fun fact, there may be an explanation for this in something called the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis! There are some evolutionary biologists who think that at some point after the split from chimpanzees, our ancestors may have briefly become aquatic mammals but bailed out before becoming fully adapted to life in the water. There are several quirks of human anatomy that may suggest this is the case:
Humans have a much higher percentage of body fat than most other land-dwelling mammals, we’re much closer to various aquatic mammals who rely on that fat for buoyancy & insulation.
We may have lost most of our body hair because it would have created drag as we swam through the water, but kept most of our head hair because it would protect our scalps from damage from the sun when we would come up for air.
We’re one of the only land-dwelling animals that are able to hold our breath.
Human infants instinctively know to hold their breath underwater, keep their heads up, and try to swim upwards (they’re not strong enough but they do the motions correctly), whereas the infants of other primates simply panic and drown, suggesting this isn’t simply due to having spent 9 months in the uterus.
Children who swim very frequently are able to contract their pupils at will, something that is helpful in seeing more clearly underwater. This can especially be seen among children of the Moken tribe from an island off the coast of Thailand who rely on this ability for catching fish and clams, but can be trained in children anywhere.
Humans are the only primates who retain some small amount of webbing between our fingers and toes, some people more than others.
Females have permanent breasts with fatty tissue that doesn’t assist in milk production but does assist in buoyancy that would be ideal for breast feeding while floating on your back.
Our dependence on iodine for proper brain and metabolic function is highly unusual for land dwelling animals but would not be an issue for ocean dwelling creatures.
Now, this is only a hypothesis, and it has opponents who argue that aquatic life isn’t the only explanation for any of these traits and there isn’t sufficient evidence in the fossil record, however the fossil record also doesn’t rule the possibility out. So who knows, this may be the source of your longing for the ocean!
Okay that’s fucking cool
Found this which goes into even more detail about the hypothesis
english: determined, messy buns, the smell of vanilla, old libraries, cold hands, sharp features, studying until midnight, witty remarks, black coffee, espresso
math: organized, classical music, theater plays, earphones, birds chirping early in the morning, green tea, morning showers, knows a lot of random facts
art: dancing in the rain, vintage cars, finding beauty in everything, soft smiles, road trips, competitive, fairy lights, horror stories at 2am, sunflower fields
history: oversized sweaters, into mythology, pretty handwriting, aesthetic journals, asks the questions others are afraid to, high motivation, chocolate
biology: logical thinkers, wants the best for their friends, traveling, spring, photography, morning walks through the forests, cute cottages, instruments
science: courageous, probably did the stupid thing, sneakers, sketchbooks, exploring the city at midnight, dogs, fights for equality, blasting music at 3am
Borealopeltais an exciting recently described Nodosaurid that is remarkable because it was essentially mummified - the osteoderms, skin, and even color were preserved in three-dimensions. The fossil was so heavy and so buried in its environment that it actually broke under its own weight, but luckily the pieces were kept and transported successfully. Borealopeltawas found in the Clearwater Formation of Alberta, Canada, living about 110 to 112 million years ago, in the Albian age of the Early Cretaceous. Borealopeltahad died on the shore of the Western Interior Seaway and was washed out to sea after death, buried on the ocean floor quickly (topside - down) with very little distortion, making the fossil look like how the dinosaur looked when it was alive.
Photo by Machairo, CC BY-SA 4.0
Borealopeltashows the positioning of armor when the animal was alive, a unique thing for an Ankylosaur which usually aren’t preserved articulated enough to know with this level of precision. In addition to that, the osteoderms had keratin sheaths over them, indicating the spikes and other structures were even longerin life than they were in typical ankylosaur fossils. In fact, this probably applies to most armor structures in dinosaurs, indicating that things like Triceratopshad amazingly long horns. Since these structures - in both groups of dinosaurs - were primarily sexually selected ones (meaning, they got so ridiculous because other dinosaurs found them sexy), the sheathes wouldn’t have been really used for defense very much, though they would have been capable of doing so.
