cover two birds with one coin.
Both the Anhinga and the Roseate Spoonbill are water birds, living a semi-aquatic lifestyle much like the Great Blue Heron covered earlier. Both of these birds also share a similar range, ranging from the Gulf Coast of North America, the Caribbean and into South America. The Roseate Spoonbill is a decently sized modern theropod, with a length of 2.3 to 2.8 feet, a wingspan of 3.9 to 4.3 feet and a weight between 2.6 to 4 pounds. The Anhinga is sized in a similar range to the Roseate Spoonbill, with a length of around 3 feet, a wingspan of 3.7 feet and a weight between 2.3 to 3 pounds. The Anhinga is a glossy black green in coloration, with a black-blue tail that is also glossy. The Roseate Spoonbill is a pink color similar to flamingos and like flamingos, this pink coloration is derived from the carotenoid pigment canthaxanthin, which they derive from their diets. Without this diet derived pigment, Roseate Spoonbills are white in coloration.
Both the Anhinga and the Roseate Spoonbill are predatory, with the Anhinga preying upon fish and amphibians. The Roseate Spoonbill preys upon crustaceans, aquatic insects, frogs, newts and very small fish. The hunting strategies are different as well. The Anhinga is a diver, diving after prey head first and staying submerged for some length of time depending on the difficulty of their hunt. The Roseate Spoonbill hunts by moving its distinctive, spoon-shaped bill back and forth through the water and filtering out their small prey items. An interesting fact about the Anhinga is that, unlike most other water birds, its feathers are not waterproof. This feature evolved to aid the Anhinga in making its dives and staying submerged but it also means that an Anhinga cannot fly when wet. It has to wait for its feathers to dry in order to take flight. The Roseate Spoonbill, on the other hand, has waterproof feathers like most other water birds.
As of right now, I was unable to locate any breeding behavior information on either of these guys, but I’m going to keep researching. If I find it, I will add it here. However, both the Anhinga and the Roseate Spoonbill live for around 16 years. Information on predators of these birds was also lacking, but it is thought that they face predation from large avian predators like Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles and possibly Harpy Eagles in the South American part of their overlapped ranges.
On the coin, the Anhinga is the bird in the foreground and the Roseate Spoonbill is the bird in the background. Water birds are cool because they are one of the oldest families of dinosaurs still in existence. The oldest known dinosaur from the Euornithe group, which is the dinosaur group within the larger Avialae clade that modern birds belong to, is a water bird. Archaeornithura meemannae, which lived 130.7 million years ago in what is now northeastern China, looked similar to the Anhinga, though it was much smaller at 6 inches tall with shorter legs and a shorter beak. While the information I was able to locate on the Roseate Spoonbill and Anhinga was sparse compared to some of the other dinosaurs featured in this set, they still make excellent and fascinating additions to this collection of modern dinosaurs.
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| Slot: |
Puerto Rican Amazon |
| Origin/Country: |
United States |
| Design Description: |
QUARTER DOLLARS - AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL, PROOF |
| Item Description: |
25C 2012 S CLAD EL YUNQUE EARLY RELEASES |
| Grade: |
NGC PF 70 ULTRA CAMEO |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
Our next modern dinosaur is both the first parrot and the first entry in the set that is, sadly, endangered. Say hello to the Puerto Rican Amazon.
The Puerto Rican Amazon is a small parrot, with a length of 11 to 11.8 inches and a weight of between 8.8 to 10.6 ounces. Unlike many other theropod dinosaurs, both extant and those known from fossils, the Puerto Rican Amazon does not exhibit any sexual dimorphism. Males and females are the same size and both sexes are predominately green, with a yellow-green tail and structurally pigmented dark blue flight feathers and covert feathers. The only way to tell the difference between the sexes in this species is with a DNA test or by observing their behaviors during their breeding seasons, where males and females exhibit different behaviors. Even young Puerto Rican Amazons exhibit very similar coloration to the adults.
