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The skeleton of Palaeobatrachus from Lake Enspel, Germany. From Wuttke and Poschmann, 2010.
In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin said of the fossil record:
For my part, following out Lyell's metaphor, I look at the natural geological record, as a history of the world imperfectly kept,…
Gary Gygax, who died today at age 69, has a special place in my heart - but not for the obvious reason. I was never a disciple of his famous creation, Dungeons & Dragons. I grew up in a rural, conservative area, and while I'm sure there were a few gaming groups around, they were neither very…
I saw on Muton, and several readers have mentioned it to me, this article about the world's smallest vertebrate, fish of the genus Paedocypris. It's a gorgeous translucent cyprinid, so is somewhat related to my favorite fish, Danio rerio. They live in cool, slow moving water in peat swamp forests…
We spent the past day at Nihoa. Even from afar, its jagged shape seems somewhat ominous. It blows my mind to think that people used to live on this island! There seems to be no source of fresh water, and the only source of food is the blue depths off shore, which are patrolled by territorial beasts…
In Venezuela, I saw a captive tapir trying to make out with a manatee.
What?!! Jim, this is awesome. And not just because I love manatees. Can you expand?
Tapir certainly expanded....his repertoire....
The tapir and manatee were in a fairly large enclosure with a pond. The pond water was muddy, so the clinical details were not visible, but the tapir did not appear to have much success. He did keep trying during the short period I was there. This was at an aquarium in Valencia, Venezuela, maybe 15 years ago.
I wonder why and how often this happens to different species? So bizarre!