Organisms
pharyngula | March 27, 2015A certain deep, primal part of my brain went "Squeeee!" at this video of a nautilus being fed by hand. I want one. I want a cephalopod to be my friend. But sorry, people, taking an exotic animal out of the ocean and confining it to an aquarium is not exactly the friendliest thing to do…and a lot of cephalopods are finicky and delicate.
Still, you have to love that face.
pharyngula | March 25, 2015Over on Telliamed Revisited, Richard Lenski is talking about his favorite examples of evolution, and mentioned this figure from a paper on hybrid monkeyflowers. Cross-species breeding produces interesting results!
Pollinator preference and the evolution of floral traits in monkeyflowers (Mimulus)
pharyngula | March 9, 2015This skink looks like it just burst out of someone's chest, and in addition, it's full of little baby skinks.
NatGeo
pharyngula | March 6, 2015 Fred Tsang
Then he waited, marshaling his thoughts and brooding over his still untested powers. For though he was master of the world, he was not quite sure what to do next. But he would think of something.
pharyngula | March 4, 2015We had a blizzard this week. It's bitterly cold right now. I was trying hard to think of good reasons to have left the Pacific Northwest, and this is about the only thing I came up with: Devil's Club.
They're big. They're prickly-spiky-thorny. They're evil. You did not go blindly charging through the lush green brush in the woods unless you wanted to risk tangling with knives and needles.
I might be willing to trade sub-zero snowstorms for Devil's Club, though.
pharyngula | February 27, 2015Now you can learn everything you need to know about octopus sex. It's a bit tangly:
But just in case you got lost in all the tentacles, here's a diagram to help you out. By the way, in case you've ever wondered where an octopus keeps its nads, they're maybe not where you expected.
There should be a warning sign here, though.
In one instance, she and her colleagues observed two day octopuses mating on a reef in Indonesia. After about 15 minutes of copulation, the female lunged and wrapped two arms around the male's bulbous body, his mantle. A few minutes later, the male was motionless. The…
pharyngula | February 23, 2015That's all I've got to say. Hippos are really into scat.
Yeah, I'd hide too.
pharyngula | February 20, 2015This week, everyone has been sending me a link to that horrible series of photos showing a seal gnawing and dismembering an octopus (no, I will not link to it! I might cry.) So instead I'm showing you a happy movie of a successful octopus gnawing and dismembering a crab.
Well, happy for everyone except the crustaceans who read Pharyngula.
pharyngula | February 16, 2015Look at the extravagantly pulvinate abdomen of this female fly -- it's very sexy to the male fly. But it's all a FAKE. Misandry! Conniving, scheming female!
pharyngula | February 9, 2015I'd wear it on my lapel, with the nice pocket watch on my vest and my jeweled monocle. Azalea Lace Bug
I know. I'm a slob. But I could change! I've been reading fantasy regency novels, and could get into the style. Carriger has even posted suggestions for improving the stylishness of us uncaring nerds.
Also, I've been wondering…there are a lot of steampunk novels out there, stories about alternative histories in which the industrial revolution leads to elaborate technologies involving mechanical gears and steam engines. Has anyone written any biopunk novels, where 19th century Europe is…
pharyngula | February 6, 2015Look closely at the eel in this picture. Look up around its head. Do you wonder what that odd little blob is?
Now go see the animation. All will be clear.
pharyngula | January 30, 2015How would you feel if NOAA sent a camera to snoop around your most intimate moments, huh?
pharyngula | January 26, 2015
This is the head of a tapeworm that takes up residence in people's skulls.
You aren't trying to eat dinner right now, are you?