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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 03/31/2004 : 00:35:06
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Well, 4 am is upon us yet again and I'm bored out of my too-awake gourd -- a situation fraught with danger. And it's not really 4, but two-thirty am! 
So, I propose a game of sorts and a little intellectual exercise, which we all can use. In fact, I'm thinking of a “Can you top this?!” sort of thing, and perchance, we'll all learn a little from my wretched insomnia.
There are a great many creatures in this world that one might call ‘strange‘, for one reason or several. I propose that we select a species, one so unlikely that a skeptic might raise a dubious eyebrow if hearing about it cold, describe it including reference(s), either links or professional papers. And, as I'd like our Creationist friends to have a piece of it, let's just shelve that tiresome, and ultimately futile for both sides, Creation/Evolution debate, for the nonce.
The subject species can be anything from bacteria to dinosaurs, from pangolins to platypi, from bald birds to the bats in the belfry. Of course, it'll be open season for scrutiny on the text and the references -- we are skeptics, after all -- and while meticulous accuracy might not be mandatory, it is still a very good idea.
I'll put the ball into play with a relatively easy one, an amphibian having the charming, Latin name of Pipa pipa; the Surinam Toad.
I have a little first-hand experience with these, keeping a pair in an aquarium for some months. The pair were claimed as proven breeders and I was hoping to see and photograph the process of the eggs being fertilized, and stuck to the female's back, later to be absorbed into the skin, and to observe the tiny toadlets when they emerged. But then, things got a little crowded at la casa filthy, and I gave them to a friend, who, as might be expected, got a mess of toadlets from them and never photographed nor even saw the breeding, nor the emergence either, the dork. The big dummy never even knew the female had buns in the oven until the toadlets appeared one day, demonstrating how much attention he was paying.  
In the aquarium, the toads didn't do much of anything; mostly just laying around the bottom at opposite ends of the tank -- they like their space and indeed, are sometimes cannibalistic -- looking for all the world like soggy roadkill. Periodically, they'd surface for air, then go back to the bottom. Although provided with places to hide, they never used them, confident in their excellent camouflage.
Found mainly in the Amazon basin, usually in stagnant, oxygen-poor pools, this animal rarely, if ever, leaves the water, and it's adaptations for it's sleepy, aquatic lifestyle are many. It even has a lateral line, like a fish, sensitive to minute pressure changes. During dry spells, it buries itself in the mud until the water rises again.
“A mile wide and a foot deep!” is the old-timer's description of the Platt River, and in miniature it describes P. pipa. They are as flat as plywood. Shaped rather like a deck of cards, a big one might be some seven or eight inches long, snout to vent, by perhaps a bit less than half that in width (mine were smaller), and only a little thicker than a good pancake. The head is triangular with a pointed snout and the mouth is quite wide, even cavernous.
It's feeding methods are as bizarre as the rest of the animal. It has neither teeth nor tongue, and must shovel it's food into it's mouth and gullet with it's forelimbs. It will eat anything containing protein, alive or otherwise, that it can swallow whole. And, as it's eyes are tiny, lidless, and all but useless in it's turgid habitat even if they worked well, it locates it's food by groping about in the mud for it. It is aided in this by highly sensitive, star-shaped fingertips that are subdivided into yet more and tinier divisions, down into the microscopic range. It's fingers, which can be regenerated if lost, look almost hairy. If a minnow swims close by, it will detect it with the la
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Edited by - filthy on 03/31/2004 00:43:40
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
 Posted - 03/31/2004 : 12:03:42 [Permalink]
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Oooh, I'll play! Hopefully, I've interpreted the "rules" correctly:
Thanks to the Panda's Thumb, I've just learned about the wonders of Helicodiceros muscivorus. This is a plant which, in the words of Roger Seymour, "looks and smells like the south end of a horse that died going north." Thus, perhaps, its common name, "Dead-Horse Arum" (DHA from here on).
Here is a picture of a DHA, but it's much less flesh-colored than the photo accompanying the Panda's Thumb write-up (which, if you don't want to scroll the big page, can also be found here). I'm not sure how much of a dead horse's patootie it actually looks like, but I'll take the researcher's word on the smell.
In a Nature article in 2002, researchers submitted the stench of this plant to a comparison with molecules from the smell of rotting carcasses, and found them nearly identical. So much so, apparently, that blowfly antennae react the same way to both smells. Especially dead seagull.
And that is the "goal" of this plant's bouquet: attracting blowflies for pollination.
