Thick aggregates of Bathymodiolus mussels on a cold seep site off of Nantucket. Source: NOAA
Humans aren’t the only users of fossil fuels. In many parts of the ocean, natural gas (methane) is constantly bubbling out of the sediment. These areas are known as cold seeps and are often a marker of productive fossil fuel reservoirs in the crust underneath. The name cold seep is somewhat of a misnomer…
I floop-floopian LOVE this guy’s stuff, so much…His designs give me chills in a way I’ve felt on only a handful of occasions since first reading EXPEDITION over 25 years ago.The most abstracted of his creations approach the level of otherworldliness I associate with true “aliens”–organisms generated independently by biotic processes occurring on a remote world in total isolation from terrestrial evolution. Look upon his works, ye mighty, and despair!
I floop-floopian LOVE this guy’s stuff, so much…His designs give me chills in a way I’ve felt on only a handful of occasions since first reading EXPEDITION over 25 years ago.The most abstracted of his creations approach the level of otherworldliness I associate with true “aliens”–organisms generated independently by biotic processes occurring on a remote world in total isolation from terrestrial evolution. Look upon his works, ye mighty, and despair!
I’m so proud and excited to present "Good Business" - an adaptation of a short comic of mine by the esteemed Ray Sullivan! (photo paste-up below by @cmkosemenillustrated)
A trunkhorse mare keeps a watchful eye on her foals as she grazes. One of her foals is larger and more colorful than the others, but she guards it just as fiercely.
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.
