Eye Candy: Movements in Red (Infrared Time Lpase)

Happy Darwin day! Ze Frank's True Facts about the Katydid

Ze Frank's- True Facts About The Tarsier

zeFranks, True Facts About The Seahorse

Zefrank- True Facts About The Angler Fish

Sometimes I Take Pictures

Sometimes I Take Pictures

Eye Candy: Long Exposure Photo Of Moth Flight

The Japanese Giant Salamander

Dinosaur Feathers in Amber

Earlier this week, a paper published in the Journal Science described a collection of dinosaur feathers suspended in amber. The 11 samples described in the paper were found amongst a collection of some 4,000 amber deposits held in various museums in Alberta, Canada. These ancient feathers were trapped in amber (fossilized tree resin) around 70-80 million years ago, sometime during the late Cretaceous period.

According to the paper's abstract, the structure of the protofeathers found in the deposits, demonstrate several different evolutionary adaptations of the feather, including those used in flight, as well as underwater diving. And because of their preservation inside amber, these specimens also reveal the actual pigmentation of the feathers; which range in color from brown to black.

For those of you who haven't kept up with your paleontology or evolutionary biology very well over the years, and find all this talk of dinosaurs and feathers a bit confusing; and because it's been a while since I indulged myself with a lengthy science entry, I offer the following:

The dominant view in science today is that modern birds are in fact, dinosaurs. More specifically, birds are considered by most scientists to be modern examples of a family of dinosaurs known as theropods, which evolved during the Mesozoic era ( 250 to 65 million years ago). This idea, or at least the idea that modern birds were descended from dinosaurs, was first proposed shortly after the publication of Charles Darwin's origin of species in 1859, by British biologist Thomas H Huxley.

Huxley came to believe in the dinosaur's ancestry to birds, after comparing the anatomy of the "first bird" fossil, Archaeopteryx Lithographica, with that of a small theropod dinosaur called Comsognathus, which he noted were -aside from Archaeopteryx's feathers and hands- extremely similar to one another. Huxley made his case for the link between the two animals, and their likely ancestry to modern birds in, "On the Animals which are most nearly intermediate between Birds and Reptiles" , published in "The Annals and Magazine of Natural History", in 1868.

At the time of Huxley's research the popular consensus was that dinosaurs had not developed into birds, but that birds -like every other modern species- had their own lineage; one which had arisen completely independently from dinosaurs. Archaeopteryx, therefore, represented the first primitive form of the species now known as birds, rather than a transition between dinosaur and bird, as Huxley had asserted. As a result of this opposition to the Darwinian notion of transmutation, Huxley's theory faded from interest, and the belief that birds and dinosaurs had evolved separately, remained the most popular scientific view for nearly the next hundred years.

But Interest in Huxley's theory would finally be fully revived in 1964, when American paleontologist John H. Ostrom, conducted his own anatomical comparisons of modern birds and dinosaurs. In the years which followed, others began to conduct similar comparative analysis, and by the late 1970's, many had not only come to accept the relationship of birds to ancient theropods, but some had also begun to speculate that early theropods might also have had feathers. By the mid 1990's, the notion that modern birds were, in fact, living dinosaurs, had largely become accepted fact, and the assertion that their ancient counter-parts had most likely been feathered as well, was also widely believed. But this belief was still a speculative one at this point, as little to no fossil evidence of feathered dinosaurs had yet been found.

But in the past twenty years, dozens of new fossils and various other major finds have also been added to the list of evidence in the case for feathered theropods. From simple impressions found around fossil remains, to quill knobs (the anchor point for wing feathers) found on the forelimb of certain fossilized specimens. In 2010, researchers even managed to determine the color of some of these feathers, by analyzing fossilized melanosomes, found in the fossils of birds and dinosaurs from northeastern China.

In the years since Huxley first proposed an evolutionary link between dinosaurs and modern birds, countless new discoveries have been made which support his theory. And though now widely accepted as scientific fact, there will always be those who question the evolutionary link between birds and ancient theropods; both legitimately and otherwise. But when confronted with the growing fossil evidence, and now, the feathers themselves; perfectly preserved in amber. It seems undeniable that the answer to the question, " Were there feathered dinosaurs?" at least, is a definitive, yes.

Cue the rambling creationist counter-point in...

-CAINE-

Source: Wired Science , The Journal Science, Wikipedia, New World Encylopedia

Lantern Shark Glows to Become Invisible

While the description may at first sound counter-intuitive, like many deep dwelling sea creatures the Splendid Lantern shark, a rare type of dogfish shark found mostly in the East China Sea and off the coasts of Taiwan and Japan, has evolved bioluminescence as a means of defense from predators.Like the bobtail squid, this small variety of shark, which only grows to around 30 Cm (11.8 inches), uses this ability to replicate the light shining down from the oceans surface on the underside of it’s body, effectively rendering it’s silhouette invisible to predators below.But unlike the bobtail squid, which produces it’s light through a symbiotic relationship with a particular species of bacteria. The splendid lantern shark seems to control it’s photosphores, the organ responsible for producing the light, using nerves and hormones, as well as pigments moving within the organ’s cells.