After blooming, the plant puts out this stink in the first few hours after sunrise. Blowflies, expecting a dead animal, crawl into the depths of the bloom, only to be trapped by inward-pointing spines. Inside, they crawl over the female flowers of the plant, which accept any DHA pollen that happens to be on the flies.
The next day, the female flowers of the DHA stop working, and the male flowers (also inside) start making pollen. This pollen is picked up by the flies' bodies. After a while (a few more hours, perhaps?), the spines which trap the flies wither away, and the flies can then leave, to find another DHA at the start of its own blooming cycle.
If that's not odd enough for you, the DHA can also generate its own heat. And this Functional Ecology abstract suggests it does so in response to pollination, and the flies get nothing from it.
That's the real kicker, here. While bees (for example), get nectar from flowers in return for pollination, the DHA apparently gives up nothing to the blowflies. It tricks them in, traps them, and then releases them only when it (the plant) is done with them. While there are plenty of examples of symbiotic relationships among plants and animals, and plenty of examples of animals being parasites on plants, this appears to be one of the rarities: a plant which is, more or less, in charge and unappreciative.
Hehehe. A seventh-grader did a report on the DHA. Got any models of the Surinam Toad with Q-Tips used as pointers?  |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 03/31/2004 : 15:04:05 [Permalink]
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I've read about that one! Marvelous! Sorta reminds me of my ex-ol' lady: raise a stink about something, then give nothing for the service.
Great selection. I'm working on another -- gotta do some study, so it'll be a little while. Meantime, there's plenty of room here for everybody. 
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 04/01/2004 : 11:13:13 [Permalink]
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| Dave and filthy going after this kinda thing, I'm afraid I couldn't compete. So no thanks filthy. |
...no one has ever found a 4.5 billion year old stone artifact (at the right geological stratum) with the words "Made by God."
No Sense of Obligation by Matt Young
"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith. I consider the capacity for it terrifying and vile!"
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
They (Women Marines) don't have a nickname, and they don't need one. They get their basic training in a Marine atmosphere, at a Marine Post. They inherit the traditions of the Marines. They are Marines.
LtGen Thomas Holcomb, USMC
Commandant of the Marine Corps, 1943
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 04/01/2004 : 11:29:44 [Permalink]
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Oh, come on, Trish! I was going to do another one, but time does not permit me now. But, I had no idea what I was going to do. I Googled for "weird animals," and basically got a list of candidates, though. I was going to pick one, and then run its name, alone, through Google to find out more. If nothing else, this is an interesting way to learn (and share what we learn) about the truly odd beasties out there in the world. Heck, I wouldn't have learned nearly as much about Dead-Horse Arum as I did if filthy hadn't started this thread.
By the way, I was thinking about doing the moloch, a lizard which collects rainwater and/or dew on its own back. If you follow the link, you'll see I'd already found the grade-school artwork (no Q-Tips this time, though). |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/02/2004 : 03:34:07 [Permalink]
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I had a couple of false starts on something else before I finally decided to revisit the Devonian, a paradise for the terminally inquisitive. Therefore, what I'd like talk about this this morning is a creature that anyone knowing how to swim should be very, damned glad that it went extinct way back before there were mammals upon the Earth.
And so, without further ado, my dear surfers, SCUBAdooers, and naked beach-apes, I humbly present to you: Dunkleosteus.
http://www.dinomore.com/research/popups/misc/dunkle13.html
The skull and trunk plate fossils shown above are on exhibit at the Natural History Museum in Cleveland, OH. I've seem them and they make one imagine what it would be like to see this animal heading toward you out of the haze. Chilling.
Between twenty and thirty feet long, with toothless jaws that could chop great, bleeding chunks out of a Great White any day, Dunkleosteous -- pronounced: 'Dunk-lee-osteus' -- was the undisputed ruler of the Devonian seas....
Whoa, wait a minute, ya durn idjit! Did you just say, “toothless jaws?” Whaddahell'd it do, gum stuff to death?
Be cool; I'm gettin' there.
Dunk and it's relatives are considered to be among the first jawed fishes, and indeed it is thought to have probably had the most powerful jaws of anything, ever! It was indeed toothless, having instead wide plates of serrated bone lining it‘s jaws. These were kept snapping turtle sharp by constantly rubbing against each other, and they regenerated as they wore away.
