Here's a picture of an animal that I took (and played around with) a few years ago. The DNA sequence that's superimposed over the picture came from that individual, so you can probably use it to figure out what species you're looking at (if you're so inclined). You can click on the image for a higher resolution version. The animal in question was (obviously) in captivity when the picture was taken, but it has since been re-released into the wild. It was held within 10 miles of the place it was captured, and the picture was not taken in Australia. Can anyone guess where the picture was taken? (Members of my family and Australian philosophers of biology are disqualified from this quiz.)
- Log in to post comments
More like this
On Tuesday, I posted a "can you identify this animal" quiz. I put a picture of an animal up, along with some information about it. The photograph was taken with the animal in captivity, at a location that was relatively near where the animal lived in the wild. The picture was not taken in…
As I've mentioned before, I've been spending a lot of time working on a book.
Initially, I was working on a book made up of a collection of material from blog posts;
along the way, I got diverted, and ended up writing a book about cloud computing using
Google's AppEngine tools. The book isn't…
Over the weekend Neil Phillips, Richard Hing, Jonathan McGowan and I went into the field, in quest of tetrapods (Jon and Neil are shown in the adjacent image, as are other mammals). And we saw a bunch. In an effort to produce a post that is essentially an excuse to showcase some of Neil's photos (…
Contempt is never wise in biology. The creature that you look down on as lowly, degenerate, or disgusting may actually turn out to be sophisticated, successful, and--in some cases--waiting to tell you a lot about yourself. That's certainly the case for lice.
The human body louse, Pediculus humanus…
My guess is kangaroo rat and the photo taken in . . . Arizona? I don't know off the top of my head where kangarats are from. But it's my guess and not a google cheat.
Agile wallaby? (or some other wallaby?)
I wondered if it's a Bennett's wallaby (but I thought their tails are more pointed) as they have been introduced/escaped outside Australia, including England and, I believe, New Zealand. When I tried to check up on the last point I discovered that brush-tailed rock-wallabies have been introduced to New Zealand and the name certainly fits the tail, so I'll go for that.
The animal does not need to be introduced to not live in Australia!
But wait, agiles have a pointy tail. This could be a bush tailed wallaby, but then it WOULD have to be an introduced population. Maybe.
(OR is it the elusive white-eyed New Caledonaian Forest Wallaby....)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brush-tailed_Rock-wallaby
"Due to an escape of a pair in the 1920s, a small breeding population of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies also exists on the island of Oahu in Hawaii."
I imagine the DNA sequence was taken to confirm that this small population is in fact descended from the original pair.
The picture to me looks very close to the rock-wallaby, but if I am wrong about Oahu, I guess New Guinea as there are native species of wallaby there as well. Actually, now that I look further this picture looks awfully close to an Agile Wallaby joey found here: http://www.worldwildlife.org/expeditions/newguinea/species.cfm
Don't know one wallaby from another. Is this the one which is established in Hawaii and is said to have differentiated to the level of being a new species?
Aw, hell. I'm in your family and I have no idea where the picture was taken. My best guess is the southwestern corner of Houston and Allen Street.
Is it a tree kangaroo?
It's a brush-tailed rock wallaby, innit? Apart from the population on Oahu, is there still a bunch of them in New Zealand?
A blast search identifies the sequence as
as a partial sequence of a mitochondrial control region of Petrogale penicillata (brush-tailed rock wallaby). Genbank: AY040891
brush-tailed rock wallaby probably from either the island of Motutapu or Kawau, New Zealand.
It's a giant rat:
I'd guess at a Rodent of Unusual Size in the fire swamp.
But I'm not an expert on the wildlife of the Gilder / Florian border.
sparc: Can you exclude the other wallabies????
Thufferin' thuccostash! It'th a giant mouthe! Go get 'im, thon!
... Thath's my boy!
It wasn't a rock, it was a rock ...WALLABY
oooh oooh