Sunday, July 19, 2020
How to Use Behavior Modeling to Teach Your Teen
How to Use Behavior Modeling to Teach Your Teen Theories Behavioral Psychology Print How to Use Behavior Modeling to Teach Your Teen New Skills By Amy Morin, LCSW facebook twitter instagram Amy Morin, LCSW, is a psychotherapist, author of the bestselling book 13 Things Mentally Strong People Dont Do, and a highly sought-after speaker. Learn about our editorial policy Amy Morin, LCSW Updated on April 27, 2019 Kevin Dodge/Blend Images/Getty Images More in Theories Behavioral Psychology Cognitive Psychology Developmental Psychology Personality Psychology Social Psychology Biological Psychology Psychosocial Psychology Have you ever noticed how kids like to copy their parents? Whether its a 4-year-old who enjoys pretending to shave his face next to Dad in the bathroom mirror, or its a 6-year-old pretending to vacuum the living room as her parents do, kids learn how to behave by watching their parents. And while you might think that your teen has outgrown the desire to copy you, thats not the case. Your teen is still watching how you behave. And those observations shape the choices that he makes. Social Learning Theory as the Foundation for Behavior Modeling Social learning theory provides the foundation for behavior modeling. It asserts that most behaviors are learned by observation and modeling. That means your teen may pick up on your unhealthy habits. So if you yell at your teen, theres a good chance your teen will learn to yell at you. Or, if you make a lot of impulse purchases, your teen may also have trouble saving money. But the good news is, the reverse is also true. If you exercise every day or make it a habit to read a book each evening, your teen may be more likely to follow suit. You can shape your childs behavior by modeling healthy habits. How to Use Behavior Modeling to Teach Specific Skills You can use behavior modeling to teach your teen specific skills. Whether you want your teen to learn how to iron a dress shirt or you want him to learn how to sort the recycling, these steps can help him remember what to do: Have your teen watch you perform the task first.Allow your teen time to process and remember the behavior you performed.Give your teen a chance to practice performing the behavior on his own. Use positive reinforcement, such as praise, to encourage your teen to keep up the good work. An Example of Teen Behavior Modeling A father wants to teach his teenager how to change the oil in the car. So he has his teen watch as he changes the oil. He tells his teen to write down the steps so he can review the steps on his own. That helps the teen process and remember the information. Then, the next time the oil needs to be changed, the teen does it on his own. His father provides constant supervision. The father offers praise and positive feedback. He also provides correction when necessary to ensure his teen is doing it correctly. That process will help the teen learn how to do it on his own. Hell be better equipped to change the oil without his fathers supervision in the future. How to Take a Less Structured Yet Effective Approach Of course, there are plenty of things your teen will learn from you without a structured approach. Your teen will naturally pick up on a lot of your behavior and attitude just by spending time with you. So its important to practice being a good role model. Know your values and make sure youre instilling those values in your teen. And when you want to teach your teen a specific skill or two, proactively use behavior modeling to reinforce it to your teen.
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Advertising Appeals Aim For The Audience - 1077 Words
Different strategies are used in all advertisements. Every aspect of the advertisement is strategically planned to appeal to the audience. For example, an advertisement that does a great job of using sex appeal to reach its audience is ââ¬Å"Carlââ¬â¢s Jr all natural burgerâ⬠. This ad appeared during the super bowl forty-nine, and it was a big hit. The ad features ,22-year-old model buxom, Charlotte McKinney. Throughout the video it shows her walking through the town and appearing as if she is nude. She gets all the attention from the guys in the town as she saunters past. in one scene thereââ¬â¢s a man reaching for a tomato as she walks by, she turns around and gives him a flirty look and it emerges as if he is grasping her gluteus. At the end she appears in a bikini nearly nude ââ¬Å"I love going all natural,â⬠she purrs, opening wide to take a bite out of a big, juicy, ââ¬Å"all naturalâ⬠hamburger. Advertising appeals aim to influence the way consumers vie w themselves and how buying certain products can prove to be beneficial for them. The message conveyed through the advertising appeals influences the purchasing decisions of consumers. In this case, the advertisement was aired by Carlââ¬â¢s Jr fast food restaurant to advertise their new ââ¬Å"all natural burgerâ⬠. It was aired during the Super bowl because majority of the audience, men and woman, are watching the game. And it makes it easy for them to put their product out because most people that watch the Super bowl just watch the commercials. SexShow MoreRelatedThe Importance Of Advertising1149 Words à |à 5 PagesAdvertising is an essential for todayââ¬â¢s business firms. The intention of advertising is to enhanced sales in the goods and services by capturing the attention of the people. The goal of advertising is to make awareness in the people minds. In Jib Fowles article, Advertisings Fifteen Basic Appeals, he addressed about how advertisers try to sell goods a nd services by posting messages through either