if birds didn't exist, God would have had to invent them
― imago, Monday, 5 March 2018 16:31 (six years ago) link
Less than 5 centimeters!
― Google Atheist (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 5 March 2018 16:31 (six years ago) link
chicks be little
― imago, Monday, 5 March 2018 16:32 (six years ago) link
Ah yes
― Google Atheist (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 5 March 2018 17:17 (six years ago) link
sorry not news [but yes new to me]
'Orchis simia' known as the Monkey Orchid pic.twitter.com/Ntcv2Ulyd5— 41 Strange (@41Strange) April 13, 2018
― Mordy, Friday, 13 April 2018 20:01 (six years ago) link
whoa!
― marcos, Friday, 13 April 2018 20:05 (six years ago) link
that is cool. i'm gonna grouse a little and just say i'm generally not into the 41 strange aesthetic.
― map, Saturday, 14 April 2018 05:57 (six years ago) link
i posted this in an octopus thread but i thought this piece was amazing:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n17/amia-srinivasan/the-sucker-the-sucker
― map, Saturday, 14 April 2018 05:58 (six years ago) link
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/07/crow-necrophilia/565442/
― Mordy, Thursday, 19 July 2018 03:21 (five years ago) link
Ugh I never get nauseated from reading but I just did. Birds are fucking disgusting animals
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 19 July 2018 03:49 (five years ago) link
So fucking gross my god
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 19 July 2018 03:50 (five years ago) link
I thought that was fascinating!
― sleeve, Thursday, 19 July 2018 04:25 (five years ago) link
ed yong is great & has basically made a career out of providing content worthy of this thread
― ogmor, Thursday, 19 July 2018 07:54 (five years ago) link
^^^^
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Thursday, 19 July 2018 11:32 (five years ago) link
Rare microbes lead scientists to discover new branch on the tree of life
― #BreakingTheWorld (sleeve), Friday, 16 November 2018 16:31 (five years ago) link
A new kingdom?!?
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Saturday, 17 November 2018 21:10 (five years ago) link
This map shows GPS-tracked wolves in six different packs around Voyageurs National Park. The wolf packs clearly avoid each other's territory. Source: https://t.co/uGP3GJILVU pic.twitter.com/CLpYyrDCri— Simon Kuestenmacher (@simongerman600) December 8, 2018
― Mordy, Sunday, 9 December 2018 04:18 (five years ago) link
https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/little-aphids-ride-big-ones-to-safety/
https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/E42AE5D0-2280-4209-935703C518E48C21_source.jpg?w=590&h=800&15C4002E-B7F4-411F-99336373318D1E70
― Mordy, Wednesday, 12 December 2018 22:32 (five years ago) link
Big aphids have little aphids upon their backs to ride 'em
― Dan I., Wednesday, 12 December 2018 22:59 (five years ago) link
https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-self-aware-fish-raises-doubts-about-a-cognitive-test-20181212/
― Mordy, Friday, 14 December 2018 19:27 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akE2Sgg8hI8
Cat passing mirror test
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Sunday, 16 December 2018 22:34 (five years ago) link
ALERT ALERT
https://dcist.com/story/18/12/17/after-bloodbath-the-national-zoos-naked-mole-rats-finally-choose-their-queen/
2-3 new babies that you can possibly catch right now on the webcam!
https://nationalzoo.si.edu/webcams/naked-mole-rat-cam
― Mordy, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 15:29 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKNohFicnnQ
― Mordy, Monday, 31 December 2018 16:34 (five years ago) link
Visible birdsong in the cold. Photo by Mikhail Kalinin. pic.twitter.com/KvXOkK6ghl— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) January 12, 2019
― Mordy, Saturday, 12 January 2019 21:57 (five years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/science/mice-singing-language-brain.html
High in the mountains of Central America lives a little known creature called Alston’s singing mouse. This rodent, which spends its life scuttling around the floor of the cloud forest, may not seem like it has much to tell us about ourselves.But the mouse produces remarkable songs, and researchers have discovered some profound similarities to our own conversations. This ability may be linked evolutionarily to the ancient roots of human language.
But the mouse produces remarkable songs, and researchers have discovered some profound similarities to our own conversations. This ability may be linked evolutionarily to the ancient roots of human language.
there's a video!
