(via Aquaviews)
One of the bonuses of having lots of legs is that you can go bipedal whenever you feel like it.
(via TONMO)
A fun suggestion: do a google image search for “Wonderpus”. Be prepared to go blind.
(Also on FtB)
Usually, first thing in the morning, I’m feeding you some fresh new outrage or foolishness. How about something to awe and inspire for once? Here, watch the gorillas, and think about your place in the universe.
(Also on FtB)
How appropriate that one of the symbols of the season should be a parasite.
(Also on FtB)
Look with your puny camera eyes! Some new specimens of Anomalocaris, the spectacular Cambrian predator, have been discovered in South Australia. These fossils exhibit well-preserved eyes, allowing us to see that the bulbous stalked balls on their heads were actually fairly typical compound eyes, like those of modern insects.
Anomalocaris eyes from the Emu Bay Shale. a-d, Eye pair, SAM P45920a, level 10.4 m. a, b, Overview and camera lucida drawing. Scale bars, 5 mm. Grey fill in b represents visual surface, the proximal part in the upper eye extrapolated from the lower eye. c, Detail of ommatidial lenses located by horizontal white box in a. Scale bar, 1 mm. d, More complete eye, showing transition between visual surface and eye stalk (white arrows). Scale bar, 2 mm. e, Detail of ommatidial lenses in counterpart SAM P45920b. Scale bar, 0.3 mm. es, eye stalk; I.c., Isoxys communis; us, undetermined structure; vs, visual surface. Tilted white box in a represents area analysed using SEM-EDS.
The cool part of this discovery: the investigators were able to count the density of lenses and estimate how many were present in the intact eye. The number is 16,000 ommatidia in each eye, which is more than a little impressive: to put it in context, Drosophila has about 800. The emphasis on high-resolution vision suggests that Anomalocaris was diurnal predator in shallow water.
Oh, and just in case you’re one of those strange beings who isn’t instantly familiar with what the anomalocarids looked like, here’s a video to remind you.
Paterson JR, GarcÃa-Bellido DC, Lee MS, Brock GA, Jago JB, Edgecombe GD (2011) Acute vision in the giant Cambrian predator Anomalocaris and the origin of compound eyes. Nature 480(7376):237-40.
(Also on FtB)
Usually, I try to accentuate the positive and tell you why other animals are so much more interesting than cats, but today I’m going right for the gutter and showing you why cats are evil. Behold, the cat penis:
You know who else has a penis like that? Satan.
Now you have another reason to get your cats neutered — so they don’t ever use that nightmarish thing.
(Also on FtB)
Game over, man. No cat video can ever be as awesome as this: two mimic octopuses mating.
It’s like watching a nest of snakes break out into a barroom brawl. It’s also the most erotic thing I’ve ever seen on the internet.
(Also on FtB)