By Nobu Tamura, CC BY-SA 4.0
Borealopeltawas preserved with pigmentation - a structure usually only found in things like small birdie dinosaurs (with Psittacosaurusas a notable excpetion) - indicating this dinosaur would have been reddish-brown colored, with countershading for camouflage in its environment, though it’s difficult to tell what sort of environment that would have been since the animal was washed out to sea. The armor on its back that wasn’t so extensively keratinized (ie, not the big shoulder spikes, but the bumpy osteoderms all over) probably would have allowed it to defend itself, since the camouflage indicates it would have been hunted by prey (why hide if nothing is chasing you?). This dinosaur was recently discovered, and hopefully more research of it will show us even more about Borealopeltaand other Ankylosaurs.
Dakotornisis our last miscellaneous Neornithean! Known from the Bullion Creek Formation of North Dakota, it lived sometime between 61 and 56 million years ago, between the Selandian and Thanetian ages of the Paleocene of the Paleogene. Known from very limited remains, it was first thought to be another wading bird - but it can’t be definitively assigned to any sort of group or lifestyle.
Sources:
Mayr, G. 2009. Paleogene Fossil Birds. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
“"It’s a hopeful, optimistic chapter,“ said Louise Rollins-Smith, PhD, associate professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, and a co-author of a study recently published in the journal Science.A collaborative group of investigators at multiple institutions showed that the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis continues to be as lethal now as it was more than 10 years ago.
The antimicrobial defenses produced by frog skin, however, appear to be more effective than they were before the fungal epidemic began.Rollins-Smith and her colleagues began studying how frogs combat B. dendrobatidis in Panama in 2004. For several years, Douglas Woodhams, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow on her team, and laboratory manager Laura Reinert made multiple trips to Central America to collect samples of frog skin secretions.
At the time, the fungal disease was spreading eastward from Costa Rica through Panama.“There was a predictable wave of pathogen moving to new populations,” said Rollins-Smith, who also traveled to Panama in 2010. “It gave us the opportunity to collect samples from populations of animals that had already encountered the epidemic and from the same species in places where the epidemic had not yet occurred."The researchers found that skin secretions from frogs in areas with endemic (established) disease were more effective against the fungus compared to skin secretions from frogs that had not been exposed to the disease.”
Exidia nigricans or formerly known as Exidia plana
With Ohio’s spring torrential downpours, the temperate forest patches around Cincinnati are becoming a plethora with classic jelly fungus in good form.
This species is fairly difficult to Identify if you are new to Exidia genera, like I am.
Exidia glandulosa is the more common Black Witch’s Butter and for this reason, it is always associated with photos similar to this one on a brief google search. In truth the way we can macro-id this species involves it’s fruiting form when it starts forming or when it dries out entirely. In these cases we see blocklike morphology of the fruiting body or, when finishing this fruiting stage of the life cycle, plate like blocks. Read more.
Given the tightly-lobed, brain-like morphology with brown pre colour turning dark black later still retaining ridges. We can rightfully assume that Exidia nigricans ,P. Roberts (2009), is our candidate. Read more on issue.Other blogs with similar topic.
Many fossils of the long-tailed pterosaur Rhamphorhynchushave been found in marine deposits - so much that it has been theorised to be primarily aquatic - like a grebe or a cormorant.
I took the “aquatic rhamphorhynchoid” idea to its logical conclusion and illustrated Ichthyopteryx sp. a fully-aquatic descendant of this lineage. It looks quite plausible; I can picture heaps of them flopping about on beaches of remote islands. I wonder which lengths this line of evolution would extend to - if it was real. Just to clarify, this is not a real animal, but the product of an exercise in speculative-evolution.
BOTTOM TRAWLING IS DESTROYING DEEP-SEA FISH POPULATION
A new study using reconstructed catch data reveals that in the past 60+ years, the practice of towing giant fishing nets along the sea floor has caused the extraction of 25 million tonnes of fish that live 400 metres or more below sea level leading to the collapse of many of those fish populations. The study is published in Frontiers in Marine Science.
Deep-sea fish species are targeted globally by bottom trawling. The fishspecies captured are often characterized by longevity, low fecundity and slow growth making them vulnerable to overfishing. Also, bottom trawling is known to remove vast amounts of non-target species, including habitat forming deep-sea corals and sponges.
Researchers examined the state of 72 deep-sea fish species caught by bottom trawlers around the world, many of which were exploited to unsustainable levels.