observed or written messages. According to Jib Fowles, ââ¬Å"Advertisers want to circumvent this shellRead MoreUse of Logos, Ethos, and Pathos for Rhetorical Appeal in Advertising1020 Words à |à 4 PagesRhetorical appeal is intended to persuade individuals to think a certain way, conduct themselves in a certain manner, or the purchase particular products. Unlike speech in which an individual relies on their persona and content of speech to get their point across to an audience or consumer, advertisements use images to enhance the impact and appeal of logos, ethos, and pathos. One of the most influential advertisements that is frequently shown on television that use these three appeals is the AmericanRead More Advertisers Sell Images Not Products Essay1207 Words à |à 5 Pages The definition of advertising is outdated. It was previously, to endorse a product and praise goodness to induce the public to buy. They are now brainwashing consumers to buy their products using images to sell the product. The advertiserââ¬â¢s aim is to make the product look as good as it can through an attractive image. There are statistics, which I obtained from a Dolly Magazine, 16th May 2000, which proves that one out of four people in Australia buy a product because of the image shown in the advertismentRead MoreEssay on An Analysis of Two Leaflets971 Words à |à 4 Pagesto rent a McCarthy Stone retirement apartment, the second is advertising hiking holidays in Ireland. The former of these leaflets came through my letterbox, and is aimed at retired pensioners. The latter, I got from a travel agency. It is aimed at 18-30 year old trekkers. I donââ¬â¢t think one would find these leaflets anywhere else because they are very specific in both their aim and their target audience. A company called McCarthy Stone, who rent out retirementRead MoreThe Secret Messages Of Advertising1003 Words à |à 5 PagesSecret messages in advertising In todayââ¬â¢s society, we see many persuasive languages, pictures, and videos being used in advertisements in order to grasp its consumers to buy their products. Advertisements can be seen throughout history, dating back as far when Egyptians once ruled. They used many of the techniques of ad appeals used today. Advertisements can be seen in our everyday lives, even though we might not really notice them. We might not be very perceptible to them, but they are there toRead MoreVisual Ad Analysis On Video Games1577 Words à |à 7 Pagesgames.â⬠One prime example of the effects of video games and television is illustrated in a lego ad created by DDB Communications Group in early 2009. The ad uses numerous strategies such as violent images and thought provoking captions to not only appeal to the audienceââ¬â¢s values, but also to create an impactful impression that pushes their product to the next level. The ad pictures a man who appears to be in his late teens, early twenties, sitting on a couch with a pixelated gun to his temple.Read MoreIntroduction to Emotion1205 Words à |à 5 Pagesknotting in our stomachs, etc. when we feel an emotion. Emotions amp; Advertising Emotions are arguably defined as bodily changes, together with mental change, influencing one s decisions, sometimes out of the normal pattern for the individual, used particularly in reference to buying behavior. Advertisement is full of appeals. I believe there is hardly any advertisement, which has not appeals to make. General appeals include featuring product, drives amp; instincts (needs), motives, emotionsRead MoreAnalysis of an Audi Car Advertisement Essay1373 Words à |à 6 Pages Advertising is a media form which aims to seek huge influence over its audience in order to sell the product that they are promoting. Advertising is a complicated and extremely difficult business where many different people have to work long and hard in order that the viewer wishes to purchase their product once he has seen it. Adverts are made in advertising agencies and one advert usually takes around a month untilRead MoreAdvertising Essay1083 Words à |à 5 PagesAdvertising There are millions of people in the world, all of whom are potential car buyers in the car companies eyes, resulting in highly competitive advertising. These companies need to appeal to all groups of people, so for certain people, they will advertise a certain car. For another car they have created, they will appeal to another target audience. The most common target audiences are students, business men, women, Read MoreThe Advertisements Made By Oral B, Colgate, And Crest Use Color1332 Words à |à 6 Pages movement, and appeals in various ways in order to have specific effects on their intended audience. These three ads, all in print or video format, aim to garner positive reactions from their viewers and to have a memorable effect. By formating their advertisements in differing styles, these agencies are attempting to ensure that their product will be impactful and successful in the marketing industry. These three advertisements utilize color in varying ways to make their audience associate certain
University Store Case Free Essays
