Show Date: January 4, 2006 
Pam Eastlick for THE DEEP on line

MONSTERS FROM THE DEEP
AND
MARS ROVER UPDATE

Greetings and welcome to The Deep column and the deepest radio show on Earth. The Deep is the science talk radio program that takes you from the depths of the ocean to the farthest reaches of the universe. This week on The Deep, aired at 6:00 this evening on K-57, we’ll talk about deep-sea monsters. Then we’ll have some expedition calls. Maybe we’ll hear from Bob Silvers. Or perhaps we’ll talk to someone from Race for the Planet. We’ll also have some science news updates and we’ll be taking your phone calls. Tune in tonight and join host Jim Sullivan, Pam Eastlick and our expedition coordinator Peter Melyan for the latest in scientific news! Then log on to www.thedeepradioshow.com for more information on all the latest and deepest news!

MYTH OR REALITY
Everybody loves monsters. All you have to do is look at the popularity of movies like King Kong or Godzilla or even the Harry Potter series to realize that scary monsters touch a very deep point somewhere in the primitive parts of our brains. Monsters are what ‘primal fear’ is all about.

But part of the monster attraction lies in our certain knowledge that these gigantic movie creatures aren’t real. There are no apes 50 feet tall; no lizards that can take out the Golden Gate bridge with one swipe of the tail. Why not? Because by this time, given the rapidly expanding pace of civilization, someone would have noticed. It’s still possible to discover a new species of lizard in Central Park, a new species of cat in Borneo, but these are small animals. There are no undiscovered King Kongs anywhere on the planet.

So where do these monster tales come from? Bones. Although there are few dinosaur fossils lying around on the Earth’s surface in the 21st century, that certainly hasn’t always been the case. Dinosaurs come in all sizes, but many of them were BIG and a ten-foot long femur (the long bone in the leg of all four-limbed animals) would have certainly captured the attention of any hunter.

Where did the dragons come from? In a place in China called Lurking Dragon Hill, scientists have uncovered 68 closely packed fossils of ichthyosaurs. Many of them are over 75 feet long. They didn’t have to dig very deep and the site’s name certainly indicates these are not the first fossils found here.

Giant bones, giant teeth. Humans knew about the dinosaurs long before their official discovery in the 1800’s. But primitive people didn’t call them dinosaurs and for them, these bones didn’t represent creatures that lived in the long distant past. They said, “Whatever left these bones doesn’t live here anymore, but they haven’t been gone long and who knows, they might be back next week!” An ichthyosaur that’s been dead for 30 million years becomes the dragon that still lives in the mountains. Well-preserved skeletons of pterosaurs become the Thunder Birds of Sioux Indian legend.So, ancient bones are transformed into myth. But there are no King Kongs; no Godzillas; no Dinosaur Island, no big land monsters. . . . . But, what about the ocean? Water covers 70% of our planet and most of it is several miles deep. There are over 300 million cubic miles of water in the world ocean. (I suggest you read that last sentence again, just to be sure you read it right.) That, my friends, is enough water to hide thousands, even millions of monsters.

Dakosaurus

And monsters certainly did exist there. The 75-foot long ichthyosaurs were only the beginning. There were crocodiles like Dakosaurus with the head of a land dinosaur, plesiosaurs 50 feet long that may have inspired the Loch Ness monster legends, and the mosasaurs; part snake and part crocodile. Are the monsters still there? Well, it depends on what you call a monster. Certainly there are blue whales, the largest creatures who ever lived (much bigger than all the dinosaurs, land or water). And there are great white sharks and sperm whales and other huge creatures.

Mosasaur skull

But is it possible that there are still living mosasaurs in all those cubic miles of ocean? Do the ichthyosaurs still survive? Is Nessie really a plesiosaur? Probably not, but there is that little news item that surfaced in the waning days of 2005.
We learned about giant squid when we started catching whales on a commercial basis. Sperm whales, the biggest of the toothed whales, like many of us humans appreciate a good meal of squid. And when these sperm whales were hunted by humans, we discovered dinner plate-sized scars on their hide. Marks that could have only been left by a squid, a BIG one. But giant squid proved to be very elusive. Occasionally one would wash up on a beach in an advanced state of decomposition, but they don’t have to surface for air and they had never been seen in the open ocean, despite many expeditions to find them, until last September.

Japanese scientists finally were able to lure one to a fishing line and take its picture. The squid was over three thousand feet below the surface when the picture was taken. It was over 25 feet long. That’s a lot of sushi! Are there other undiscovered monsters lurking in the sea? Who knows but tune into tonight to The Deep and let us hear your opinion!

THE ENERGIZER BUNNY WENT TO MARS?
No, the Energizer Bunny didn’t make the trip to the Red Planet, but the way Spirit and Opportunity have been behaving, you’d think so. Two years after their arrival on Mars, these golf cart-sized robots are still roaming over the surface and still doing great science. They may have only traveled a total of seven miles, but you just try to keep your car running in a place where it gets down to 200 degrees below zero at night and there are frequent tornados with speeds up to 100 mph.

The mission hasn’t been without difficulties. Spirit has been plagued with a balky front wheel and Opportunity got stuckin a sand dune for a while, but they’ve achieved astounding science. Opportunity has proved that there was once water on the surface of Mars and Spirit has climbed a hill as tall as the Statue of Liberty. Much of their continued success comes from those dust devils that periodically sweep over the rovers and clear their solar panels of dust.

Whether we’re learning about deep sea monsters or robots on Mars, The Deep, hosted by Jim Sullivan with Pam Eastlick and Peter Melyan is the place to be on K-57 tonight at 6:00 p.m. Don’t miss it!