The fisheries were found to be overall under-reported by as much as 42%, leading to the removal of an estimated 25 million tons of deep-sea fish. Besides depleting deep-sea fish stocks, bottom trawling of deep fish does not generate much in the way of marketable fish. Immature individuals are thrown overboard because they generally don’t meet minimum size requirements, while non-targeted species caught as bycatch are also returned dead to the sea.
High in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Spain, an international team of researchers set out four buckets to gather a shower of viruses falling from the sky.
Scientists have surmised there is a stream of viruses circling the planet, above the planet’s weather systems but below the level of airline travel. Very little is known about this realm, and that’s why the number of deposited viruses stunned the team in Spain. Each day, they calculated, some 800 million viruses cascade onto every square meter of the planet.
Most of the globe-trotting viruses are swept into the air by sea spray, and lesser numbers arrive in dust storms.
“Unimpeded by friction with the surface of the Earth, you can travel great distances, and so intercontinental travel is quite easy” for viruses, said Curtis Suttle, a marine virologist at the University of British Columbia. “It wouldn’t be unusual to find things swept up in Africa being deposited in North America.”
The study by Dr. Suttle and his colleagues, published earlier this year in the International Society of Microbial Ecology Journal, was the first to count the number of viruses falling onto the planet. The research, though, is not designed to study influenza or other illnesses, but to get a better sense of the “virosphere,” the world of viruses on the planet.
Despite deep-sea environments covers about half of the Earth’s surface and is home to a vast range of species, little is known about these environments, and mining could have long-lasting and unforeseen consequences, not just at mining sites but also across much larger areas.
According to a study published in scientific journal Frontiers in Marine Science, which is the first to give a global overview of all current plans to mine the seabed, in both national and international waters, and looks at the potential impacts including physical destruction of seabed habitats, creation of large underwater plumes of sediment and the effects of chemical, noise and light pollution arising from mining operations.
Rising demand for minerals and metals, including for use in the technology sector, has led to a resurgence of interest in exploration of mineral resources located on the seabed. Such resources, whether seafloor massive sulfides around hydrothermal vents, cobalt-rich crusts on the flanks of seamounts or fields of manganese nodules on the abyssal plains, cannot be considered in isolation of the distinctive, in some cases unique, assemblages of marine species associated with the same habitats and structures.
Some operations are already taking place, generally at relatively shallow depths near national coastlines. The first commercial enterprise, expected to target mineral-rich sulfides in deeper waters, at depths between 1,500 and 2,000 m on the continental shelf of Papua New Guinea, is scheduled to begin early in 2019.
Illustration: A schematic showing the potential impacts of deep-sea mining on marine ecosystems. Schematic not to scale.
Trees, like animals, can also experience albinism, though it is extremely rare.
the reason it’s rare is because without chlorophyll, the plant can’t get energy, and dies shortly after sprouting unless it has some other source of food. so if you see a plant as big as the one in the picture that doesn’t have any green in its leaves, it’s getting its nutrition from the roots of a neighboring plant of the same species, feeding on the sugars created by the other plant’s photosynthesis.
albino plants are basically vampires.
thats metal af
That or the neighbouring plants are helping to keep it alive.
There has been research saying plants can share resources with one another, such as carbon and nitrogen, when one is deficient, so this plant likely has an abundance of mycorrhizal fungi on its root system that isn’t so much parasitizing from its neighbours as it is borrowing.
It’s not a vampire. It’s a disabled plant being supported by a community of healthy individuals who have more than enough nutrients to share.
The real vampire plant is actually Indian Pipe, which lacks chlorophyll and sucks out nutrients from photosynthetic trees, meaning they can grow in dark places without much trouble. They look badass as well.
this is the coolest thing, because every plant is connected to every other plant by underground fungi! scientists now hypothesize that fungi actually evolved long before plants, so plant root systems evolved with fungi that were already in the soil. fungi aren’t just useful for the survival of plants, they are essential for the survival of most vascular plants! (vascular plants = those with root structures)
networks of fungi under the ground can cover miles and miles, and each fungus sends out very long branches, called hyphae. these hyphae can surround the root tips of a plant (these are called ectomycorrhizae, because ecto = outside, myco = fungus, rrhizae = root), which looks something like this:
(picture source) alternatively, plant roots can be colonized by endomycorrhizae (endo = inside), which are WILD, because they essentially just bust through the plant cell walls and, like, chill directly inside of the root cells? like HI here we are we’re moving in now! that looks like this, on a cellular level:
(picture source) despite the occasional door-busting, this is a good, codependent relationship for both parties, because plants provide the fungi with sugars and energy, while fungal networks can grow even farther than plant root networks, so they transport essential nutrients to the plants as well as helping the roots to gather enough water. fungi are also the world’s greatest decomposers, and break down rotting organic material in the soil to increase the amount of carbon surrounding the root networks!
