Subalpine larch, a deciduous conifer tree, turns a spectacular shade of yellow in the autumn prior to shedding its leaves. This tree species lives near the tops of mountains and can live for over 1,000 years!
Eotyrannus
Eotyrannus A previously unknown relative of Tyrannosaurus rex
has been unearthed in Britain. Eotyrannus (early tyrant) lengi, was
a 4.5 meter long carnivore that lived 120 to 125 million years ago.
This discovery can be viewed as part of a missing link. The T-rex
lived around 60 - 70 million years ago, and by this time, the
Eotyrannus lengi was already 55 million years old. The first bones
were found in 1997 on a cliff top near a village in Britain, but it
has taken 4 more years to excavate the site more fully and to
identify the find. This link provides much more information on the
early evolution of T-rex that was previously unknown. The
Eotyrannus is much smaller than the T-rex, which stood 11.5 meters
high, but had a similar skull, shoulder and limb structure. It
would have been a fast, agile predator, preying mainly on species
such as Valdosaurus and Hypsilophodon. Eotyrannus may also be
closely related to the Velociraptor, a two-meter-long predator of
the mid-Cretaceous period, around 90 million years ago. Scientists
say that their small head, long powerful arms and sharp claws were
very similar to those of Eotyrranus. MAY 10, 2001