May 2011
13 posts
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April 2011
34 posts
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Calvatia gigantea, Lycoperdon perlatum.
Calvatia gigantea.
I’ll be delivering a lecture on this species tomorrow evening, so I figured I’d link to a little information about it, (the actual lecture text will probably be posted here, once enough time has passed that my professor won’t google it, find my tumblr and accuse me of plagiarizing myself).
Calvatia gigantea, commonly known as the Giant puffball, is...
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Fossil Sirenians, Related to Today's Manatees,... →
April 24, 2011
What tales they tell of their former lives, these old bones of sirenians, relatives of today’s dugongs and manatees. And now, geologists have found, they tell of the waters in which they swam.
While researching the evolutionary ecology of ancient sirenians — commonly known as sea cows — scientist Mark Clementz and colleagues unexpectedly stumbled across data that...
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Mad as a Marine Biologist: What a Fad →
mad-as-a-marine-biologist:
[Here’s a piece I wrote in 2008]
What is a FAD apart from a temporary fashion that connects enthused people temporarily? (remember the exciting days of Tamagotchi or presently skinny jeans, more over skinny jeans on men! Temporary had better be the operative word of that sentence!)
Well, in…
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Bone-Munching Worms from the Deep Sea Thrive on... →
April 18th, 2011 -
A new study led by a scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego is painting a more complete picture of an extraordinary sea worm that makes its living in the depths of the ocean on the bones of dead animals.
Discovered fewer than 10 years ago off Monterey, Calif., but since identified in other oceans, the flower-like marine “boneworms,”...
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The Eyes Have It: Dinosaurs Hunted by Night →
From Science Daily:
The movie Jurassic Park got one thing right: Those velociraptors hunted by night while the big plant-eaters browsed around the clock, according to a new study of the eyes of fossil animals. The study will be published online April 14 in the journal Science.
This conclusion overturns the conventional wisdom that dinosaurs were active by day while early mammals scurried around...
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Crystal 'Eyes' Let Simple Mollusks Called Chitons... →
From Science Daily:
April 14th, 2011 - Using eyes made of a calcium carbonate crystal, a simple mollusk may have evolved enough vision to spot potential predators, scientists say.
…The three-inch-long mollusks, called chitons, have hundreds of eye-like structures with lenses made of aragonite, a type of rock. It’s the first time scientists have found an animal that makes eye lenses...
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Loch Fossils Show Life Harnessed Sun and Sex Early... →
From Science Daily:
April 14, 2011 - Remote lochs along the west coast of Scotland are turning up new evidence about the origins of life on land.
A team of scientists from the University of Sheffield, the University of Oxford and Boston College, who are exploring rocks around Loch Torridon, have discovered the remarkably preserved remains of organisms that once lived on the bottom of ancient...
Bolivia Set to Pass ‘Law of Mother Earth’ →
anoceanactivist:
Bolivia is set to pass the world’s first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country’s rich mineral deposits as “blessings” and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry.
The country, which has been...
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Scientists Have New Measure For Species Threat →
From Science Daily:
A new index has been developed to help conservationists better understand how close species are to extinction. The index, developed by a team of Australian researchers from the University of Adelaide and James Cook University, is called SAFE (Species Ability to Forestall Extinction).
The SAFE index builds on previous studies into the minimum population sizes needed by...
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Boat Exhaust Fumes Harming West Coast Killer... →
From The Epoch Times:
March 6, 2011 - Engine exhaust from boats may be having significant adverse health effects on endangered killer whales off the West Coast, a Canadian zoologist has found.
A two-and-a-half year study by Cara Lachmuth suggests that the orcas may be struggling with carbon monoxide emissions five times higher than those found 100 meters (328 feet) from Los Angeles freeways.
...
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Live Animals Being Sold as Keyrings in China →
From treehugger:
Photo: Li Bo
Keyring ornaments are perhaps the most useless item you’ll ever carry in your pocket or stuff in your purse — but now, thanks to an increasingly popular item being sold in China, it can easily be the cruelest, too. For the price you might expect to pay for some kitschy trinket, Chinese street vendors are selling live animals, permanently sealed in a...
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Did Dinosaurs Have Lice? Researchers Say It's... →
From Science Daily:
This 44-million-year-old louse fossil (left), discovered by co-author Vincent Smith and described in a paper in Biology Letters in 2004, helped the researchers anchor the lineages of lice that today parasitize aquatic birds (right). (Credit: Vincent S. Smith)
(Apr. 5, 2011) — A new study louses up a popular theory of animal evolution and opens up the possibility that...
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Jeremy Wade book signing →
Author Event With River Monsters: True Stories of the Ones that Didn’t Get Away, a companion book to the popular ‘Animal Planet’ series, the program’s host explores his obsession with finding the world’s most intriguing freshwater fish.
Thursday April 07, 2011 7:00 PM Barnes & Noble Union Square 33 East 17th Street, New York, NY 10003, 212-253-0810
...
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An Arachnid Alphabet
K - Kukulcania hibernalis
Don’t worry, my dear
We have at least an hour
and I am patient
as I spin my way into
your massive, frightening heart.
New to the Alphabet? Catch up here. Wondering what the hell this is all about? Don’t worry; one of these days, I’ll get around to explaining it.
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Long Lost Cousin of T. Rex Identified by... →
From Science Daily:
Scientists have identified a new species of gigantic theropod dinosaur, a close relative of T. rex, from fossil skull and jaw bones discovered in China… Comparable in size and scale to the legendary T. rex, this new dinosaur is one of the largest theropod (carnivorous) dinosaurs ever identified by scientists.
[full story]