It had a bony skull and armored plates behind it's head, as well as cups of bone protecting the eyes, but the rest of the skeleton was cartilage. It is thought to have been a powerful swimmer, aggressively pursuing prey, but I wonder; set up as it was, it could have been an ambush predator beyond compare.
It's prey was most likely sharks -- also having recently made the scene -- along with other Devonian fishes, and apparently, each other. Their skulls and trunk plates have been found bearing evidence of injuries that could only have been inflicted by an attack from another Dunk.
Some artist's conceptions:
http://www.karencarr.com/gallery_dunkleosteus.html
Note that in this picture, Dunk is shown to have a tadpole's tail. The shape of the tail is not known for certain from the fossil record (cartilage skeleton, remember), however I find this version unlikely. Tadpoles are not very strong swimmers and this voracious predator most certainly was, ambusher or not. Like modern, pelagic sharks, it pretty much had to be simply to move it's bulk and that heavy head around.
Another:
http://www.exhibits.lsa.umich.edu/New/Education/Activities/ColorBook/Dunkleosteus.html
You can have fun and color this one in with weirdness (I did ), but it is most interesting in that it shows the head and trunk armor plating with pretty fair accuracy. Again note the tail. It resembles a shark's and is probably closer to the shape that it actually was.
A portion of a brief article from the American Museum of Natural History:
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Dunkleosteus was undoubtedly a powerful swimmer, much like today's large sharks. Its twenty-foot-long, muscular body ended in a shark-like tail. Its features are clearly those of a predator, and there were plenty of fish to feed on in the Devonian seas. Its prey may well have included primitive sharks, which did not achieve great size and diversity until Dunkleosteus and the other placoderms had disappeared from the oceans.
No major sharks until the placoderms died out? I wonder why?
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/expeditions/treasure_fossil/Fossils/Specimens/dunkleosteus.html
And another illustration, a pretty good one to show the animal in profile, except for the rayed fins, |
"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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| Edited by - filthy on 04/02/2004 03:57:38 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 04/02/2004 : 10:29:56 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
Oh, come on, Trish! I was going to do another one, but time does not permit me now. But, I had no idea what I was going to do. I Googled for "weird animals," and basically got a list of candidates, though. I was going to pick one, and then run its name, alone, through Google to find out more. If nothing else, this is an interesting way to learn (and share what we learn) about the truly odd beasties out there in the world. Heck, I wouldn't have learned nearly as much about Dead-Horse Arum as I did if filthy hadn't started this thread.
By the way, I was thinking about doing the moloch, a lizard which collects rainwater and/or dew on its own back. If you follow the link, you'll see I'd already found the grade-school artwork (no Q-Tips this time, though).
I might give it a try, when I've the time. Anthropology was never my main interest, I'll see if I can find something that lies within my area of interests. |
...no one has ever found a 4.5 billion year old stone artifact (at the right geological stratum) with the words "Made by God."
No Sense of Obligation by Matt Young
"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith. I consider the capacity for it terrifying and vile!"
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
They (Women Marines) don't have a nickname, and they don't need one. They get their basic training in a Marine atmosphere, at a Marine Post. They inherit the traditions of the Marines. They are Marines.
LtGen Thomas Holcomb, USMC
Commandant of the Marine Corps, 1943
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/02/2004 : 12:02:08 [Permalink]
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I will happily keep it going, sporadicly at least, as long as someone's interested, but I'd really like to see some examples others come up with.
Hey Dave, if you do the Moloch, I will write up the Gila Monster.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 04/02/2004 : 12:56:29 [Permalink]
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filthy wrote:quote:
Hey Dave, if you do the Moloch, I will write up the Gila Monster.
I'll see if I can carve out some time this weekend, but I make no promises. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/03/2004 : 03:48:44 [Permalink]
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Nobody said that these things have to be done all in one session. Research and write a bit when you feel like it. You'll get a better piece if you do it that way. After all, there is really no such thing as good writing; only good re-writing. And we have neither editor nor deadline to deal with. :joy:
I hate editors. :poison symbol:
But I love deadlines. :bluebird of happiness:
I hate editors because they are all stupid, and cannot fathom the towering majesty of my dulcet words and phrases. :scowl:
I love deadlines because they make such a neat 'WHOOSHing' sound as they go past. :whoooosh:
Apologies to Dougalas Adams, even though I am not sorry in the least and fully intend to paraphrase him again. :highway robber:
In short, tell it slow and tell it fine, 'cause there ain't no big yank around here. :nap time:
:gone fishin': |
"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/03/2004 : 20:48:04 [Permalink]
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:whoooosh:
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2004 : 19:28:15 [Permalink]
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As promised, here is the Gila piece. It was fun to write and it brought back some old memories.