The Puerto Rican Amazon is also different from many of the modern dinosaurs in the set so far in that it is not a predator. These parrots are herbivores, feeding on fruits, flowers, bark, leaves and nectar obtained from plants in the canopy of the Puerto Rican Amazon’s old-growth forest habitat. They tend to select food items directly in front of them and they hold their food with one foot and consume it rather slowly. Puerto Rican Amazons are moderately fast fliers, with their top speed being 19 MPH.
In the time before European colonization, the Puerto Rican Amazon had a widespread distribution across the islands of Puerto Rico and an estimated population of between 100,000 and 1 million individuals. European colonization changed everything. As the human population of Puerto Rico increased, the old-growth forest habitat of the Puerto Rican Amazon was cleared to make room for human settlements and human crops. As suitable habitat for the Puerto Rican Amazon declined, its food sources declined as well. In an attempt to survive, Puerto Rican Amazons began feeding on human crops which led to humans killing them to protect their crops. The population was further harmed by humans taking young Puerto Rican Amazons as pets, which reduced the breeding population. By the 1950’s, there were only 200 Puerto Rican Amazons left in the wild and they were only found in the El Yunque National Forest. In 1968, conservation attempts were finally made. The Puerto Rican Amazon is recovering in captivity, but the recovery is proving to be slow. By 2012, there were over 300 individuals in captivity but only around 80 are left in the wild.
In spite of being very different in most areas from raptors, Puerto Rican Amazons share an important trait with them in that they mate for life. It is thought that they probably exhibit some complex pairing behaviors when forming a pair bond, but at the present time these behaviors are largely a mystery outside of pair dancing undertaken by new pairings as Puerto Rican Amazons are very secretive about their mating behaviors.
Puerto Rican Amazons reach maturity at four years of age. Most pairs breed once a year between January and July, the dry season in Puerto Rico. Actual mating seems to be spurred by food transfers between the mated pairs. The female then lays between two and four eggs which she incubates exclusively. The male feeds her via regurgitation while she is incubating the eggs. During this time, females only leave the nest rarely, such as an instance where both parents need to fight off a predator. Incubation typically lasts 24 to 28 days, after which the chicks hatch. After hatching, the chicks are fed by both parents until they leave the nest 60 to 65 days after hatching. After leaving the nest, Puerto Rican Amazons stay with their parents and travel with them until the next breeding season.
While Puerto Rican Amazons are normally social animals, as are most parrots, they become territorial about their nests during the breeding season. Also, while they are not typically aggressive, they are very aggressive when it comes to defending their nests and young. They are quite capable of damaging other Puerto Rican Amazon pairs and any predators when they are in the breeding season. Many herbivorous theropods retain the powerful jaws, claws and defense instincts of their predatory ancestors and kin and the Puerto Rican Amazon is one that does. Puerto Rican Amazons are mainly threatened by human activity but raptors will prey upon them as well. Their natural predators include the Red-Tailed Hawk, the Broad-Winged Hawk, the Peregrine Falcon and the Pearly-Eyed Thrasher. As the population in the wild is already so low, natural disasters such as hurricanes can be a major threat to this species as well.
I really like this coin. Not only does it have a depiction of an amazing modern dinosaur, there is also a Common Coqui, a tree frog that shares part of its range with the Puerto Rican Amazon but is not endangered. Along with many other types of animals, I also absolutely adore amphibians so I love having this cute little frog here as well. The Puerto Rican Amazon is a fascinating modern dinosaur that comes with a warning to us, humans, to consider what we are doing to the planet and the other beings forced to share it with us. If we aren’t careful and respectful of other life forms, they may be gone forever and the whole world loses when that happens.
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| Slot: |
Common Loon |
| Origin/Country: |
CANADA - 1968 TO DATE |
| Design Description: |
|
| Item Description: |
S$10 2017 COMMON LOON EARLY RELEASES |
| Grade: |
NGC PF 69 MATTE |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
The next modern dinosaur in the collection is one that is both familiar and one that breaks many of the rules for theropod dinosaurs in general: The Common Loon, species name Gavia immer.