fungi are uniquely disposed to transport materials and to communicate over long distances because they have a supercool cellular structure! so fungal hyphae are only sort of composed of individual cells, but they’re cells with serious boundary issues. most species of fungi have septate hyphae (septum means boundary or partition), where individual cells have dividers between them, but these dividers have, like, GIGANTIC ass holes in them. the concept is kinda like this:
(picture source) these pores are so ENORMOUS that they can fit entire organelles through them! so one cell can just pass its entire nucleus or mitochondria through a pore to its neighbor, which is WILD! you can literally see these septa when you look at fungi under a microscope, like look at this beautiful bullshit!
(picture source) something like 90% of vascular land plants are colonized by mycorrhizae, so when you are standing outside, know that literally every plant around you, every blade of grass beneath you, is connected to every other plant by a vast network of fungal friends, roommates, and helpers! sometimes a SINGLE fungus will be connecting all of these plants to one another! ALL THE PLANTS ARE HOLDING HANDS.
there are these incredibly intimate, cooperative relationships going on beneath your feet that allow plants to help each other and communicate with one another (or compete with one another), and there is NO WAY that we would have enormous trees like we do without fungi to help them expand their reach and weather different soil conditions! the plants are talking to one another, y’all, and we’re the only ones who can’t hear them.
These cephalopods, who telegraph their moods by color changes and solve problems by using tools, have surprised me again and again.
And now it’s happened again. An octopus has astonished me.
This time, it’s a common octopus caught on camera in South African waters by a dive team for the documentary Blue Planet II, currently airing on BBC America in the United States.
The action is dramatic. A pyjama shark seizes the octopus. Just as the situation begins to look dire, the octopus stuffs the shark’s gills shut using its sinuous arms, making it impossible for the shark to breathe — until the shark releases it.
While quite fearsome up close, tailless whip scorpions[Paraphrynus laevifrons] possesses no venom and are harmless to humans. They’re said to be quite timid. Photographs taken at the Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica by Troy Bartlett.
Thehooded vulture is a small vulture found in sub-Saharan Africa. Its scientific name, Necrosyrtes monachus, roughly translates to “monk-like (bird) that drags away the dead”.
Teeny tiny! These fellows are Prokoenenia wheeleri, a type of microwhip scorpion belonging to the order Palpigradi. They measure no more than 3 millimeters in length and are commonly found in moist environments such as underneath rotting logs. Not much is known of their behavior, but it’s been theorized that they may be predators in their micro-environments. Images by Lynn McCutchen.
Flying pseudoarthropods come in many shapes,the countless micro-habitats and biomes of the Mundodendralis are a great canvas for mother nature. The C-fan, Aemulopterus flabellifera, is one of these creatures. It belongs to a group that lost its middle pair of wings and is more build for mobility than speed. They are also characterized by their modified tails that are used to distract and scare of predators but also to impress the opposite sex in skillful “scarf dances”. Both lateral and the dorsal jaw work together as a sucking pipe while the ventral jaw is actually used as a weapon. The animal feeds in the juice of the largest trees, it is however not powerful enough to pierce the bark of the gigantic lifeforms. Instead they live in symbiosis with a family of cuspipods that usually lives under large branches where they glue themselves to the bark once they reach maturity. At that point both animals depend very much on each other, the Aemulopterusget the surplus of juice from the cuspipods, which even offer places to rest by stretching out some of their legs so that the pseudoarthropods can grab them with their anal trunks. On the other hand the Aemulopterus protect the cuspipods and take care of the reproduction of the immobile creatures by carrying spermatophores between the individuals of their colony.
Different species of these pseudoarthropods and cuspipods have evolved to coexist together, they differ in form of their “beaks”, colors of their tails and the preferred location of their feeding grounds. Some cuspipods even offer a second tread to their protectors by producing a venomous cocktail that the Aemulopteruscan carry and inject with their lower jaw.