FIFO or LIFO In the case, the university Store provided plenty of goods and services with various costs. They frequently have their costs, selling prices and discounted prices changed. This process would contain a large amount of work since the Store kept large number of books. We will write a custom essay sample on University Store Case or any similar topic only for you Order Now Although the Store has planned to record data by establishing a new software system, they used the retail method easing and simplifying inventory tracking. Comparing the FIFO or the LIFO method, the retail method would be the better to value Inventory with two major reasons. One reason is that GAP would accept the report under the retail method. While applying the FIFO or LIFO method, the Store would calculate historical percentages to estimate ending Inventory cost. However, they would use the ââ¬Å"current cost-to-retailâ⬠ratios, which are more acceptable and reliable for GAP financial report. The other is that the Store could be easy to record inventory. The Store could record numbers including the total cost and purchase retail value, costs and retail prices, and total sales in a period. Also, the Store sometimes marks up the original sale prices, which should be marked down before calculating ending Inventory. By acquiring same Information, cost-to-retail percentage in FIFO or LIFO method are able to be calculated with omitting beginning inventory or only using beginning inventory respectively. Causes and Procedures for Inventory Obsolescence The Store realized that they needed to consider the inventory obsolescence problem. They have found the large volume of ââ¬Å"inactiveâ⬠books, which could re-adopt in the next semester or could not be returned to publishers. The major causes of this problem could be divided Into four parts. Firstly. E turnover rate of returns manager was significantly high in the recent years, causing difficulties to clear the unneeded textbooks before the new edition published. If the textbooks became obsolete and unable to be returned to publishers, they would be stored in the bookstore or the warehouse, making losses in the financial report. The first procedure to improve the problem could be to find the reasons of high turnover rate like large workload, hig h-pressure environment or unexpected salary. Then, the Store should address the problem with different strategies depending on the reasons. Secondly, the Store distributed little employees to work on arranging the inactive textbooks since total employees were insufficient. This problem caused the obsolete books would stored increasingly making financial losses. To solve the problem, the Store could recruit more employees in order to pay more attention on the Inactive textbooks If the Store has ability to hire more. Moreover, the Store tried to actively pay back the used books In order to lower costs. TLS caused the Store would possibly obtain the unneeded books, which professors would stop using next semester. These textbooks would be unable to return to the publishers and would become losses for financial reporting. The procedure solving the problem could be firstly asking professors or teachers whether the used textbooks would be continually used in the future. Next, the Store would be able to decide which book should pay back depending on their requirements and recommendations. Last but not least, the would lower sales of textbooks recently. If the Store obtained the same number of a specific textbook with decreasing usage, the books would become inactive causing financial losses. In order to solve the problem, the Store could establish a survey about the decreasing demands or possible cancellations of the books. After that, they could estimate the future inventory of fewer books with low demands. Inventory Practices Cause Misstatement Risk of Inventory While calculating the inventory value, some practices would possibly increase the risk of misstatement. At first, errors would appear in recording different costs, selling prices and price changes in sale while organizing hundreds of products. The Store should arrange at least two employees to check the values are correct although they eve already faced the problem of insufficient employees, which would cause individual workload increases. Secondly, the part-time workers with insufficient training and frequent turnover rate would create calculating mistakes. Although heavy reliance of part-time employees could lower the operating cost, it would increase the risk of inventory misstatement. To detect this possible misstatement, the Store should hire more full-time employees or provide a position to monitor the process of switching different part-time employees. Also, the revisions of college extols were published more frequently, which increase the risk of inventory misstatement. The Store needs to obtain the information about the time the revision would be published in the future and content comparison with old version. Likewise, the textbook demand is hard to determine or estimate since currently students are able to purchase cheaper from different sources like friends or online. The Store can provide some promotion or sale to attract the students. It can obtain small volume of inventory, and then decide to purchase more depending on the demand. How to cite University Store Case, Papers
Sunday, April 26, 2020
General Electric Internal/External Factors Essay Example
