zooillogix | November 12, 2007These were too cool not to share here. We are like the Robin Hood of scientific imagery... sort of
Larval crab
Copepod
Diatoms
To make matters worse... we can't find the original article these came from... it's over at National Geographic in some article about plankton or something...
zooillogix | November 12, 2007Reported last month in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a fascinating fossil was discovered in the Saar-Nahe Basin of Southwestern Germany (sounds more like somewhere in Middle-earth than Bavaria to us, but go figure). The fossil(s?) comprises a fish that was eaten by an amphibian which was eaten by a shark. It is being described as the oldest snapshot of the vertebrate food chain and represents, if nothing else, some good eatin'.
In case you couldn't visualize it, this last graphic is an EXACT snapshot of what this prehistoric brunch orgy looked like...
The shark lived in…
bleimanb | November 6, 2007
Winter is the first beneficiary of the controversial MMDA (Marine Mammals with Disabilities Act) of 1977
A two year-old bottlenose dolphin has received an artificial flipper after losing hers in a crab trap out at sea. Winter was only three months-old when she was rescued off the Florida coast by a benevolent fisherman who found her thrashing around in the trap's line. She nearly died of her injuries and exhaustion.
Rumor has it that Winter recently auditioned to be Def Leopard's replacement drummer.
She survived, luckily, but had to have her tail fin amputated, before being placed at the…
bleimanb | November 1, 2007We, the Brothers Bleiman, have speculated for years that humans' closest relative outside of the primate group is the colugo or flying lemur. Turns out we were right!
What up, cuz?
Two scientists, one from Penn State the other from Texas A&M, have recently proven that...
...the colugo group is the closest cousin to the primate group. They did this by comparing indels (major reorganizations of genetic sequences) in over 30 different groups of mammals to the indels of humans. Turns out we share 7 indels with colugos, the most of any other group! Of course the colugos, those cheating…
zooillogix | October 31, 2007Using a technique called very high-resolution x-ray computed tomography, researchers at the University of Manchester dissected a 50 million year old spider encased in amber. As reported in Zootaxa, leveraging the same technology used in CAT scans, it can make out features the width of a human hair. In this case, the technique enabled the researchers to identify the critter of Halloween past as a new species.
zooillogix | October 31, 2007We get a lot of requests to feature friends pets on Zooillogix. Some people just don't seem to get the fact that their golden retriever does not belong on a site devoted to bizarre zoology (you know who you are Mike Tippet of 2 Third St., Farfield, CT). However, Jennifer's axolotl, Big Ben, is a welcome guest.
Axolotl's are Mexican neotenic mole salamanders, which fail to go through metamorphosis as larvae and therefore retain their gills and aquatic nature. The axolotl was native to Lake Xochimilco and Lake Chalco in central Mexico, the latter of which no longer exists. However, lucky (?)…
bleimanb | October 30, 2007We've posted a handful of stories about insects being outfitted with surveillance equipment, converted into cyborgs and even remade as robots, but what about using insects as instruments of biological warfare? As it turns out, this may be the most likely and frightening scenario. Ira Flatow, a close personal friend of Zooillogix (we're assuming), went over this scenario on this recent episode of his NPR show, Talk of the Nation's Science Friday.
Death to American pets!
The episode quotes Jeffrey Lockwood, an entomologist at the University of Wyoming, explaining that the danger of such an…
bleimanb | October 29, 2007Researchers from the University of Bangor recently discovered the oldest known animal on record, a 405 year-old clam, while dredging at the bottom of the North Atlantic above Iceland. Then they killed it.
When I was your age, we used to have to walk to school, up hill both ways, and the ocean temperature was 6 degrees colder, and Bangor was run by Abnaki Indians, not snooty, tweed coated liberals.
The animal --an ocean quahog nicknamed Ming because that's which dynasty was ruling China when the old feller was born--was precisely 31 years older than the previous record holder, another ocean…
bleimanb | October 26, 2007Who would have thought that the wandering albatross flew around the earth randomly with absolutely no plan? Apparently the person who named it.
According to some fishermen, albatrosses look "wicked baked."
Scientists used to believe that albatrosses followed a strange mathematical formula when flying around the globe in search of food. Turns out they were wrong. New data suggests that albatrosses have no rhyme or...
reason to their movements, and indeed are flying long distances completely randomly.
According to this article in the New Zealand Herald, data gathered over ten years ago…
zooillogix | October 26, 2007According to the Tree of Life project, Promachoteuthis sulcus is known from a single, small (25 mm ML, sex unknown) but distinctive individual from great depths in the south Atlantic Ocean. Now Benny and I are no cephalopodologists, but those chompers look a little different from the typical squid beak which we have come to know and fear.