-CAINE-

Source: Discovery News

Image Credit:Jérôme Mallefet

A Pitcher Plant Catches a Bird

I have a rather predictable affinity for carnivorous plants, and not just because I'm morbid and strange, which I am. But because they are without question some of the most unique organisms on the planet, and I happen to think they're pretty. What? I said I was strange.

Though they do not necessarily require animal proteins to stay alive. Carnivorous plants, like the pitcher plants seen above, have evolved a number of methods for trapping insects and other small animals, which they then breakdown using digestive enzymes, in order to supplement their diets to make up for the lack of nutrients present in the soil in which they typically grow. While they usually only manage to catch smaller creatures like insects and frogs. Pitcher plants, which tend to grow larger than other varieties of carnivorous plants, have been known to catch larger animals like mice, and even rats.

The above photo is believed to be only the second ever documented case of a pitcher plant eating a bird, which presumably became trapped while trying to pull out insects floating in the liquid inside the plant.

-CAINE-

Source: BBC News

Rainbow Toad Found After 87 Years

Florida's Gots Giant Squids!

Despite all those ads selling it as a tropical Paradise, Florida is really a magical land filled with giant, often slimy and or scaly creatures. We've got overgrown spiders and flying palmetto bugs ( giant roaches, and yes, THEY FLY!), alligators, snakes, lizards, giant poisonous toads, sharks, sea turtles, walking catfish ( its exactly what it sounds like ), bears, bats, giant birds, and raccoons, just to name a few. We've even a few predatory cats left around, though we've sadly managed to get rid of most of those with out insatiable hunger for golf courses, strip malls, retirement communities, theme-parks, and paid parking areas.

Well now it would appear there is at least one new giant slimy thing to add to the list of confirmed south Florida residents, (not him, Trump's been here for years) GIANT SQUID!

Early last week a pair of local fishermen pulled one of the animals still twitching from the waters just off the shore of Port Salerno. They loaded the 24 foot long specimen into their boat, and brought it into shore, where they turned it over to the Florida museum of Natural History for study. Awesome.

As those of you who follow my twitter feed may already be aware, I really don't like it here. The weather sucks, the people are awful, and if you hate the beach, theme parks, and the sun like I do, there just isn't much for you here. But there are some things I do like about this place, and though I could certainly live without the flying roaches, the astonishing variety of strange, overgrown, and sometimes slimy non-humanoid creatures who also happen to live here, are pretty high up on the list.

Yes, I know I'm strange. Now stop staring at me and go do something else.

-CAINE-

Source: WPTV -There's some video coverage on the page but it's got an add I can't get rid of AND it ends before the report is actually over, so I decided it wasn't worth embedding.

APOD: A Rose Made of Galaxies (Arp 273)

Text via the Hubble site:

This image of a pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273 was released to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

The distorted shape of the larger of the two galaxies shows signs of tidal interactions with the smaller of the two. It is thought that the smaller galaxy has actually passed through the larger one.

Via:Phantasmagoria

Time Lapse and Panoramas- Chiemgau Impressions

Chiemgau impressions from Mario Feil on Vimeo.

The music in this clip isn't really my thing, but I am a sucker for time lapse footage and HD panoramas, which this video from Mario Feil on Vimeo has plenty of.

Enjoy.

-CAINE-

Via:Phantasmagoria

Ophiocordyceps unilateralis And Zombie Ants

Earlier this month, scientists David P Hughes, Simon L. Elliot , and Harry C. Evans, published an article in the online journal Plos one describing their discovery of four new species of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, or the "Zombifying" fungus, as many of us have now come to know it.

Ophiocordyceps is just one of literally hundreds of endoparasitic species of fungus belonging to the the genus Cordyceps, which can be found throughout the world, but are particularly abundant in humid areas like tropical forests. These endoparasites thrive by infecting a host animal, or in some cases other fungi, which they then begin to grow inside of and ultimately kill in order to complete their own life cycles. But what makes Ophiocordyceps unique amongst other cordyceps, is its ability to control the behavior of it's chosen host, in this case various species of ants.

Infection with these parasitic organisms begins with the host coming into contact with it's spores, which then gain access to the animals inner body cavity. As to the exact method of entry, I was unable to find a definitive answer, so I suspect it depends on the particular species of fungi you're dealing with. But what ever the method, once inside the spores continue to grow, extending fungal filaments called mycelia throughout the ants body and into it's brain.

Though the exact nature of how the plant manages to manipulate the animals behavior is unknown, it's at this point that the fungus manages to take control, driving it's host down from the canopy where the colony lives and onto the underside of leaves sprouting from the northwest side of plants growing on the forest floor where the colony forages. Once the Ant has reached this very specif destination, it is then compelled in the final moments of it's life to clamp its jaws down on the central vein of the leaf, where it will remained anchored even after it's death. This final resting place is purposely located in an ideal position to allow the fungi to continue to grow, ultimately erupting through the ants head and producing a spore pod, which eventually releases it's spores onto the forest floor below, allowing the cycle to begin once again.

-CAINE-

Image credit: Erich G. Vallery
Source: gaurdian.co.uk, PLos one.org, Livescience.com also posted on: Compendium oF Strange