I had to look twice at this undersea Liberace-lookalike before recognising it as an octopus (more precisely, a blanket octopus, Tremoctopus sp.) These beautiful creatures live in the open ocean where they grow up to 2m long. The female in this image (thanks, Science Alert) has unfurled a sort of cape (called a ‘web’ in […]
Continue readingCategory: animal diversity
have you heard of a pyrosome?
"Have you heard of a pyrosome?" asks Carin Bondar. My immediate answer was, no; no, I haven’t – but you know me, I’m always curious 🙂 Turns out that pyrosomes – which look almost other-worldly in the video below – are colonial tunicates: the same taxonomic group as the perhaps-more-familiar sea squirts. And that means […]
Continue readingstunning spiders
I won’t post the photos here – but drop over to wired & admire the stunning spider images from photographer Nicky Bay. I think my favourite would have to be the Mirror Spider (Thwaitesia sp.), which looks as though it’s got a disco ball for an abdomen. And for awesome mimicry, take a look at […]
Continue readingthe sea’s strangest square mile, indeed
From Shark Bay Films on vimeo, via PZ, comes this awesome video – life and death on the sea bed. It opens with a species of polychaete worm (aka bobbit worms**) – what an amazing stealth predator! And surely one to give small children – and first-year biology students! – nightmares. And there are ribbon […]
Continue readingthe male himalayan monal – an absolutely gorgeous bird
Another for the ‘gosh, isn’t this beautiful?!’ files: the Himalayan Monal (the national bird of Nepal). (Image via Facebook: Tambako the Jaguar; Flickr — with Robin Subba, Sarvesh Wangawad,Jeriko Angue, Roberto Delapisa, Jonas Mgr, Neelesh Suryavanshi, Shashank Asai,Sushant Bhujel and Pabitra Lamichhane.) This stunning bird (Lophophorus impejanus) is a type of pheasant, and like other pheasants the species is strongly sexually dimorphic: the males […]
Continue readingmmm, ravioli?
My blogging buddy Grant suggested an image competition as a way to lure me back into a blogging mindset **. And then, I saw this (courtesy of the FB page for the team at Amazing Earth): My first thought (following a passing glimpse) was, "embroidery". Followed, I’m sorry to say, by "mmmm, ravioli!" (In my […]
Continue readingpretty jelly
I’ve got heaps on at work at the moment, but there’s always time to share a lovely picture 🙂 So here’s the stunning Australian spotted jellyfish, Phyllorhiza punctata. It’s native to Australian waters but has apparently become an invasive species elsewhere (eg in the Gulf of Mexico). And yes, I found it on FB: Photo: Mister […]
Continue readingsee-through creatures
This is a 'glass frog' (image from National Geographic): It's one of a number of transparent or translucent creatures featured on the National Geographic's "Weird & Wild" blog. (Actually I take issue with the Monarch butterfly image there, as strictly speaking we're seeing a transparent pupal case; the butterfly inside is definitely not see-through.) Glass […]
Continue readingtrue facts…
OK, you could argue that you can’t have a ‘false’ fact 🙂 But that aside – I was recently introduced to this little gem of a video, True Facts About The Chameleon. Nice little sound-bites of information, rather lovely images – and the narrator’s voice-over had me in stitches. (But he’ll never replace Sir David […]
Continue readingartistry
We are in full enrolment mode at the moment – for some reason a lot of students have left re-enrolling &/or seeking advice until the Very Last Moment – so I have little time for serious blogging. (It’s always the same at this time of year, only this year more of the same.) But I […]
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