General Electric Internal/External Factors Essay General Electric Internal/External Factors For over one hundred thirty years General Electric has helped shape this country to the comforts known today. Their company motto ââ¬Å"imagination at workâ⬠says it all. With their ability to adapt to the ever changing environment around them as lead the companyââ¬â¢s success and drive over the years. In todayââ¬â¢s corporate world you can not find a stronger company that has learned and changed through time. The following looks at how they survived and grew for over a century. A strong company learns to adapt to different factors in the world. Most of these factors come from within a company which tends to break the company down over time. General Electric has learned to watch for issues like this and works to keep its employees as a major part of the companyââ¬â¢s decisions. It was best stated by the companyââ¬â¢s CEO Jeff Immelt back in 2005, ââ¬Å"At the top, we dont run GE like a big company. We run it like a big partnership, where every leader can make a contribution not just to their job, but to the entire Companyâ⬠(GE, 2005). We will write a custom essay sample on General Electric Internal/External Factors specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on General Electric Internal/External Factors specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on General Electric Internal/External Factors specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The company learned to listen to its leaders on all levels which keep the company connected to the daily needs of the employees and its customers. General Electric learned that these individuals see more of the company everyday and in order to make sure they have the best leaders in each level to control the daily business they have built their own team training program. For over 50 years the General Electric company has been sending its leaders to the John F. Welch leadership center to further educate the companyââ¬â¢s employees in order for better results out of the next generations leaders. On top of the continued education of their employees the company faces external challenges each day. For years the challenge has presented its self for the company to produce energy efficient products and they have risen to the occasion. Today you will find that they are still given the challenge to help our environment and they are ready to help. Todayââ¬â¢s economy still fights to try and create new ways to reduce harmful gas emission and find alternate means of energy. General Electric has taken this challenge and worked on many projects help the environment that todayââ¬â¢s society is currently creating. One thought was to reduce the amount of emissions and General Electric has stepped up with the new Integrated Compressor Line (ICL). The ICL has reduced both CO2 emissions and reduced the use of 38, 250 liters of lubricant oil for each unitââ¬â¢s life (GE, 2008). These are just some ways that General Electric has thrived over the years. They have followed the fact of watching the economy and building strong leaders to help plan and control all aspects of the company. The emergence of globalization has caused numerous companies to change the way they function as an organization. Globalization affects all the functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. General Electric Company is on the forefront of globalization and has adapted to meet the needs of a new global marketplace. For the function of planning, GE has made changes with respect to globalization. By throwing out the old top-to-bottom model of planning, GE has created teams of junior staffers, taken for their ability to think creatively. The company has also begun to make interactions with clients and suppliers, which is a dramatic shift from the close-to-the-vest approach of yesteryear (Byrne, 1996). In regard to organizing, GE has effectively shifted from an industry leading manufacturer, to a service-focused international conglomerate with activities in energy, construction, financial services, and health services (Auchard, 2008). In a recent speech, CEO of GE Jeff Immelt made it perfectly clear that GE will maintain a global approach to running itself, now and in the future. Immelt said I am a globalist. You are a globalist. We all believe in the strength of the global economy, (Auchard, 2008, para. 4) as quoted in a recent article. The survival of a company depends on its ability to utilize current, developing, and new technologies. Technology affects every aspect of business, from manufacturing, to management, to communication. Advances in technology allow companies to enter markets that it was unable to in the past. For example, GE has developed a new technology for MRI machines in the United States and does research in India for low cost. GE then sells them in emerging markets, such as China and other East Asian countries (Auchard, 2008). A venture like this takes an incredible amount of planning and organizing. First, the company needs to locate and assess potential markets. Then they would have to organize the resources needed to create, manufacture and distribute the product. Next, they need the leadership to influence the creation of the product throughout every stage of development. Lastly, they have to assess if the venture was successful and make recommendations to improve the process now and in future ventures. As a company General Electric is very much about innovation and innovative thought. This is readily apparent from not only their slogan ââ¬Å"imagination at workâ⬠but also when one looks back to General Electricââ¬â¢s humble beginnings when their research laboratory was first built. It was during that time when General Electric established one of its main priorities (General Electric, 2008). The research laboratoryââ¬â¢s purpose was to discover new things and to figure out a way to put those new discoveries to use. An example of this would be General Electricââ¬â¢s DLN 2. 6+ Combustion System. This system was created in response to higher gas prices and more stringent emission requirements. It not only saves fuel but lowers CO2 emissions (General Electric, 2008). The development of the DLN 2. 