The Common Loon is a rather large loon, with a length range of 27 to 36 inches and a wingspan range of 50 to 58 inches. They can range in weight from 7 to 9 pounds. The bird on the coin depicts the Common Loon in its breeding plumage, which is the same for both genders. When they are not breeding, Common Loons of both sexes are a greyish brown color. The only sexual dimorphism in the Common Loon is with size, and this is one of the areas where Common Loons are an exception to the general rules of theropod dinosaurs in that it is the male which is the larger gender instead of the female. Another distinguishing feature of the Common Loon is its heavy, dagger like beak. This beak is both a powerful hunting and defense tool, used to spear both prey and attackers depending on the situation.
Geographically, Common Loons range across Canada, Alaska and the very northernmost portion of the continental United States as well as Greenland in their breeding season and they overwinter along the coasts of North America, ranging as far south as Mexico along with areas of Northern Europe, such as the United Kingdom and Scandinavia.
Common Loons are divers, and to aid in making dives they break another theropod rule in having many solid bones in their skeletons to aid in staying down during dives. Aside from Common Loons, the only theropod dinosaurs to share this feature are a few other waterbirds, penguins, ostriches, emus and two non-avian aquatic theropod groups: the hesperornithes and the spinosaurids. Most theropod dinosaurs have mostly hollow bones, and indeed, this is a determining trait of the group.
Common Loons are predators who mainly feed on various species of fish, the exact listing of which varies by geographic location. They also feed on crustaceans, insect larvae, mollusks and occasionally small amounts of plant matter and the young of other waterbirds. Common Loons hunt by locating prey by sight and diving after it, using its powerful legs to propel it after the prey. Most small prey is swallowed whole underwater, where and when it is caught. Larger prey is brought to the surface and consumed in pieces. A Common Loon typically dives to depths between 13 to 33 feet when hunting, but they have been recorded making dives as deep as 230 feet. They are also very fast fliers, with a maximum speed of 75 MPH. As a sight-based hunter, clear water is vitally important to the Common Loon and water pollution has been responsible for Common Loons abandoning parts of their range in the continental United States.
As for animals that prey on adult Common Loons, there are only two: the now familiar pair of the Bald Eagle and the Golden Eagle. Of these two, the Bald Eagle is much more likely to prey on Common Loons due to their shared wetland habitats. Eggs of the Common Loon are preyed upon by gulls, corvids, raccoons, skunks, minks and foxes. Young Common Loons are also preyed upon by Snapping Turtles in addition to the two avian predators that prey upon adults.
Common Loons are monogamous, and they reach sexual maturity at two years of age. After reaching maturity, Common Loons breed annually. Unlike many other theropods, Common Loons have a very simple courtship process, consisting of mutual bill-dipping and dives. Breeding for Common Loons begins in May, with both members of a breeding pair building a 22-inch-wide nest out of marsh grasses and other plant matter. The pair defends a breeding territory that ranges in size from 60 to 200 acres and they patrol it frequently and defend it viciously……that dagger like bill can really ruin a predator’s day when it’s buried in their abdomen or the back of their head.
In late May or early June, Common Loons lay one or two olive brown eggs with dark brown spots and both parents incubate them. Incubation takes around 24 to 25 days, after which the young hatch out. Common Loons are precocial, with the young walking and swimming within hours after birth. The parents will also carry the young on their backs, which affords them protection from Snapping Turtles looking for a quick meal. Young Common Loons typically fledge at between 70 and 77 days of age and they can fly at around the same age. If food is plentiful, both young will typically survive but in scarce times, one chick will often kill its sibling to ensure its own food supply. The young leave the nesting ground and their parents before the next winter after the breeding season when they hatched. Common Loons can live for over 20 years.
Common Loons are also noted for the wide range of distinctive vocalizations that they can produce. These vocalizations can sound like a laugh, a yodel or a shriek. On a personal note, these often-strange sounding vocalizations made by Common Loons are used as an excuse to give the vocalizations of the great demon of the North, the Wendigo, a rational explanation in one of my favorite novels, Stephen King’s Pet Sematary.
