Meet the Inch Worm From Hell: the Predatory Hawaiian Caterpillar
The Predatory Hawaiian Caterpillar (Eupithecia orichloris) has evolved to fulfill a niche normally occupied by insects like praying mantises. Since there aren’t any on the islands of Hawaii, something had to step up and become a super insectivorous predator. This guy! It blends in almost to perfection amongst the dense foliage of its habitat and waits patiently until an unsuspecting insect wanders by. You see, these Predatory Caterpillar’s have long, thin appendages on their abdomen which act as sensory organs. When something touches these sensory appendages, the sinister caterpillar will bend back and quickly strike the confused insect. To make matters worse (for the insect) these guys are equipped with raptor-like claws to tightly constrain their squirming meals. The little animation below shows just how deadly these things can be.
Welwitschia (Welwitschia mirabilis)
W. mirabilis is the only member of the family Welwitschiaceae. This succulent plant can live up to 1,500 years and is only found in a strip of land in the Namibi Desert comprising part of Namibia and Angola. It can survive on moisture from fog and dew. It consists of 2 leaves (which fray repeatedly to give the appearance of many leaves) that grow continuously, a stem base and roots. It is thought to be a relic from the Jurassic Period and it has changed very little since then.
(via: Encyclopedia of Life)
(images: T - H. Hillewaert; BL - Hans Hillewaert; BR - Freddy Weber)
pangolins are scientifically proven to be better than people.
if any of you guys are register voters in California then you should vote YES on Prop 30
if it doesn’t pass my mom will lose most of her classes (she’s a professor) and i would need to get a job just to help pay for food, please this prop directly affects my family and we’re scare it won’t pass
spread the word
HELP SUPPORT CALIFORNIA TEACHERS (ESPECIALLY MY MOM)
Sarcastic Fringehead (Neoclinus blanchardi)
When two fringeheads have a territorial battle, they wrestle by pressing their distended mouths against each other, as if they were kissing. This allows them to determine which is the larger fish, which establishes dominance
Dinosaur Feathers Trapped in Amber
A large treasure trove of ancient amber deposits in Canada has given insight into the evolution of feathers from dinosaurs to modern birds. Amber is essentially fossilised resin that preserves anything unlucky enough to become trapped in it, and researchers have found feathers preserved from the Late Cretaceous Period—70 to 85 million years ago. 11 distinct sets of feathers from 4,000 amber deposits filled in gaps in the fossil record, showing the progression of feathers from hair-like filaments to the branched, structured, flight-capable plumes of modern birds. “We’re finding two ends of the evolutionary development [of] feathers trapped in the same amber deposit,” says Ryan McKellar, the study’s co-author. The specimens were so well-preserved that researchers could even see the pigments that once coloured them—the feathers ranged from transparent to mottled to bright. Some had even become specialised, not for flight but for diving underwater, and some may have come from China’s 125-million-year-old Sinosauropteryx prima, the first dinosaur fossil discovered with feathers intact. The find suggests that dinosaurs were not all the scaly, drab creatures that we often imagine—a wide array of brightly-coloured creatures roamed the earth too, perhaps right up to the dinosaurs’ extinction.
(Image Credit: National Geographic)
Coral Rekindling Venus a film by Lynette Walworth.
Imagine global co-operation for a global problem. Imagine corals as the barometer of climate change. Imagine we are the pivot point. Imagine rekindling Venus.
My intent is to leave the audience with a sense of wonder for the complexity of the coral community and a deep-felt longing to see it survive.
What is apparent when you watch the film is the remarkable survival mechanisms already at play in the community of coral reefs, mechanisms that will be put to the test in the coming years. We might see ourselves as two different communities interconnected in our own survival.
- Lynette Wallworth
Cavemen’s musical instruments date back 40,000 years
The instruments, along with other signs of artistic creativity, date back to 42,000 to 43,000 years ago, during the upper Paleolithic period.
(Source: ForGIFs.com, via 4gifs)