6+ Combustion System shows that even today General Electric still makes goals and objectives to help them grow while bringing ââ¬Å"innovative technology to the worldâ⬠(General Electric, 2008). Bringing innovative technology to the world is not a simple task. This task would require a large amount of resources. Fortunately, General Electric has found a way to obtain the needed resources. Over the years General Electric has spread to locations around the world which in turn has given them access to vast resources within each country. In countries that are experiencing enormous growth such as China General Electric has been able to build and develop resources successfully (General Electric, 2008). General Electric prides itself on not only the quality of its products but also the quality of its leadership. The CEO of General Electric Jeff Immelt believes in looking at the big picture and how General Electric fits into that picture (General Electric, 2008). As such he believes in everyone making a contribution to both his or her jobs and the entire company (General Electric, 2008). Also since Jeff Immelt became CEO General Electric has been recognized in polls as Americas Most Admired Company and of the Worlds Most Respected Companies they have also seen a variety of successes in discovering and producing innovative products (General Electric, 2008). As a company General Electric prides itself on integrity along with innovation. As such they have very strong governance principals that they follow in order to maintain fully compliant. General Electricââ¬â¢s principals outline everything from the role of the board and management to the policy on poison pills (General Electric, 2008). Their principals provide the framework that General Electric uses maintain their high compliance standards which have earned them their 10. 0 rating from Governance Metrics (General Electric, 2008). Over the years General Electric as a company has grown to include locations worldwide. As General Electric grew its workforce changed and began to include people from diverse backgrounds speaking a multitude of languages. As General Electric continues to grow worldwide they have the ability to call upon their diverse workforce to aid them in creating goals that will allow them to advance within other countries such as China or India (General Electric, 2008). General Electric recruits employees of various backgrounds from all over the world. The career portal on their website offers jobs in their various locations in many different countries written in the peoples native languages. This helps General Electric obtain talent from various countries (General Electric, 2008). General Electric also has network groups such as the GE Womens Network, the African American Forum and the Asian/ Pacific-American Forum. The goal of these groups is to attract and retain talented individuals of various backgrounds and to provide a place for individuals of similar backgrounds to get together and obtain support within their work environment (General Electric, 2008). By having these types of group within there organization General Electric makes it easier for their goals to be achieved. These groups help to create cohesion within the company and a clear understanding of everyones roles. Ethics influenceââ¬â¢s all four of the functions of management at General Electric. General Electric uses technology to better the world. General Electrics planning is based around their roots. They started small and worked their way up. Setting goals from a barn in his back yard Steinmetz convinced the higher upââ¬â¢s that the company would benefit from a research laboratory. By having a laboratory the company could perform more tests and grow in the technology to help others. While Steinmetz and Whitney might not recognize the facilities today, they would feel very comfortable with the labââ¬â¢s mission ââ¬â spurring GEs growth by bringing innovative technology to the world (General Electric, 2008). General Electricââ¬â¢s organizing goes hand in hand with the planning because once you have the plan you must put the ball in motion. The company needs a certain type of people to and a certain work environment to promote the atmosphere needed to bring their mission to light. GEââ¬â¢s mission is to bring innovative technology to the world. GEââ¬â¢s leadership is the top personal that sees that all the planning and organizing goes they way the company would like it to. GE encourages their personal to learn as much as they can in order to move up into a leadership position. The leadership of the company makes sure that they are teaching and letting any personal that would like to learn in order to advance that they can. Their controlling is like the leadership part but has more of a structure to it. For example a way they control things is with rules, regulations and policies. With out those things there would be ciaos. So over all the ethics in General Electric appear to be very good with high standers to keep the company moving and afloat. Overall the manager is just one person who requires the help of their staff to follow through on all of the offices work throughout the day. The biggest tool the management has is to delegate task out to the team so that all parts of the job are completed. By assigning different task to their employees they have the ability to complete more tasks and to see how well an employee handles themselves under the extra responsibility. For example the manager can delegate the task of controller to an individual in one division of the office to see how they handle the job. In the end delegation is another part of the managerââ¬â¢s job in order to complete all task in a timely manner . Understanding the principles and basic functions builds a strong foundation for any manager and company. So looking back you will see that following the basic principles and functions of management will help to build a strong career. By looking at growth of a company like General Electric you will