― Mordy, Thursday, 28 February 2019 23:59 (five years ago) link
So the researchers began probing the brains of the mice, searching for the neurons that led them to be “polite” raconteurs.In one experiment, the researchers cooled down patches of mouse brain by a few degrees, slowing the neurons. One patch in the mouse cortex is essential for controlling their singing, the scientists found. If this section is cooled, the mouse sings extended songs, adding on extra notes.
In one experiment, the researchers cooled down patches of mouse brain by a few degrees, slowing the neurons. One patch in the mouse cortex is essential for controlling their singing, the scientists found. If this section is cooled, the mouse sings extended songs, adding on extra notes.
― Mordy, Friday, 1 March 2019 00:03 (five years ago) link
Great gray shrikes impale their victims on spikes & even imitate the calls of other birds to lure them into striking distance! pic.twitter.com/7uSTCxDgdp— A Book of Rather Strange Animals OUT NOW!!! (@StrangeAnimaIs) March 25, 2019
― Mordy, Tuesday, 26 March 2019 01:37 (five years ago) link
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/04/virophages-are-viruses-only-infect-other-viruses/586153/
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 April 2019 15:36 (five years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/science/underwater-beetles-breathe-skin.html
― Mordy, Tuesday, 9 April 2019 20:07 (five years ago) link
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vb9bpm/this-bird-went-extinct-and-then-evolved-into-existence-again
― Mordy, Thursday, 9 May 2019 22:18 (five years ago) link
just saw that!! so wild.
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Thursday, 9 May 2019 22:38 (five years ago) link
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/insect-metamorphosis-evolution/
Biologists have not definitively determined how or why some insects began to hatch in a larval form, but Lynn Riddiford and James Truman, formerly of the University of Washington in Seattle, have constructed one of the most comprehensive theories. They point out that insects that mature through incomplete metamorphosis pass through a brief stage of life before becoming nymphs—the pro-nymphal stage, in which insects look and behave differently from their true nymphal forms. Some insects transition from pro-nymphs to nymphs while still in the egg; others remain pro-nymphs for anywhere from mere minutes to a few days after hatching.
Perhaps this pro-nymphal stage, Riddiford and Truman suggest, evolved into the larval stage of complete metamorphosis. Perhaps 280 million years ago, through a chance mutation, some pro-nymphs failed to absorb all the yolk in their eggs, leaving a precious resource unused. In response to this unfavorable situation, some pro-nymphs gained a new talent: the ability to actively feed, to slurp up the extra yolk, while still inside the egg. If such pro-nymphs emerged from their eggs before they reached the nymphal stage, they would have been able to continue feeding themselves in the outside world. Over the generations, these infant insects may have remained in a protracted pro-nymphal stage for longer and longer periods of time, growing wormier all the while and specializing in diets that differed from those of their adult selves—consuming fruits and leaves, rather than nectar or other smaller insects. Eventually these prepubescent pro-nymphs became full-fledged larvae that resembled modern caterpillars. In this way, the larval stage of complete metamorphosis corresponds to the pro-nymphal stage of incomplete metamorphosis. The pupal stage arose later as a kind of condensed nymphal phase that catapulted the wriggly larvae into their sexually active winged adult forms.