Those of you looking to find or avoid the aforementioned denture squid should steer clear of here: 36°49'S, 12°17'W off Tristan Da Cunha, south Atlantic Ocean. Captured from WALTHER HERWIG at 1750-2000 m depth (open net).
Kevin Z? PZ? Other…
bleimanb | October 25, 2007The annual Shell Wildlife Photography contest is winding to a close, and the winners have been chosen. The award-winning shots will go on display at the Natural History Museum of London October 27th and then embark on a world-wide tour.
Wild stoats are well known to have a love of whole grains...
You can see some of the shots here in this article from the Telegraph.
Make sure you click on the link in the article to actually see the pics.
zooillogix | October 23, 2007As reported in the AP, six Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted after drinking alcohol in northeast India and going berserk. Apparently the animals have developed a taste for rice beer, fermented by farmers in plastic drums, and come looking for it when they enter villages. Perhaps taking a cue from the aforementioned self-immolating squirrel, the elephants then uprooted a utility pole and, sadly, zapped themselves. "It's great to have such a huge number of elephants, but the increasing man-elephant conflict following the shrinkage in their habitat due to the growing human population is…
bleimanb | October 23, 2007This was posted by our good friends over at cracked.com. (Actually, I think they are good friends of mine...old college buddies from my days as a lovable scamp at Gtown!) Anyway, worth a read.
(Disclaimer: do not read if you have a weak stomach)
6 Most Terrifying Foods in the World
zooillogix | October 22, 2007Hudson County Now reported late last week that a flaming squirrel fell from the sky and blew up a woman's car in Bayonne, NJ. Lindsey Millar, 23, and her brother, Tony, 22, were inside their home when they looked outside and saw Lindsey's car in flames. Local firefighters were called and after extinguishing the flames they found the crispy culprit. Apparently the squirrel had been gnawing on power lines directly above Lindsey's Toyota Camry. After chewing through the power lines' protective coating, the electric current was enough to turn the fluffy squirrel into a flaming comet. In a…
bleimanb | October 22, 2007Scientists were startled last month when they discovered that mangrove killifish, a fish native to Florida, Central America and the Caribbean, spend weeks of the year living in the rotten branches of trees, fully out of the water. The fish typically live in pools of water made by the roots of mangrove trees. When those pools dry up, however, the fish "flop their way" into rotten branches, using tunnels dug out by insects. There they...
If you listen carefully, you can hear them singing...
line up end to end with one another and wait out waterier pastures.
Three details make the killifish…
bleimanb | October 18, 2007
Scientists at the University of Puerto Rico have discovered that sea cucumbers heal better than most animals in the world by directing their healing abilities toward their organs first. Scientists have long known that sea cucumbers belong to an exclusive group of creatures that is capable of both healing their wounds and regenerating parts of their body. The finding is particularly interesting because, contrary to popular belief, sea cucumbers use the same kind of healing that humans do to regenerate and fix their organs. Said Professor Garcia-Arraras of UP, "Many people, including…
zooillogix | October 16, 2007The AP just reported that project leader Dr. Larry Madin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Phillipine scientists returned from two weeks in the Celebes Sea, located off the Phillippines southernmost archipelago, this Tuesday with some potential new deep sea discoveries. Among the more interesting finds were a strange black jellyfish, a transparent sea cucumber and a spiny orange worm that had 10 squid-like tentacles. "I'll have to try a bite of each one with Old Bay before we determine whether they are truly new species or not" Dr. Madin joked. Adding, "you think I'm kidding,…
zooillogix | October 12, 2007We were sent a link to this vid by a promotions guy working for National Geographic hoping we would bring some grass roots attention to a new show they have coming up. Well we will, but only because it's great watching this moron get what he deserves.
Hopefully we will see more of Brady Barr getting bitten in the future on National Geographic's new show, Dangerous Encounters.
bleimanb | October 12, 2007A UK-based company recently unveiled a new mousetrap that utilizes technology rather than Monterey jack to capture and then slaughter adorable mice. The company, Rentokil (nope, not kidding), has developed a contraption that looks like the opening to a tunnel, preying on mice's natural curiosity that any dark hole may have delicious food waiting inside. Upon entering the hole, however, the mice trigger an infrared beam, which closes the door behind them. Once the doors are shut, the trap releases carbon dioxide until the mice pass out and then die of asphyxiation. The time of capture to the…