also find that the benefits of a solid manager will build a company that will last the test of time. One can only hope by attaining the knowledge they can succeed the same way. Reference: Auchard E. , (2008). Globalization is a Tough Sell, GEââ¬â¢s Immelt Says. Reuters. com. Retrieved April 27, 2008, from http://www. reuters. com/article/ousiv/idUSN0620856720070708? pageNumber=2virtualBrandChannel=0sp=true Byrne J. A. , (1996). Strategic Planning. BusinessWeek. com. Retrieved April 25, 2008, from http://www. businessweek. com/1996/35/b34901. htm General Electric Company, 2008, Leadership, retrieved April 27, 2008, from http://www. ge. com/company/leadership/index. tml General Electric News, 2008, Shades of Green, retrieved April 27, 2008, from http://www. geoilandgas. com/businesses/ge_oilandgas/en/newsletter/geog_enews_feb08_022908/ecomagination. html General Electric. (2008). Heritage of Research: Our History: Our Company. Retrieved April 28, 2008, from http://www. ge. com/company/history/research. html General Electric. (2008). GE Energy DLN 2. 6+ Combustion System. Retrieved April 28, 2008, from http://www. gepower. com/prod_serv/serv_for/gas_steam_turbines/en/cmus/dln26. htm General Electric. (2008). GE Worldwide Activities: Climate Change, Olympics, USCAP. Retrieved April 28, 2008, from http://www. ge. com/company/worldwide_activities/index. html General Electric. (2008). GE Jeffrey R. Immelt: CEO, Chairman, Career, Biography, Profile. Retrieved April 28, 2008, from http://www. ge. com/company/leadership/ceo. html General Electric. (2008). GE Leadership: CEO, Executives, Management, Board of Directors. Retrieved April 28, 2008, from http://www. ge. com/company/leadership/index. html General Electric. (2008). GE Governance: Principles, Succession, Leadership, Management. Retrieved April 28, 2008, from http://www. ge. com/company/governance/principles/index. html
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Depot vs. Lowes
Depot vs. Lowes Home Depot vs. LowesThe home improvement industry is a booming enterprise, which is mainly controlled by two major retailers. Each retailer has its strong points as well as its weaknesses. Home Depot is a company that holds a great history; it was the forefront of the home improvement warehouse store. Lowe's quickly followed in the wake of Home Depot's successes. They decided to improve the industry by offering a cleaner environment, and an easier shopping experience. Which one is the stronger company in today's financial marketplace? Who really dominates the home improvement industry? In this thesis, we will attempt to discover the answers to these questions with an expansive study of both companies financial status.Home Depot - A Brief HistoryBernie Marcus and Arthur Blank established the Home Depot in 1978. They had both been fired from other small home improvement retailers, and decided to create their own home improvement retail store.NOPD/Home Depot TowerAfter a slow start, the company picked up momentum and proved to be successful over time. In 1981 The Home Depot went public using the ticker symbol HD. Home Depot stock is now traded on the New York Stock Exchange with index memberships on the DOW and SP 500.Today, Home Depot stock is selling at $35.37 per share (6-18-2004). In the previous 52-week period, the low for HD was $30.10 and the high was $37.89. The Home Depot stock has fallen by about 12% over the past three years, but the company is constantly making changes in upgrades and service in order to increase their market share and profitability.Home Depot currently has 2.3 billion shares of outstanding common stock. The company did acquire 69 shares of treasury stock in 2002, and 116 shares in 2003. Home Depot also offers additional information such as the...
Monday, March 2, 2020
Gigantophis - Facts and Figures
Gigantophis - Facts and Figures Name: Gigantophis (Greek for giant snake); pronounced jih-GAN-toe-fiss Habitat: Woodlands of northern Africa and southern Asia Historical Epoch: Late Eocene (40-35 million years ago) Size and Weight: About 33 feet long and half a ton Diet: Small animals Distinguishing Characteristics: Large size; capacious jaws About Gigantophis Like many other creatures in the history of life on earth, Gigantophis had the misfortune of being the biggest of its kind until its fame was eclipsed by something even bigger. Measuring about 33 feet long from the tip of its head to the end of its tail and weighing up to half a ton, this prehistoric snake of late Eocene northern Africa (about 40 million years ago) ruled the proverbial swamp until the discovery of the much, much bigger Titanoboa (up to 50 feet long and one ton) in South America. To extrapolate from its habitat and the behavior of similar, modern, but much smaller snakes, paleontologists believe that Gigantophis may have preyed on mammalian megafauna, perhaps including the distant elephant ancestor Moeritherium. Ever since its discovery in Algeria over a hundred years ago, Gigantophis had been represented in the fossil record by a single species, G. garstini. However, the identification in 2014 of a second Gigantophis specimen, in Pakistan, leaves open the possibility of another species being erected in the near future. This find also indicates that Gigantophis and madtsoiid snakes like it had a much wider distribution than previously believed, and may well have ranged across the expanse of Africa and Eurasia during the Eocene epoch. (As for Gigantophis own ancestors, these smaller, mostly undiscovered fossil snakes lurk in the underbrush of the Paleocene epoch, the period of time just after the extinction of the dinosaurs).
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