It is a blind cave salamander called an olm. This one has been regularly observed for years, and hasn’t moved in over 7 years. It just sits there in the same cool, moist spot, not budging.
“They are hanging around, doing almost nothing,” Dr Balázs told The New Scientist.
Wow. One can live like that? I thought it was only an impossible dream.
And it maintains such a slender figure!
I understand it’s not “moist” but underwater in a cave stream, eating invertebrates that sometimes drift close enough to snatch without leaving the spot.
Hasn’t moved in 7 years? Has anyone checked to see if it might be plastic?
Having read the Independent bit ,i think it might be depressed .
That’s generally how I feel most of the time, only with a light blanket thrown over me.
Clinical depression sucks.
Buddha learned from these guys.
Look at the curve in the middle of the body, this fellow can’t decide whether to turn left or right so he stays still. I‘ve had years like that.
Can it stay like that for ten years? fifty years? a hundred years? We might be seeing one of our great extinction bottleneck ancestors.
Probably too weak to go search for food.
That’s my retirement plan right there.
@8 I think you may be right, and I am cross I didn’t see it. I had just assumed this was the normal body form, but looking again it may not be. Puts a totally different emphasis on the story.
@10: Lots of pictures and even videos of olms (Proteus anguinus) online. They all have very thin bodies and small legs like this. So it’s more that they don’t need to run around, just slither and maybe use the legs to get past the occasional obstacle.
@11 thanks, that makes me feel better about my joke!
What he is possibly trying to get at is that there are cases, which go back many years, where university profs in the humanities had used the term while directly quoting someone else. Then they get into serious trouble for that. Here are but two recent examples:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/08/07/another-professor-under-fire-using-n-word-class-while-discussing-james-baldwin
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/02/01/professor-suspended-using-n-word-class-discussion-language-james-baldwin-essay
It’s shown no sign of animation in years? Does it have tenure?
It’s just money-humming. Olm, mani padme hum…