mammals
edyong | January 31, 2009
Hollywood cavemen typically communicate with grunts and snorts, reflecting a belief that human language originated like this and slowly evolved into the rich and sophisticated tongues we use today. But researchers from Emory University, Atlanta have found evidence that the origins of human language could lie in gestures, not words. If they are right, then high-fives, V-signs and thumbs-ups could more closely reflect the beginnings of human language than conversations do.
All primates can communicate with each other through facial expressions, body postures and calls, but humans and apes are…
laelaps | January 31, 2009
A California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), photographed at the North Carolina Zoo.
grrlscientist | January 30, 2009tags: St. Andrew Beach Mouse, Peromyscus polionotus peninsularis, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
St. Andrew Beach Mouse (Peromyscus polionotus peninsularis)
6,000 (Estimates range from 3,500 to 6,000).
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that National Geographic also appreciates his exemplary work. You can view more endangered animals of the United States that were photographed by the talented Joel Sartore here at National Geographic online. All images appear…
laelaps | January 30, 2009
A North American river otter (Lontra canadensis), photographed at the North Carolina Zoo.
"Laelaps", seen photographing an otter at the North Carolina Zoo.
laelaps | January 29, 2009
A California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), photographed at the North Carolina Zoo.
grrlscientist | January 28, 2009tags: Mexican Gray Wolf, Canis lupus baileyi, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
Mexican Gray Wolf (Canis lupus baileyi)
320 (60 wild, 260 captive).
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
The photographer writes;
Still on shaky ground, the Mexican gray wolf, an endangered subspecies, is slowly increasing in number in Arizona and New Mexico thanks to captive breeding.
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that National Geographic also appreciates his exemplary work. You can view more endangered animals…
grrlscientist | January 26, 2009tags: Alabama Beach Mouse, Peromyscus polionotus ammobates, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
Alabama Beach Mouse (Peromyscus polionotus ammobates)
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
The photographer writes;
The Alabama beach mouse ekes out a living on a 14-mile stretch of the state's Fort Morgan Peninsula, where its dune habitat is fragmented by construction and lit up at night. Habitat saved under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) prevented these nocturnal mice from going the way of the dodo.
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog…
laelaps | January 26, 2009
A female Hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas), photographed at the North Carolina Zoo.
laelaps | January 25, 2009
The AMNH mount of the Warren Mastodon. From The American Museum Journal.
Glendon's session on Art & Science last weekend inspired me to intensify my search for bits of paleontological art, and I have been fortunate enough to uncover some more verses about a prehistoric beast. Here is Hannah F. Gould's "The Mastodon", published in the prosaically-titled New Poems in 1850;
THE MASTODON.
Thou ponderous truth, from thy long night's sleep
Through the unrecorded eras
Awaked, and come from their darkness deep
To this day of light chimeras! --
What wast thou, when thy mountain form
Stood forth…
edyong | January 25, 2009Cuttlefish are intelligent animals that can hide from predators by changing colour and texture, and squirting out a smokescreen of black ink. But amazing though cuttlefish are, their defences mean nothing against one of the most intelligent hunters in the ocean - the bottlenose dolphin.
Julian Finn, Tom Tregenza and Mark Norman (the trio who first described the amazing mimic octopus) have discovered a single female bottlenose, who has developed a way of hunting cuttlefish. Not only does she successfully capture them, but she has learned how to prepare them for the perfect meal, with all the…
laelaps | January 25, 2009
A ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), photographed at the Duke Lemur Center.
laelaps | January 24, 2009
A grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), photographed at the North Carolina Zoo.
laelaps | January 23, 2009
The skull of Basilosaurus, from the 1907 Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution.
In 1900 the famous bone sharp Barnum Brown discovered the skeleton of a huge carnivorous dinosaur in Wyoming, and near its bones were a few fossilized bony plates. When H.F. Osborn described this creature as Dynamosaurus imperiosus he used this association to hypothesize that this predator was covered in armor, but as it turned out "Dynamosaurus" was really a representative of another new dinosaur Osborn named Tyrannosaurus rex. Osborn's famous tyrant showed no sign of being covered with armor, and the…
laelaps | January 20, 2009
A red wolf (Canis lupus rufus), photographed at the North Carolina Zoo. The two wolves in this enclosure were the least shy of any that I have seen (as Tracey said, they were "dogified").