Organisms
pharyngula | November 6, 2009Face it, guys: we all wish we had a penis with the versatility and length and flexibility of the barnacle's.
Mating barnacles from Casey Dunn on Vimeo.
pharyngula | November 5, 2009Be not faint of heart, O Loyal Cephalopodophiles, but National Geographic has a whole series of photos of a squid slaughter.
The whales are shameless. They're just swimming around with tattered corpses dangling from their mouths, and they even dandle the bits in front of their babies, to encourage them to join in the wanton massacre.
Oh, the architeuthidae.
pharyngula | November 2, 2009
If you'd like to see two metazoans at once, there's another photo of Carl Buell and crow in this series.
pharyngula | October 26, 2009Reader Lindsay sent along this pair of photos of a moose taking a stroll along a dirt road near Elliot Lake, near Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan 's Upper Peninsula.
That's not a footpath, by the way. It's a single lane dirt road for cars, just to give some sense of how big this beast is.
pharyngula | October 23, 2009Nautilus pompilius
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | October 22, 2009Join me in feeling some taxonomic loyalty to our class in defiance of our ancient enemy, those feathered reptiles, the birds. The BBC has footage of eagles hunting and killing young reindeer — they swoop down and stab their talons into their lungs, and then wait for them to die. Ouch. Poor Bambi Rudolph.*
I will also note that this is yet another shot in the great War on Christmas. They're killing Santa's livestock! I suspect the Christian toy-god also has to fret over bird strikes in flight.
*Apologies. My prior secular metaphor was in error, and I have replaced it with the name of a true…
pharyngula | October 17, 2009Lying in the wheelbarrow is the body of Dorothy, a chimpanzee who died suddenly of natural causes; the people in the scene are preparing to bury her. Behind the fence is a quiet gathering of her friends.
It makes me wish I could have a conversation with a chimpanzee. I wonder what they are thinking, and how close their feelings would be to those of a human family…
pharyngula | October 16, 2009Octopus dierythraeus
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | October 15, 2009I think the best thing to do with this video by Jon Rawlinson is let it load in HD, put it on full screen, and set back and mellow out for a few minutes.
You know, the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan could have a real money-maker video here: just aim a camera at that tank for hours, fill up a DVD, and sell it online. They could do a whole series. I'd buy it.
Man, it's a pretty cool planet we've got here. I hope we can take better care of it, so it isn't all confined to a few large tanks here and there.
pharyngula | October 9, 2009Sepia latimanus
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | October 2, 2009Euprymna tasmanica
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | September 28, 2009
Sad to say, I've seen a grand total of ONE monarch butterfly here in Morris this fall. When I moved here in 2000, we'd see them in swarms — there were scattered spots around town where clusters of monarchs would drape the trees and flutter about. Now…nearly nothing.
pharyngula | September 27, 2009How can you resist a post about chimaeras and their amazing forehead specializations?
pharyngula | September 25, 2009Graneledone sp.
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | September 23, 2009The picture tells the story.
Be sure to follow the link to see the gear used to take the picture!