She says these guys (it's a WALRUS, not a manatee) really like molluscs, too.
(via National Geographic)
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Last week's metazoan was a walrus, which many people mistook for a manatee. This meant that my inbox was flooded with outraged email from the manatee community, which was deeply offended at the confusion. So, today, here is a portrait of one of the handsomer representatives of the fine warm-water…
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That smart guy, Carl Zimmer, has written an article on those smart molluscs, the octopus. I like that his conclusion is that we can't really judge their intelligence, because it is different than our own.
That's the same answer I give to questions about the existence of intelligent life in the…
Oh the huge manatee!
Needs moar bukkit.
Actually I can see a resemblance. You both have beards.
@Moggie #2
I see no evidence for bukkits in the fossil record, therefore evolution is wrong.
Commencing sticking-fingers-in-ears in 3... 2... 1...
Ellie @1,
I am the Walrus!
I can haz cheezbivalve?
That's ridiculous PZ! You're not that fat!
...{sound of penny dropping}...
Oh it's the beard.
My coat. I gets it.
Louis
Manatee! That's always been my favorite animal.
They like to play with the molluscs, not eat them.
No wait, walrus! All those animals look alike to me. It could be a giraffe for all I can tell.
that's the problem with molluscs, such a large phylum, before you know it you're eating a relative...
animals...meh.
goo-goo goo-joob
AE: troll
O oysters, come and walk with us
The walrus did beseech,
A pleasant talk, a pleasant walk along the briny beach...
Just the tusks are the resemblance?
Not surprised.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
"You are transparent. I see many things. I see plans within plans."
My first thought was "What a sorry looking manatee." Then I took note of the incredible facial hair and realised it was a walrus doing it's best manatee impression. Quite convincing.
Those vibrissae... so distinguished.
#14
If I'm not mistaken, a troll is also a metazoan, however fictitious.
To which I declare, "meh".
Two measly genomic compartments, and not a fucking cell wall to be found. And don't get me started on developmental constraints...
So this is one of the scenes David Lynch cut in which Guild Navigators searched every square centimetre of Caladan's seafloor for the Kwisatz Haderach.
If you look at it just right, it's Homer Simpson.
Walrus? Manatee? Nahhhh.
It's a transitional form. Note the flippers, transitional between legs & fins. It's some kind of tetrapod.
"I did not say this. I am not here."
Walruses do have the same creepy-eye thing going on as navigators. Their mouths are less disturbing though.
AdamK (#15): You beat me to it!
the forehead wrinkles must mean he's concerned about Republicans too (and so he should be, with the the GW denying going on down there).
I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist.
I don't see that, but upside down I could almost get Bart...
The walrus' love of molluscs is well known (see Lewis Carroll): http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/walrus.html
I'm pretty sure the walrus is atheist, too.
Actually, it's a bunch of oysters pretending they are an aquatic Nac Mac Feegle and dressed up in a walrus costume. This explains why it seems to be trying to stand on its head. The oysters in the neck are having an argument with the oysters in the stomach, and so aren't paying attention, allowing the head to drop. The oysters in the brain are fighting everybody, and at least one of the flippers is about to walk off in disgust.
I think the intention is to give a certain carpenter a nasty surprise / lesson.
Gosh PZ, it must seem like looking into a mirror!
The love walruses have for molluscs is well known. Lewis Carroll wrote a poem about walruses and oysters.
"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed--
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."
"Tell me, schatze, is it twue what they say about the way you walwusses are...gifted? Oh, it's twue. It's twue. It's twue, it's twue!"
/Lili Von Shtüpp
From the movie 'Dogma' - 1999
I read in a book, Astonishing Animals, that walruses have been observed to suck out the brains of young seals through the nostrils.
Now, if we could just get him into a suit and on a saddled triceratops...
It's Wilford Brimley.