Diego and the dolphins

me

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:06:38 -0400

no me había percatado que mi nombre favorito ahora es diferente…

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 23:59:24 -0400

no me había percatado que mi nombre favorito ahora es diferente…

Photo

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 23:18:33 -0400

rhamphotheca: Ever wonder what the ancestors of modern-day...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 23:01:37 -0400

rhamphotheca:

Ever wonder what the ancestors of modern-day whales and penguins looked like?

Here is one idea, from artist Carl Buell, showing three ancient whales and a penguin from around 50 million years ago discovered by Smithsonian paleontologist Nick Pyenson.

Read Nick’s blog post about the discovery on the Ocean Portal blog.

Photo Credit: Carl Buell, http://carlbuell.com/

HOW THE HAIRY-CHESTED ‘HOFF’ CRAB EVOLVED Douglas...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:51:00 -0400

HOW THE HAIRY-CHESTED ‘HOFF’ CRAB EVOLVED

Douglas Main Live Science

Yeti crabs grow their food in their own hair, trapping bacteria and letting it flourish there before “combing” it out and slurping it up. The crabs are found near cold seeps and hydrothermal vents, places where mineral-rich water spews out of the seafloor.

Like many animals that live in these extreme environments,yeti crabs have been thought of as “living fossils,” largely isolated from the rest of world and, therefore, unchanged for eons. But new research shows these animals actually evolved relatively recently, suggesting the deep-sea environments the crabs call home may be more changeable than previously thought and more vulnerable to shifts in the atmosphere and climate, said Oxford University researcher Nicolai Roterman.

Upon helping to discover the crab, Roterman nicknamed it the “Hoff” crab, after the shaggy-chested actor David Hasselhoff. “It was the first name that popped into my head,” Roterman said. “And it stuck…

instabeards: @dbails

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:22:46 -0400

instabeards:

@dbails

the-abyssopelagic: Isopod is freeking freeky. nooooo...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:03:58 -0400

the-abyssopelagic:

Isopod is freeking freeky.

nooooo Bathynomus are the most beautifull and cute creature in the ocean!!

h0mosexually-active: Giant Isopod - My favorite prehistoric...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:59:19 -0400

h0mosexually-active:

Giant Isopod - My favorite prehistoric creature. They’re absolutely adorable!

but they are not prehistorics…. :(

fuckyeahisopods: ephelis: tru its creepy as heck wow would...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:55:42 -0400

fuckyeahisopods:

ephelis:

tru its creepy as heck

wow would you look at that!

me, in my free time

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:37:32 -0400

me, in my free time

CANNIBALISM AND GLOBAL WARMING Jonathan Amos | BBC An adult...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:23:00 -0400

CANNIBALISM AND GLOBAL WARMING

Jonathan Amos | BBC

An adult polar bear is seen dragging the body of a cub that it has just killed across the Arctic sea ice. Polar bears normally hunt seals but if these are not available, the big predators will seek out other sources of food - even their own kind.

The picture was taken by environmental photojournalist Jenny Ross in Olgastretet, a stretch of water in the Svalbard archipelago.}

This type of intraspecific predation has always occurred to some extent However, there are increasing numbers of observations of it occurring, particularly on land where polar bears are trapped ashore, completely food-deprived for extended periods of time due to the loss of sea ice as a result of climate change - Jenny Ross

Olgastretet is a passage of water that divides the two main islands of Svalbard. Traditionally, it has been an area that has stayed ice-covered throughout much of the year. But the recent dramatic retreat of Arctic sea ice in summer months has seen open water appear in the area for increasingly extended periods.

Photo: Jenny Ross

Reference: Stirling and Ross, 2011, Observations of cannibalism by polar bears, on summer and autumn sea ice at Svalbard, Norway

mucholderthen: MARINE BRISTLE WORMSby ~half-scientific Another...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:14:11 -0400

mucholderthen:

MARINE BRISTLE WORMS
by ~half-scientific

Another Chinese dragon
Polychaeta Eteone longa

Biohelix
Polychaeta, Phyllodocida, Glycera capitata

The Polychaeta or polychaetes are a class of annelid worms, generally marine. Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made of chitin.

The genus Glycera is a group of polychaetes (bristle worms) commonly known as blood worms.

theolduvaigorge: How to Find a Fossil by Shaena...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:13:49 -0400

theolduvaigorge:

How to Find a Fossil

by Shaena Montanari

“Since the summer is the field season for many of us, I thought I would write a little bit about the first step in paleontological discovery: actually going out and looking for fossils. I will admit, when I first started graduate school and had never gone on any sort of expedition, I had no idea how anyone ever found a fossil. When you ask a non-paleo person, many times, they think you just show up somewhere and indiscriminately start digging a hole hoping to find bones. I’m happy to say sometimes we are a little more efficient than that…but sometimes not by much.