The Common Loon is an amazing and fascinating modern dinosaur which has found a prominent place in human culture. It has appeared on coins, in novels and in films and I’m so happy to finally have this beautiful rule-breaker here in my collection of modern dinosaurs…..another kudos must go out to my life partner for finding this excellent coin for this collection as it was a birthday gift from her.
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| Slot: |
Theories on the Origin of Flight Among Theropod Dinosaurs |
| Origin/Country: |
United States |
| Design Description: |
ANNIVERSARY COINS & MEDALS |
| Item Description: |
25C 2016 W 24K GOLD 1/4oz |
| Grade: |
NGC SP 70 |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
In 2016, the U.S. Mint issued this amazing gold Standing Liberty Quarter, along with two other coins, to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the designs of the coins. What drew me to this coin was that its reverse featured an image over 100 million years old, that of a theropod dinosaur in powerful flight.
The ability to fly is one of the most amazing traits that life on Earth has ever evolved. Over the entire history of the Earth, only four groups of animals are known that evolved members who had or have the ability to truly fly. These animals are insects, the extinct pterosaurs, theropod dinosaurs and bats.
However, with three of the four groups, we have absolutely no idea how the ability to fly evolved and what path it took. Flying insects, pterosaurs and bats all simply appear in the fossil record with their flight equipment and ability intact and fully evolved. This is because the fossil records for these groups are highly incomplete, especially regarding the transitional forms leading to the ability to fly. Theropod dinosaurs are different. Thankfully, they have left us much of the story of their path to the domination of the skies preserved in the rocks of the Earth. This coin is perfect to discuss the three dominant theories behind the evolution of flight in theropod dinosaurs (birds are not the only group of theropods to evolve the ability to fly) and a few of the interesting forms of flighted theropods that are different from today’s surviving birds.
There are three main models proposed for the evolution of flight in theropods. They are called the “Pouncing Proavis” model, the Cursorial model and the Arboreal model. The “Pouncing Proavis” model theorizes that flight evolved from wing flapping that feathered, non-flying theropods would use to stabilize themselves when performing a prey-riding technique similar to that used by the modern Golden Eagle and that this flapping eventually, over time, evolved into true flight. This theory has much to recommend it. It allows for a slow build and many different forms of flying dinosaurs, which matches the fossil record. It also accounts for an animal like Archaeopteryx, a theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period which was skeletally quite similar to terrestrial theropods but whose feathers were moving in a direction to allow for the evolution of flight. Archaeopteryx is considered by many to be one of the first birds, though it is not a true avian.
The Cursorial model, also known as the Running model or the Ground-up model, proposes that flight among theropods evolved from running leaping behavior which slowly evolved into flight. This theory is actually the least likely to be correct and is a poor match for the fossil record but it cannot be completely discounted due to a behavior known as Wing Assisted Incline Running (WAIR) which is exhibited by modern birds. WAIR is used by many precocial species of birds from the day they hatch to help them run up slopes and inclines. In this behavior, birds use their wings to make themselves more aerodynamic when moving up inclines. As many of the birds that use this behavior when young eventually learn how to fly, this one behavior allows for the Cursorial model to remain as a valid option.
The last model is the Arboreal model. This model states that flight among theropod dinosaurs has its origin in small arboreal theropods who glided from tree to tree and this behavior eventually led to true flight. As with the “Pouncing Proavis” model, there are examples from the fossil record which strengthen this theory. One of these is Microraptor, a small dromaeosaur who had feathered wings on all four limbs. It is uncertain if Microraptor could truly fly, but those four wings certainly allowed it to be a proficient glider. Some interpretations of Archaeopteryx find it to be a glider and not a true flier as well. Yet another four-winged theropod, Anchiornis, was thought to solely be a glider for years but a recent analysis found that juveniles of the species would have been able to generate enough lift to achieve true flight.
And then there are the bizarre Scansoriopterygids, which were availans from the Jurassic Period found in what is now China. These dinosaurs took a completely different route to gliding and flying than any other group of theropods. Instead of feathered limbs that formed wings, Scansoriopterygids had wings made of membranes of skin and enlarged fingers much like those found in bats and are a compelling example of convergent evolution, where two unrelated groups evolve similar features due to occupying a similar ecological niche. This kind of wing would be almost impossible to evolve from terrestrial prey-riding and flapping behavior. Though the Scansoriopterygids would prove to be an evolutionary dead-end, they did find their way to the skies in a novel way.