My all-time favorite lizards are the Heloderma. These are the only venomous lizards in the world, and, oh happy day, they are found close to home; the southeastern US and Mexico. Some subspecies of Heloderma h. horridum range into Central America. Arid country dwellers, they spend over ninety percent of their time underground, emerging only to hunt and seek mates. They can go for extended periods without feeding, living off stored fat. Indeed, a healthy Heloderma might feed only a few times a year.
Plump, short-legged and slow-moving (except at suppertime), the Gila Monster (Heloderma s. suspectum) is easily captured or killed and is under state and federal protection in the US. I'm not sure, but I think Mexico also protects the related Beaded Lizards (H. horridum). There are a very few, licensed, commercial breeders in the US, one of whom I'm acquainted with, if I may be permitted a little name-dropping: Dr. Mark Seward. He is a foremost authority on Heloderma and I‘ll post his website in due course.
As with all of our wildlife, the greatest threat to these unique creatures is habitat destruction.
A Gila's most remarkable feature is it's head. It's jaws are massive and extraordinarily strong. This is due to some unusual and slightly odd-ball anatomy. If you study the heads of Viperids, you will note that they are roughly triangular, bulging to a greater or lesser degree above and toward the rear of the jaws, depending upon species, on either side. This is where the jaw muscles and duvernoy's organs (the venom glands) reside. Snakes do not have particularly strong musculature here due to the space taken up by duvernoy's and the lightness of the affected bones, but the Gila has the organs in the lower jaw, and the bulges at the rear of the head are solid muscle, powering the meat-clamp. And as mentioned, the jaw is heavily built.
In spite of being ‘hot', Heoderma has no fangs, nor even the long, grooved teeth found in venomous Colubrids. Indeed, their teeth, while grooved, are not particularly large. The venom flows along channels in the lower jaw as it bites and into the grooves in the teeth by capillary action. To be applied, it must be vigorously chewed in and the more the Gila chews, the more venom / saliva it produces, until the entire mouth is all but flooded in it. On the surface, this seems like a sloppy way to design an injection system, but........
These are the only, venomous reptiles and one of the very few venomous animals in the world, that do not use their venom for subduing prey. It is strictly for defense and as such, it is highly effective. There are no recorded, human deaths from a Gila bite, but I have it on excellent authority (a bitten friend) that they will most certainly take the joy out of your day. When they bite defensively, they hang on and chew like Fawn Hall‘s shredder. The wounds, while shallow, are messy -- a myriad of punctures and small lacerations with loose teeth left in them -- and the lizard keeps chewing until, I suppose, it figures it's enemy has learned it's lesson. If that enemy is smaller, a coyote or a fox perhaps, that lesson is a drastic one indeed. Like many creatures with a truly nasty defense system, these lizards make no attempt at camouflage, but are brightly colored orange / pink or yellow / white mixed irregularly with black -- not an uncommon color / pattern scheme for this sort of animal. Versions of it are to be seen in noxious caterpillars and Poison Arrow Frogs.
The Gila is much smaller than it's southern cousin, the Beaded. A really big one might be a little over two feet, whereas the Beaded might go as much as three or more.
Some Gila pics:
http://www.geocities.com/Baja/Trails/6099/Gilamonster.html
http://www.gilaranch.com/comps/comps.html
An angry Gila is an impressive sight |
"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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tomk80
SFN Regular
Netherlands
1278 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2004 : 20:54:00 [Permalink]
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| Hmmm, anyone already doing the deap see Angler fish (my favorite fish from Finding Nemo)? If not, I'll try to have something up on it soon. |
Tom
`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'
-Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll- |
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2004 : 22:05:03 [Permalink]
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| Do Super Massive Blackholes count as an appropriate topic? Otherwise, I'll go with equines... |
...no one has ever found a 4.5 billion year old stone artifact (at the right geological stratum) with the words "Made by God."
No Sense of Obligation by Matt Young
"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith. I consider the capacity for it terrifying and vile!"
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
They (Women Marines) don't have a nickname, and they don't need one. They get their basic training in a Marine atmosphere, at a Marine Post. They inherit the traditions of the Marines. They are Marines.
LtGen Thomas Holcomb, USMC
Commandant of the Marine Corps, 1943
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