Weird Animals

hi dere disturbing microaminals

http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/photo/2017-photomicrography-competition

http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/images/galleries/2017/main/4-SmallWorld2.jpg

http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/images/galleries/2017/main/HM-jumpingspideremrecanalagoz.jpg

http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/images/galleries/2017/main/IoD-WaterFlea.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAfyFTzZDMM

The mouth parts on this one! http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/entry/2017-photomicrography-competition/38

microanimal #1 looks like Brak from Space Ghost

a tape worm, I think?

http://rpsscience.production.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/International-Images-for-Science/international-images-science-2017/gschmeissner_steve_mosquito_foot_aaa88ccca432.jpg

massive magnification of a mosquito's foot

wild

This splendid twitter thread on weird foxes will be worth your time

in the face of insomnia i will attempt to assign letter grades to the weird foxes. please stand by and watch this space for weird fox letter grades,, thank you

— Colin J Carlson (@ColinJCarlson) November 12, 2017

:-)

cubism is alive and well

excellent grading game by colin there

Couldn't see an flying foxes, so that's a demerit.

https://www.instagram.com/rfedortsov/

https://78.media.tumblr.com/f185da90d18b9a58453e8ae574eae874/tumblr_inline_oyerlj5HoK1qh595v_1280.jpg

https://montereybayaquarium.tumblr.com/post/168133085343/amnhnyc-is-this-the-face-you-make-on-monday

https://78.media.tumblr.com/bd6b00c08f6e24b472966d0c1bf1e616/tumblr_nchfyouJg71t6s9cjo1_1280.jpg

https://montereybayaquarium.tumblr.com/post/168665430297/mooonjellies-spearfish

Looks delicious.

Like poached egg on cauliflower.

Taken at near noon in sunlight. A missed opportunity for something like this (taken at 25 m in the Maldives in 2014).

https://78.media.tumblr.com/558eb6930f366b8e3a9aee06a0d54cbd/tumblr_p7usycWakG1ui50dco1_540.jpg

The crabs are known for their signature move of always carrying a small living sea anemone around in each of its claws, which helps them catch food and protect themselves from predators (thought to resemble pom-poms or boxing gloves).

http://www2.padi.com/blog/2015/05/14/facts-about-the-pom-pom-crab/

nature is awesome

https://montereybayaquarium.tumblr.com/post/175029290848/oceanportal-fun-fact-3-for-most-cephalopods

Lots of paper nautilus links this week, here's a good one: https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/the-seamstress-and-the-secrets-of-the-argonaut-shell/

Really interesting! Thanks.

That is a great article.

Meet the meme-friendly axolotl: https://www.quantamagazine.org/axolotl-genome-slowly-yields-secrets-of-limb-regrowth-20180702/

https://youtu.be/VCJnlpUY-3g

Sea harbors xenomorph shocker.

https://www.boston.com/news/animals/2018/12/07/hawaiian-monk-seals-eels-noses

Wow. That is...just, wow.

I love this weird planet.

Researchers have already determined this is not the result of a human with a personal vendetta against seals and eels because all the cases were reported from remote islands that are only frequented by scientists.

I mean...how would someone even go about doing something like that anyway?

It's probably just hip. And everyone knows that having an eel hanging out of our left nostril is the gay nostril.

https://ourblueplanet.bbcearth.com/blog/?article=incredible-sex-changing-fish-from-blue-planet

https://youtu.be/u7QXdlSBGGY

A Sometimes Tadpole.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/01/amazing-pictures-of-fish-other-freshwater-river-wildlife/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=sunstills_20190113::rid=29522540095#/river-life-oregonpacificlamprey_freshwaterlife_freshwatersillustrated.jpg

those photos are amazing... the one of the newts is like a bosch painting.

agreed; the whole spread is worth exploring. The lamprey though...

http://www.southernfriedscience.com/your-car-has-just-been-crushed-by-hagfish-frequently-asked-questions/

Hagfish Day is the third Wednesday in October.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/60129/11-fascinating-facts-about-frilled-shark

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/01/half-male-half-female-cardinal-pennsylvania/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/02/unicorn-praying-mantis-discovered-atlantic-forest
photos deliver

The colors!

https://phys.org/news/2016-04-sexual-reproduction-rotifers-scavenge-genes.html

Sequencing a bdelloid rotifer genome produced a big surprise, as about 8% of the genes looked foreign. Some genes were typical of fungi or bacteria, and endowed the rotifer with handy new properties such as breaking down toxins or using new foodstuffs. This "horizontal transfer" between rotifers and other organisms is ancient and ongoing.

Foreign DNA is spread all over the rotifer genome. So how did it get there? It seems that dehydration makes holes in cell membranes that can suck up DNA. The rotifers' efficient mechanism for repairing double stranded DNA breaks in dehydrated animals is perfect for incorporating foreign DNA into the genome.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2016-04-sexual-reproduction-rotifers-scavenge-genes.html#jCp

That's quite amazing!

Aww: https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/horizontal-gene-transfer-in-bdelloid-rotifers-questioned-64483

TLDR dirty test tubes may have contaminated the DNA sequencing, so the intraspecies horizontal gene transfer is still an open question.

Plants are weird too! https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/mystery-undead-tree-stump/594673/

With extra credit for this beautiful arrangement:

Underground, trees are intimately connected. The fungi on their roots can wire adjacent individuals to one another and ferry nutrients between them, creating what ecologists have come to call a “wood-wide web.”

Parasitic barnacles! https://youtu.be/B9_RUwR3RFU?t=375

Rapacious caterpillar!

https://youtu.be/2zfNDvT28rU

that thing looks delicious

spiders flying on electrostatic waves
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/07/the-electric-flight-of-spiders/564437/