So what do I think is the correct theory? Actually, I think both the Arboreal model and the Pouncing Proavis model are correct. Flight evolved among several different theropod groups at different times. Many different Maniraptoran families had flying members; the Euornithes and Enantiornithes are just two of the avialan families confirmed to have members who flew and its strongly suspected that there were fliers among the Dromaeosaurs as well (Rahonavis and Microraptor are the main contenders here) and the aforementioned Anchiornis is suspected to be a Troodontid, though different researchers are debating this placement currently. And, of course, Avians, who are part of the Euornithe family, fly as well. I strongly believe that some theropods gained fight through prey-riding and others gained it through gliding. To me, this is the only way that the Scansoriopterygids could have evolved alongside the many other Avialans who flew. Also, in considering the incompleteness of the fossil record (it is estimated that only 1% of organisms ever fossilize and we only find 1% of those fossils), it is entirely possible that the Cursorial model is correct for some species of flying dinosaurs who either never left a fossil behind or have left fossils that we haven't found. WAIR among existing species makes this a very real possibility.
However it happened, the evolution of flight in theropod dinosaurs is amazing. Flight is the most difficult behavior that animals undertake, and the fact that theropods were largely able to take features that they already had and utilize them in different ways to take over the skies is absolutely fascinating. It speaks volumes to their intelligence and adaptability. And the next time you look at a Standing Liberty Quarter, please take the time to turn it over and look at an amazing rendition of an image which has graced the skies for over 100 million years.
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| Slot: |
Eastern Meadowlark |
| Origin/Country: |
CANADA - 1968 TO DATE |
| Design Description: |
|
| Item Description: |
25C 2014 EASTERN MEADOWLARK COLORIZED |
| Grade: |
NGC SP 69 |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
With the next dinosaur in the collection, we have our first passerine or perching bird, which comprise over half of all living bird species. Say hi to the Eastern Meadowlark, species name Sturnella magna.
As the coin shows the bird in color (I love these Canadian coins that show colorized birds!), I don’t have to describe the Eastern Meadowlark’s coloration. It’s better to actually see it anyway, I think. Males and females share the same coloration, but males are larger than females. The Eastern Meadowlark is another theropod rule-breaker when it comes to the typical rule of females being larger than males. Eastern Meadowlarks range between 7.5 to 11 inches in length, with a wingspan between 14 and 16 inches and a weight range between 2.7 to 5.3 ounces. Geographically, Eastern Meadowlarks can be found in Southeastern Canada during their breeding season and from the eastern half of the continental United States down to the very northernmost part of eastern South America as year-long residents. In the central United States, they overlap with the related and similar looking Western Meadowlark.
Eastern Meadowlarks prefer a habitat of open grasslands, prairies and hayfields. Eastern Meadowlarks are omnivorous. They forage on the ground or in low vegetation for insects and arachnids, seeds and berries. Unlike many other theropod dinosaurs, Eastern Meadowlarks are not monogamous. In fact, many males mate with multiple females and protect all of their mates within their territory. Males protect and mark their territories by singing. These guys just love breaking the theropod dinosaur rules!
Eastern Meadowlarks have many predators. These include cats, foxes, snakes, coyotes, skunks, raccoons and some of the smaller falcons and hawks. If they don’t fall prey to one of these predators, Eastern Meadowlarks can live for between 5 and 9 years.
The Eastern Meadowlark is a great choice for the first passerine in this set. Passerines inhabit the largest geographic range of all birds. Based on the fossil record, they also have one of the widest geographic ranges of all known groups of dinosaurs period. This is amazing to contemplate and speaks to the adaptive abilities of this group of modern dinosaurs.
For this awesome coin, I have to give a shout out to my in-laws. This one was a birthday gift from them, and I absolutely adore it!