― Mordy, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 23:45 (four years ago) link
https://www.quantamagazine.org/quantum-leaps-long-assumed-to-be-instantaneous-take-time-20190605/
― Mordy, Friday, 7 June 2019 21:06 (four years ago) link
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/132404/recently-discovered-rock-eating-worm-key-third-temple/
― Mordy, Wednesday, 3 July 2019 21:22 (four years ago) link
riiiight
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Wednesday, 3 July 2019 21:28 (four years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/science/koala-retrovirus-evolution.html
― Mordy, Tuesday, 15 October 2019 02:37 (four years ago) link
Scientists have trained rats to drive tiny cars to collect food. Kelly Lambert at @urichmond says, “I do believe that rats are smarter than most people perceive them to be, and that most animals are smarter in unique ways than we think." https://t.co/6mwPqtHfvs pic.twitter.com/07w2p1wq43— New Scientist (@newscientist) October 24, 2019
― Mordy, Friday, 25 October 2019 00:29 (four years ago) link
The diving bell spider lives almost entirely under water: when submerged, an air bubble is trapped by hydrophobic hairs on its abdomen. Here it catches a shrimp and places it in an air bubble to devour it https://t.co/uAKYwvQVmR [source of the gif: https://t.co/C3I3ZMyll2] pic.twitter.com/FgPDmKvIxG— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) October 30, 2019
― Mordy, Wednesday, 30 October 2019 15:48 (four years ago) link
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/humpback-whales-south-atlantic-have-recovered-near-extinction
― Mordy, Monday, 18 November 2019 16:19 (four years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/science/leopard-lion-adoption.html
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/02/27/science/27TB-LEOPARDADOPTION1/27TB-LEOPARDADOPTION1-superJumbo.jpg
― Mordy, Thursday, 27 February 2020 23:38 (four years ago) link
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bug.identification/permalink/3201476323312053/
― Mordy, Thursday, 7 May 2020 16:59 (four years ago) link
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632881-200-weird-caterpillar-uses-its-old-heads-to-make-an-elaborate-hat/
― Mordy, Saturday, 4 July 2020 23:59 (three years ago) link
Cool. My 10 yo had seen that in a science encyclopedia
― calstars, Sunday, 5 July 2020 00:10 (three years ago) link
waht
https://www.wired.com/story/a-bizarre-form-of-water-may-exist-all-over-the-universe/
― sleeve, Saturday, 12 September 2020 00:48 (three years ago) link
Acorn Woodpeckers Have Multi-Day Wars, and Birds Come From All Around to Watch
― sleeve, Thursday, 17 September 2020 03:25 (three years ago) link
here's a thread for comrade burrito to post all the masturbating orangutans
― sarahell, Thursday, 17 September 2020 17:18 (three years ago) link
a bizarre form of water all over my keyboard
― trapped out the barndo (crüt), Thursday, 17 September 2020 17:39 (three years ago) link
Scientists discover new organ in the throat
― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Wednesday, 21 October 2020 23:40 (three years ago) link
https://www.livescience.com/platypuses-glow-uv-light.html
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/J29hZbBGEePokbrTdRYCEi-1024-80.jpg
― Mordy, Sunday, 8 November 2020 18:10 (three years ago) link
Top 5 critter now top 3 imo.
― pomenitul, Sunday, 8 November 2020 18:15 (three years ago) link
so cool
― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Sunday, 8 November 2020 18:16 (three years ago) link
A+ platypus
― rob, Sunday, 8 November 2020 18:18 (three years ago) link
^
― calstars, Sunday, 8 November 2020 18:31 (three years ago) link
Mordy returning to celebrate Biden's win with a biofluorescent platypus is an A+ move imo
― imago, Sunday, 8 November 2020 18:38 (three years ago) link
Don't forget the apposite poem.
― pomenitul, Sunday, 8 November 2020 18:39 (three years ago) link
I have already privately offered him my full approbation
― imago, Sunday, 8 November 2020 18:42 (three years ago) link
Leaf Sheep: The Only Animal That Can Photosynthesize
― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Saturday, 14 November 2020 06:30 (three years ago) link
Fungus full of psychedelic drugs could cause Indiana Brood X cicadas' butts to fall off
― sleeve, Sunday, 16 May 2021 23:16 (two years ago) link
“It’s this gender-bending, death-zombie fungus,” Lill said.
― sleeve, Sunday, 16 May 2021 23:17 (two years ago) link
“Imagine if, after a lifetime underground, you only had a few glorious weeks to live in the sun, eat and mate,” she said. “And then your butt fell off.”
― sleeve, Tuesday, 18 May 2021 01:00 (two years ago) link
a coyote and a badger use a culvert as a wildlife crossing to pass under a busy California highway together,, the first time this type of behavior has been captured. I love how the coyote waited for the badger. pic.twitter.com/olbQgdje5d— Köksal Akın (@newworlddd555) June 12, 2021
― trap door to hell opens underneath (rob), Monday, 14 June 2021 18:20 (two years ago) link
New species of ancient four-legged whale discovered in Egypt
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/BECD/production/_120254884_yile5nm8-1.jpg
― Mordy, Friday, 27 August 2021 17:00 (two years ago) link
:O
― sleeve, Friday, 27 August 2021 17:35 (two years ago) link
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/when-beetle-gets-eaten-frog-it-forces-its-way-out-back-door-180975484/
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Thursday, 24 August 2023 22:41 (eight months ago) link