Mythical Creatures Infographic

If you're looking for more cryptozoological craziness, 

just ask Conrad Gesner.

Cat-tar Solo

Fibonacci Pigeons

SHOULDN'T WE BE CONCERNED?!

Overloaded with Party Energy

We've all been there.

WHO HAS TRAINED WHOM?

[the choreographer; the rest]

The Fruits of Our Saturday Morning Stumbling-Upon

Obligatory Cat Cuteness Post

I haz a sidewayz

Every self respecting blogger should at some point address how cute their cat is. Hell, lots of bloggers' sole concern is their cat's cuteness- after all, it's vital internet business that must be conducted, updating a public in desperate need of a friggin' escape from stress and anxiety, lest the big truck series of tubes fail and modern society collapse, only the most stalwart of us survivors bravely weathering the ensuing cuteness dearth.

Anyway, thank the Majesties that won't happen. This is Akimbo, a name far superior to Dyanasty (gross), the name her adoption papers gave her. We've had her for about 5 months, she's about 9 months old now. She's a bit dumb, totally sweet, and kind of a jerk sometimes. But a member of our little family.

Ibex are Dam Good Climbers

See all the little specks on the Cingino dam in the Italian Alps? They're Alpine Ibex and they're not scared of a little 160-ft hike straight up. Especially if it means they get to lap up a little salt along the way, which is believed to be the reason they are attracted to this nearly sheer drop. I've known some porkers in my day who loved some salt, but dam. 

Perhaps "like an Ibex on a dam" will become a phrase conveying confidence in a tough situation, particularly one where salt is involved. Be on the lookout for your next opportunity to use it!

Via InPic.ru & DailyMail

Dear Internets, Can We Talk?

A Gesture of Love to You.

Hi. It's nice to see you again. I know it's been awhile, but I wanted to see if... well, if there are still any of the old magics between us. I know I treated you wrong, went away for a whole season without saying why (grad school). But I want you back, my digital-darlin'. As you can see by Catonkeyboardinspace, I'm serious about this. 

E. chlorotica is "Half Plant, Half Animal"

This little guy is Elysia chlorotica, a species of sea slug that is able to usurp the chlorophyl-producing capabilities of the algae it eats. For this reason, they are nicknamed "solar-powered sea slugs".

Through a process called Kleptoplasty, the slugs are able to hang onto plants' chloroplasts (the cell organelle responsible for creation and storage of chlorophyl), keeping them intact in specialized cells in the slugs' digestive system. Amazingly, the slugs are also able to incorporate the chlorophyl-producing genes from the algae into their own genetic makeup. This allows them to make use of the burgled chloroplasts. The exact mechanism by which this is achieved is still unclear, but by the end of it, the slug can live off of light alone- up to ten months on the same alga's chloroplasts!

E. chlorotica is the only example in the Animal kingdom known to be able to do this. Incredible, the solutions evolution can come up with to overcome problems in an organism's environment! I, for one, am going to be eating more algae.

Mental Road Block

[Watch this space] for when I feel creative again, after we're through the Summer doldrums. Then I'll post something worthwhile.

Conrad Gesner's Historiae animalium

Conrad Gesner [26 March 1516 – 
13 December 1565]

 Gesner was most noted in his day as a physician, botanist, and Classical linguist. Throughout his life he was interested in biology and collected specimens and descriptions of wildlife through travel and extensive correspondence with other scholars. His approach to research centered upon four tenets: observation, dissection, travel to distant lands, and accurate description. This emergent empirical approach was new to Renaissance scholars, who usually relied entirely upon Classical writers for their research.

His Historiae animalium (Zürich, 1551-1587; "Studies on Animals") is considered to be the first modern zoological work. Building a bridge between ancient, medieval, and modern science, he chronicles data from old sources, such as The Old Testament, Aristotle and medieval bestiaries, and adds his own observations, creating a new, comprehensive description of the Animal Kingdom. In what is the first attempt by anyone to describe many of the animals accurately, the book is illustrated with hand-colored woodcuts drawn from personal observations by Gesner and his colleagues.