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| Slot: |
Haast's Eagle |
| Origin/Country: |
GABON |
| Design Description: |
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| Item Description: |
S1000F 2013 HARPAGORNIS MOOREI COLORIZED |
| Grade: |
NGC PF 70 ULTRA CAMEO |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
A common theme in many dinosaur movies like Jurassic Park is theropod dinosaurs hunting down, killing and eating human beings. The common reaction to this theme is that, even though the movie is entertaining, there is no way that this ever happened as most people still incorrectly think that dinosaurs are extinct and that they became extinct tens of millions of years before even the earliest human ancestors evolved during the Pliocene. However, this isn’t exactly true. There was one theropod dinosaur that existed which did hunt down, kill and eat modern humans and this is it: The Haast’s Eagle; species name Harpagornis Moorei, arguably the most terrifying animal modern humans ever met.
The Haast’s Eagle was the most horrifying and vicious aerial predator that the Earth has ever seen. Rather than get into listing numeric dimensions for the size of the Haast’s Eagle, I will use an apt comparison which will illustrate the horrifying size of this dinosaur. A full-grown Haast’s Eagle was the size of hang glider and it weighed up to 36 pounds. Yes, I just typed that. By comparison, a full grown Golden Eagle maxes out at 20 pounds for the largest females. As the Haast’s Eagle went extinct before scientists could observe them, they are only known to science from subfossil and fossil skeletal remains, so there is nothing known of their life appearance. However, they were likely a brown color, or a combination of brown and white based on the most common coloration of living eagles though some reconstructions give them a much bolder and vibrant coloration, this is likely incorrect.
The Haast’s Eagle was native to New Zealand and its huge size was a result of its evolution to prey on a very specific group of animals: the Moa, nine species of very, very large herbivorous flightless birds that could weigh up to 510 pounds and could be up to 12 feet tall. All nine species of the Moa are also extinct. The Haast’s Eagle was one of the most specialized raptors known to science as it was evolved to survive solely on Moa as prey. While New Zealand maintained its isolation, this was fine for the Haast’s Eagle as it was the sole predator of Moa. However, around 1280, everything changed with the arrival of the first humans to colonize New Zealand, the Maori.
The Moa were very large and powerful avian dinosaurs in their own right, but they don’t appear to have been especially intelligent nor were they aggressive in defending themselves. They were ill-equipped to deal with the arrival of a new predator, and the Maori hunted them heavily. At first, not much changed for the Haast’s Eagle. Already superbly evolved to cripple and kill two-legged prey, the Haast’s Eagle started hunting the Maori and it was quite successful at it.
In traditional Maori mythology, there is a creature known as the Pouakai or the Old Glutton. This creature is described as swooping silently upon people, grabbing them and crushing them with its massive talons before carrying them off to feed itself and its ravenous young. It is now known that the Pouakai was actually the Haast’s Eagle and that these behaviors exhibited by the Pouakai actually happened. Haast’s Eagles absolutely killed and ate people, and they apparently did it frequently. By contrast, no modern raptors pose any threat to humans if humans treat them with respect and don’t threaten them.
Meeting your end by Haast’s Eagle was likely one of the most horrifying deaths imaginable. While there are many predators in nature that are capable of taking humans, most of them aren’t as intelligent or successful in their hunting attempts as birds of prey are. And Haast’s Eagles were definitely highly intelligent. Based on endocranial scans done on Haast's Eagle skulls, their brains grew right along with them. I hypothesize that they hunted in a similar way to a Golden Eagle, another large and very brainy raptor, using herding techniques and possibly using natural features, such as cliffs, to their advantage. And they were just as relentless as modern raptors are. Most other reptilian predators or mammalian predators will give up on a hunt after one or two attempts to take a prey animal but raptors are different. They are relentless and will make attempts to kill a prey item until they either succeed or the prey animal gets to a place where the raptor has no chance of success and it realizes it. This relentlessness is a part of the Pouakai myth as well, which tells us that this was a trait of Haast’s Eagles in life.
