Now on ScienceBlogs: Science Poem Manifesto
Don't Stick Your Fingers in the Cage
Kunekune Pigs
In the wild, Andrew feeds on fish, sponges, small crustaceans, nematode worms and protozoans.
Benny's diet is very specialized, consisting mainly of the interior of Ramy nuts, nectar from the Traveller's Palm tree, some fungi and insect grubs. He is also known to raid coconut plantations, and has been seen eating lychees and mangoes, which are also plantation crops.
July 1, 2010
Category: turtle
New YouTube research definitively proves that turtle society is highly altruistic and that Disney's heretofore refusal to make a movie about them is racism, pure and simple.
Posted by ableiman at 9:09 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 30, 2010
We here at Zooillogix balked at the idea of 'Zombie day' on ScienceBlogs (and secretly loved it, too). What better example than the animal world to show TRUE zombie-ism at its best?
Parasites.
Need I even say more? We've posted and posted again and posted another time about zombies before this day of celebration. But in honor of the day, we have found a few more interesting parasite zombie stories to share with your children when they are misbehaving.
Posted by Julia Chosy at 7:27 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 28, 2010
Category:
Try this quiz. Pick out the titles of actual published scientific articles versus ones generated by a mad-libs-style algorithm....
Post your scores for bragging rights.
In case you need some cheering up after being squashed by this test of your mental acumen, check out these cuties at ZooBorns...
Posted by Julia Chosy at 1:08 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 22, 2010
Category: crab • crabs • crustacean
In this nightmarish time lapse video, a gentle spider crab is internally consumed by a terrifying angry red spider crab who then dispenses of the empty husk of its former host.
... or maybe its just molting
Thanks to our Asian friend Kangatron for sharing.
Posted by ableiman at 2:50 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 21, 2010
Category: aquarium • cephalopod • squid
Stunning footage of deep-sea squids from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), where researchers use remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to observe and record deep-sea animal behaviors.
Posted by ableiman at 10:06 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 3, 2010
Category: drugs • meth • snail
Turns out casual experimention with a little meth here and there is a good thing, if you're a snail. A paper recently published in the Journal of Experimental Biology explains how snails were able to remember negative stimuli longer when under the influence of a bit of speed.
When great pond snails (Lymnaea stagnalis) venture into low oxygen water, they extend a breathing tube above the water's surface. Researchers seperated a bunch of these party snails into two groups and put one sober group in normal water and another in meth-laced water. Then when the snails went to extend their breathing tubes, the researchers poked the top of the tube, and the snail quickly retracted its molluskular snorkel. Two days later, the researchers took the same two groups of snails and returned them to their respective pools (normal water and the one with pure Monster Energy Drink) and watched the results. The snails in regular water once again extended their breathing tubes. However, the meth snails took off their shells and started grinding together on the dance floor to C&C Music Factory. Also, they didn't re-extend their breathing tubes.
This snail passed out in the wrong neighborhood
Researchers say this demonstrates a longer memory due to meth, but maybe it just means that when someone stabs you in the throat on meth, the sheer terror of the experience is multiplied ten fold and it leaves more of an impression on your simple three-neuron snail brain.
Thanks to Chris Cleveland of Dieselpoint Search and Navigation for bringing this to our attention.
Posted by ableiman at 11:12 AM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 25, 2010
Category:
One chrysalis is bursting at the seams! This is what is about to happen...
The newly emerged butterfly will spend its first two hours pumping hemolymph into its wings. In this way, the soft, folded wings will straighten out and become more solid, more flight-ready.
Posted by Julia Chosy at 9:59 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 19, 2010
Category:
Since we last checked in, all 5 of our caterpillars made their transformation to chrysalis! Unfortunately, one of the Georges settled in too close to the side of the container. As he began to pupate, the forming chrysalis touched the plastic side, which must have been enough to cause a small tear in its surface. A few drops of liquid ran down the side, and the little guy stopped pupating. As I have come to find out, the caterpillar actually liquefies as it pupates. From this caterpillar soup, a butterfly will develop over 7 to 10 days. Except in George's case. RIP, George.
Here are a few shots from DAY 11 and DAY 13:
Posted by Julia Chosy at 3:30 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 17, 2010
Category: eel
So a week back or so, a number of friends read an article about death by rectal eel and immediately thought of me. For those of you who missed the story, it went a little something like this:
* Chinese man gets drunk with friends and passes out
* Friends think it would be hilarious to insert a large living swamp eel into the man's butt while he is unconscious
* Hilarity does not ensue. In fact, the man dies. Chinese doctor says the eel "consumed the man's bowels"
The article was widely reported in major news outlets like CNN and the Times, but I am linking instead to the UK edition of Practical Fishkeeping. Like the other articles, it is a cautionary tale about the dangers of combining booze, Chinese people and eels. However, also like the other articles, it is suspiciously short on detail.
Well I, for one, was skeptical. #1 Wouldn't there be a near total lack of dissolved oxygen in aqueous solution in your intestines? #2 Wouldn't it be challenging for an eel to open its jaws in there? Realizing that I was a bit out of my depth, I shared these concerns with two doctors who know a thing or two about a man's bowels. I would like to share the thoughts of one in particular who we will call "Saylor Tchreiber" to protect his reputation:
First of all, thank you for adding a solid dose of hilarity to what has otherwise been, a fairly mundane Monday.
Assuming that these 'friends' were actually able to wriggle the eel through the poor guys a-hole, it is technically possible that this eel could have caused the death of this person...though probably not as stated, and the process would likely have been more sensational than it sounded in the article.
First of all, the wall of the intestine itself is quite elastic, so there would be plenty of room for the eel to open it's mouth and bite the mans intestine. Second, the intestine is constantly turning back and forth on itself, so it would likely be the case that the eel could have bit through one of the many in-foldings of the intestine, thus leading to the intestinal contents spilling into the peritoneal cavity. Once this barrier was breached, the eel would find itself in an acqueous environment, low, but not devoid, in oxygen. This whole process would be INTENSELY painful, and I find it unlikely that someone even in the utmost depths of a drunken stupor would not have awoken. The article gives no time-frame to the death, but were the eel to sever one of the major arteries passing through the peritoneal cavity, it is possible that he could have died due to a massive internal hemorrhage. This would have occurred quite quickly. A much longer, more miserable, and unlikely possibility is that the eel may have eventually died within the guy, but that the combination of bacteria, physical trauma and blood loss within the peritoneal cavity would have provided an environment ripe for developing sepsis.
On the other hand, a search for medical case studies describing any medical case involving (eel AND intestine) does not bring up any hits whatsoever....I'll make sure to write it up should I ever be given the opportunity...
So there you have it. Sometimes death by anal swamp eel is really just what it sounds like.
Posted by ableiman at 6:50 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Page 3.14 05.11.2010
Uncertain Principles 07.28.2010
Tomorrow Table 07.27.2010
The Thoughtful Animal 07.26.2010
Guilty Planet 07.13.2010