Pygmy Jerboa is a Cute Harmless Alien

More specifically, this particular dinosaur-like peculiarity of a rodent is a Baluchistan Pygmy Jerboa (Salpingotulus michaelis). They're indigenous to an area of about 5000 sq/mi in northwest Pakistan, though they might also exist in Afghanistan. Beyond what has been gleaned in the field, not much is really known about them according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), the most widely-accepted scientific authority of its type. They're sure it's vulnerable to some threat, but, humorously, there's not enough data to say what it is with certainty. What facts there are paint the picture in my mind of a jumpy-hamsterlike society that is just darling.

It is a nocturnal, loosely colonial [aww], gregarious [d'awwww...], herbivorous [eating little leaves, aww...] species occuring in rolling sand dunes or barren flat gravel and sandy plains in hot deserts.

[Molur et. al, 2005, a zoologists' report: "Status of South Asian Non-volant Small Mammals", p 192]

In fact, here's the full write up of the little guy from page 192... [Click to Enlarge]

The thing is, even though they're classified only as "vulnerable" rather than "endangered" or even "critically endangered", they're still not pets. They'll need to be monitored closely in their habitat, which means that everyone's curiosity about mail ordering one is, at this point, misspent. Perhaps we'll be successful at keeping them around, and one day you can have one hopping all over your keyboard, making what I imagine are little gibbery-scriggly noises.

I wonder if this is a researcher who filmed this nugget of internet goodness. Perhaps that explains the decision to weigh the little bugger. Or maybe it's just that it's so lightAs somebody in the comments section of That Cute Site: "He almost weighs an eighth!" Just about. :)

Related: Info on IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species

Photographer Amy Stein

Over my two month sabbatical from posting, I managed to get across the river for an evening at the Harvard Museum of Natural History with some friends. The initial lure was a rumored Lucky Dragons show to take place there that (for the second time!) turned out to be a lie. That is, that whole artsy IDM crowd was indeed present, but just let people screw around with their equipment instead of playing themselves. I guess worse things have happened; the people seemed to get into it (despite lacking direction or leadership) and I got to explore the famous Ware Collection of over 3000 true to life glass flowers from around the world.

Which by itself would have sated my desire for novel nature oddities for the evening. But fortunately, around the corner was photographer Amy Stein's Domesticated, a commentary on human-animal relations. Stein uses stuffed models to recreate true to life stories - highlighting the imbalance between society and the wild - and calls into question the meaning of domestication. Several of my favorites here:

Howl

Window

Threat

New Homes

Struggle

Nursery

Grasp

Disturbance

Backyard 

What a sad joke hunting has become.

Trasheaters

Watering Hole

More on the theme of domestication at the artist's blog

Cat Predicts Numerous Deaths, Prompts Book/Journal Article

 

 Oscar the Death Cat

Because of my recent appreciation for Geriatric Psychology/Psychiatry, this article in the Guardian caught my eye. This is certainly amazing, and not something (as far as I can tell) we really understand right now. 

A cat with an uncanny ability to detect when nursing home patients are about to die has proven itself in around 50 cases by curling up with them in their final hours, according to a new book.

...In his book, "Making rounds with Oscar: the extraordinary gift of an ordinary cat", Dr Dosa offers no solid scientific explanation for Oscar's behaviour. [Full story]

And so it's appreciable that this Doctor isn't jumping to any conclusions.

Also, it's intriguing to learn that you can be published in the New England Journal of Medicine simply by saying: "Holy shit! Look at this!"

Octopuses Use Coconuts as Tools, Clearly Smarter than Most College Kids

Veined octopi octopuses (Amphioctopus marginatus) use coconuts as cover.

I've always suspected any given cephalopod to be more intelligent than my neighbors, but I'd never thought one could be so adorable.

--

Posted on BB

Write up in National Geographic

Amphioctopus marginatus wiki page

Fact: Ducklings snore.

Alert everyone!