Now, imagine walking through the heavy forests of prehistoric New Zealand. You are gathering fruits or helping carry Moa meat back to your settlement. Then, without warning, a gigantic winged shadow falls over you. Knowing of the Pouakai since your childhood, you know what this means and that you have little hope, but you run anyway. The Haast’s Eagle observes your terror and uses it to its advantage, pushing you into running into a clearing rather than deeper into the forest. Once you are in the clearing, the Haast’s Eagle swoops down rapidly and sinks its eight 4.3-inch talons into your neck and shoulders, instantly shattering your shoulder blades, collarbones, neck vertebrae and likely many of your ribs. Death is quick, but extremely painful. The Haast’s Eagle then tears your body apart, consuming some of it there and flying off with other pieces to take back to its nest. That is the very last of you. If you were near a cliff, this monstrous aerial theropod would likely have grabbed you with one of its massive feet and dragged you off of the cliff, saving strength and effort.
This, to me, is what makes the Haast’s Eagle the most frightening predator humans have ever faced. It’s not just the size and the power. It’s the adaptability, intelligence and relentlessness. This is an animal that could take a great shot at out-thinking a terrified human and that would be evolved to use its prey’s terror reactions to its hunting advantage. A large crocodile, a large cat or a large canid are not capable of these behaviors to the same degree that raptors are. While they have their own levels of intelligence and are very good at many predatory behaviors, raptors have almost all other predators out-brained. Being on the wrong end of a Haast’s Eagle would be absolutely chilling.
However, the Maori would end up taking down the Haast’s Eagle, though they did so indirectly. Around the year 1400, the Maori hunted the last of the Moa to extinction. When this happened, the Haast’s Eagle had to solely survive on hunting humans. However, unlike most of its still extant generalist relatives which can switch prey items easily, the Haast’s Eagle was extremely specialized to survive only on Moa, which led to it having very specific nutritional requirements. When they were hunting humans and moa together, Haast’s Eagles could survive because they were still getting Moa meat in their diets. However, with no Moa, Haast’s Eagles quickly succumbed to malnutrition and this ultimately led to their demise shortly after the extinction of the Moa. It didn’t matter how many humans a Haast’s Eagle could eat, they would never get the nutrients they needed from humans. To put this into a human perspective, think of what would happen if you tried to survive by only eating candy bars. Before humans arrived in New Zealand, the only mammals were three species of bat, which the Haast’s Eagle never preyed upon. They simply were not equipped to survive by consuming mammals.
The next time you’re watching Jurassic Park or something in that vein, take a moment to think about and remember the one theropod dinosaur that actually made a meal out of us and that we killed off with our un-nutritious mammal bodies. It’s ok if you breathe a sigh of relief that it's extinct when you do think of it.
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| Slot: |
Wedge-Tailed Eagle |
| Origin/Country: |
AUSTRALIA - COMMEMORATIVE |
| Design Description: |
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| Item Description: |
S$1 2016P WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE |
| Grade: |
NGC MS 69 |
| Research: |
View Coin |
Owner Comments
Up to this point in this set, there has been a focus on modern dinosaurs from North America, though there have been some from other places. This is largely due to the sheer number of high quality modern coins featuring avians to come from North American nations, particularly Canada. Also, North America is where I live, and it’s a lot of fun to write about modern dinosaurs that I actually get a chance to observe in their natural habitats. However, I also want this set to showcase birds from all over the world so here’s our first entry from Australia: the formidable Wedge-Tailed Eagle, species name Aquila audax.
The Wedge-Tailed Eagle is the largest raptor in Australia, occurring all across the continent and also calling parts of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea home. Like its close relative the Golden Eagle, the Wedge-Tailed Eagle is a very large, brown raptor. Wedge-Tailed Eagles can be from 2.6 to 3.5 feet long, with a wingspan from 6.8 feet to a maximum of 9.4 feet in the very largest females and a weight range between 6.6 to 12.7 pounds, though some small males can weigh considerably less than this with 4.4 pounds reported. As with most raptors, the female is larger than the male though their plumage and overall appearance aside from size are the same. The Wedge-Tailed Eagle gets its name from its distinctive, wedge-shaped tail, making this bird instantly recognizable in flight. The Wedge-Tailed Eagle also has very long legs compared to most raptors, possibly an adaptation to hunting some very large prey animals.