Humans have been discovering fossils for thousands of years, and ancient societies have in fact recorded finding bones in the ground accidentally (a topic I am interested in writing more about for a future post!) Similarly, in the modern era, serendipity is often needed to find great fossils. Sometimes it is a farmer tilling a field, workers digging coal mines, or children out exploring; some lucky catalyzing event usually clues us in to an area’s fossil bearing possibilities.

I started my field work in the Gobi Desert of Monoglia. The tradition of finding great fossils in Mongolia is a long one, dating back to the 1920s and the expeditions of Roy Chapman Andrews. He went to Mongolia hoping to find human fossils, but actually stumbled upon a vast trove of fossils, including the first specimens of animals such as Velociraptor and Indricotherium. Because of this detailed history, we have a good idea of what specific rock formations contained fossils.

When I first went out into the field in Mongolia, I heard the story of how Ukhaa Tolgod, one of the greatest Cretaceous Mongolian fossil localities, was discovered. Basically, one of the many vehicles had gotten stuck in the sand, and so it was going to take a while to tow. The leaders of the expedition decided to go check out a red hill in the distance that looked like the same sort of rock as the famous Flaming Cliffs. When they pulled up and saw skulls and skeletons dotting the ground, they knew they had hit the jackpot. The crew has since visited hundreds of similar looking sites that appear to be the same formation, but found no fossils, so it goes to show you that if you keep your boots on the ground long enough you might only be lucky enough to find a handful of great sites” (read more).

(Source: Scientific American)

freedomforwhales: Japan to insist on legitimacy of whaling...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:03:44 -0400

freedomforwhales:

Japan to insist on legitimacy of whaling program

Japan will defend its whaling program in the Antarctic Ocean at the upcoming international court hearings on Australia’s case against Japan’s so-called research whaling, and will insist at the International Court of Justice in The Hague that its whaling program is legitimate. They claim it is aimed at scientific research purposes and therefore does not violate an international moratorium against commercial whaling as Australia claims. The oral hearings, which will be held between June 26 and July 16, are the last phase in legal proceedings before the court makes its decision on the legality of Japan’s whaling — possibly by the end of this year.

Japan will not be able to hunt whales in Antarctic waters should the court decide against the country’s whaling. Australia brought the case against Japan in 2010, and the ICJ has since received written submissions from both parties. New Zealand will also participate in the proceedings to state its opinion on the matter.

Photo/Info Source

"The whale quota is for 154 fin whales but 20% of unused quota from last season can be added to that..."

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:32:42 -0400

“The whale quota is for 154 fin whales but 20% of unused quota from last season can be added to that number, so possibly a total of 180 whales will be caught.”

- Iceland ramps up hunting endangered Fin Whales. Via (via climateadaptation)

Phidiana hiltoni

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:29:49 -0400

Phidiana hiltoni

scienceyoucanlove: Evolutionary enigmas: Comb jelly genetics...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:21:56 -0400

scienceyoucanlove:

Evolutionary enigmas:

Comb jelly genetics suggest a radical redrawing of the tree of life

by Amy Maxmen

Steve Haddock remembers every detail about his first ocean encounter with a comb jelly. The open water was a bottomless deep blue. The animal, about the size of a tennis ball, shimmered with bioluminescence. “It was just cruising along like a hover craft,” says Haddock, a marine biologist at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, Calif. “Comb jellies are more alien than any aliens people imagine,” he says.

Start with their appearance: The marine animals resemble translucent balloons rigged with flashing, colored lights. Some species glow. When startled, some flash electric blue. Vertical rows, or combs, made of hundreds of iridescent, hairlike cilia run the lengths of their globular bodies (thus the name comb jellies). In some species the cilia are 2 millimeters long — 200 times the length of cilia in other animals — and they beat in coordinated waves, propelling the jellies forward, backward and diagonally in search of prey…

(read more: Science News)

somuchscience: fuckyeahbranchs: colpodaspis_pusilla_03 by Jim...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:20:55 -0400

somuchscience:

fuckyeahbranchs:

colpodaspis_pusilla_03 by Jim A 4454 on Flickr.

Colpodaspis pusilla

70% of plastic ends up in the sea. Mushinews: And it takes...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:20:48 -0400

70% of plastic ends up in the sea.

Mushinews: And it takes nearly forever to degrade. If you see some plastic at the beach, please recycle it :) I do it too! And it don’t take much effort.

deepblueseawhales: Pilot Whale Head (by The Dusty Vagabond)

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:19:05 -0400

deepblueseawhales:

Pilot Whale Head (by The Dusty Vagabond)