An illustration of sea creatures from Camille Flammarion‘s Les terres du ciel (1884). The book is speculating about life on other planets and the caption on this rather ominous plate reads “The world of the sea is already very different from ours…”
Corals are the ultimate hybrids; each individual consists of a symbiotic pairing between plant and animal. They can photosynthesize during the day (as the purple and gold one doing) and then filter feed on nutrients during the night. Corals that depend more heavily on the latter tend to live in areas with moderate to strong currents - photo taken in the South Andaman Sea
Under the green and rolling hills of Scotland, a dozen kilometres from the seaside, several people lay buried for four thousand years. Around them lay what we guess to be their keepsakes; beads, a bronze knife, tools and a battle-axe. Most interesting, though, was that at least one of them – a teenager when he died, curled up like a baby – lay in what was guessed to be a wicker coracle, like those used on these islands into the 20th century. He was buried in his boat. [Keep reading….]