In Australia’s ecosystem, the Wedge-Tailed Eagle is the very definition of an apex predator. There are only five land animals on the whole continent that the Wedge-Tailed Eagle does not prey upon: The Freshwater Crocodile, the Saltwater Crocodile, humans, the Southern Cassowary, which is the most dangerous living bird, and White-Bellied Sea Eagles, though Wedge-Tails will fight with White-Bellied Sea Eagles for territory, food and other resources. Even the hatchlings and juveniles of the two crocodiles are sometimes taken by Wedge-Tails. Like its cousin the Golden Eagle, the Wedge-Tailed Eagle prefers to consume mammals and it consumes a wide range of them, from koalas and wombats up to dingos and kangaroos. They have also been seen successfully hunting and killing emus, making them one of only three major predators of these large and powerful birds. Like other eagles, the Wedge-Tail is a sight based hunter who locates its prey by soaring and scanning the ground. Their keen eyesight allows Wedge-Tails to see into the ultraviolet spectrum.
Wedge-Tailed Eagles, pound for pound, take some of the largest prey animals in relation to themselves of any extant predator on Earth. Like other members of the Aquila genus, the Wedge-Tailed Eagle is extremely intelligent and adaptable in its hunting strategies. They will use herding behaviors to move prey where they want it to go, team up to take on large and dangerous prey items, like the aforementioned emu, and they will also use natural features like cliffs, which they will either run animals off of or drag them off of to make a kill. When making a kill, the Wedge-Tail is once again similar to the Golden Eagle. Wedge-Tails kill with their feet, driving their talons into the prey’s neck and shoulders. They also prey ride to take down larger prey, digging their talons deeper into the prey while actually riding it and flapping their wings for stability until the prey is either paralyzed or dies from blood loss or organ failure.
This adaptability in hunting techniques and prey selection has led to the Wedge-Tailed Eagle taking a very important place in protecting Australia’s delicate and unique ecosystem. Wedge-Tails are the primary predators of rabbits, hares, foxes and feral cats, some of the most potentially damaging invasive species in Australia. Through their adaptability and preference for mammalian prey, the Wedge-Tailed Eagle keeps the populations of these species under control. Wedge-Tails will also extensively scavenge, given the opportunity. Being such a formidable predator allows the Wedge-Tail to drive off almost any other scavenger from a carcass aside from the two crocodiles mentioned previously and some bolder White-Bellied Sea Eagles. Wedge-Tailed Eagles have no predators.
Like most other raptors, Wedge-Tailed Eagles mate for life. Their courtship rituals include aerial displays, such as high-speed dives and loop-the-loops, and grooming of one another near their nesting site, which is usually a tall tree or a cliff edge. Wedge-Tail pairs typically produce two eggs, which both parents incubate for about 45 days, after which the eggs hatch. At first, the female stays with the chicks while the male does all of the hunting to provide for the family. Once the chicks are a month old, the female joins the male in hunting. Young Wedge-Tails can fly and hunt for themselves at around 6 months of age and they stay with their parents until the next breeding season. There is little indication of siblicidal behavior among Wedge-Tail chicks and both young typically survive. When Wedge-Tail pairs have young, they are fiercely territorial and defensive. They have even been noted attacking hang gliders and aerial drones during their breeding season. Wedge-Tailed Eagles reach maturity at 5 years of age and can live for over 40 years.
The Wedge-Tailed Eagle is a distinctive and beloved member of Australia’s unique ecosystem and it is an emblem for the Australian Northern Territory, the Australian Defense Force and the New South Wales police force. It is also a great modern dinosaur to be my first entry from the fascinating and unique nation of Australia. This great coin was another awesome gift from my life partner. She knows well my love of dinosaurs (both avian and non-avian) and raptors in particular. I'm so happy to finally have this great coin with one of my all time favorite raptors here in this set!
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