Bizarre Life on Earth and Beyond (Axalonunderground)

Title: Bizarre Life on Earth and Beyond
Description: Ongoing topic

Roadbuster - April 4, 2008 06:37 PM (GMT)

From the creator(s) of 'News of the Weird World', 'Mad, Mad, Science", and "Dream Design" we have a new outbranching of subjuctary topics.

Bizarre Life on Earth and Beyond encompasses everything from Cryptozoological reports, Fables and myths found walking, Footprints of the Unknown in the mud, Bones from ancient life, and Aliens walking among us!!

To start things off, a Fish that remains as of yet unidentified. See it's fanged face on CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/0...fanged.fish.ksl

Icefang - April 4, 2008 07:31 PM (GMT)

I see a Sci-Fi Channel movie in that fish's future.. :cheese:

Prisma Nova - April 4, 2008 08:16 PM (GMT)

So, the topic is even weirder than News of the Weird World, and it involves something almost like in the supernatural? A mix between News of the Weird World and Mad, Mad Science?

Roadbuster - April 4, 2008 08:17 PM (GMT)

Anything animal related mainly. And it can certainly include the supernatural!

NoWW is the 'weird things we do'
Mad, Mad Science was any new and bizarre discovery in Science
Dream Design is any new or old design that makes us think
and Foreign Cinema is pretty self explanitory ;)

Prisma Nova - April 5, 2008 12:41 AM (GMT)

Those subject creators are really busy, and creative! :D

Jackass Maximus - April 8, 2008 03:11 PM (GMT)

QUOTE

Lower-status monkeys more likely to opt for cocaine over food: study

Monkeys of a lower social standing are more likely to choose cocaine over food in stressful situations than their higher status counterparts, a new study from the U.S. suggests.

The study, presented Sunday at the Experimental Biology conference in San Diego, also found that improving the monkeys' quality of life diminished cocaine use, a result with implications for the treatment of drug abuse in humans.

"We believe this type of research can be used to identify better treatment strategies, including providing environmental enrichment, that may affect the likelihood of abusing drugs," said lead researcher Michael Nader in a news release.

"We think that reducing drug use in people is going to require changes in their environment - things that are enriching, such as alternative activities," he elaborated in an e-mail to CBC News on Monday.

Such enrichment could include a job, said Nader, a professor in the school's department of physiology and pharmacology.

"The point is that abstinence or incarceration won't be effective to most people in the absence of environmental changes," he said.

Subordinate monkeys used more cocaine, ate less

For the study, researchers from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina set up the monkeys, male cynomolgus macaques, with the ability to self-administer cocaine injections and exposed them to both stressful and enriched situations.

Cynomolgus macaques ascribe to a strict social hierarchy, and divide themselves accordingly, from the dominant male down to the most subordinate.

Earlier research found that low-status monkeys were more likely to use cocaine if it was offered to them.

To see how the monkeys would react under stress, the researchers introduced the monkeys to another social group by putting them in a cage beside the strangers' pen for 15 minutes. The monkeys were physically safe, but could hear the new monkeys.

After spending time in the cage, the monkeys were given the choice between two levers, one which they knew delivered cocaine, the other known to deliver a food reward.

The researchers found that the subordinate monkeys used more cocaine and ate less while the higher-status monkeys tended to choose the food pellets.

"We found that stressful events increased cocaine use especially in subordinate monkeys (who are already more stressed than the dominant animals," Nader said.

The human applications

For the second part of the study, the monkeys were given three days in an "enriched environment," that is, a larger pen where they had the chance to explore and learn new ways to get treats. Spending time in this pen led to less cocaine use in all of the monkeys, the researchers found.

Calling the results "very significant," Nader said that the findings could be used to treat cocaine addiction in humans.

"These findings suggest that changes in the environment only can have profound effects on the likelihood to use cocaine. Enrichment can decrease use," he said.

The environmental changes reduced cocaine use but didn't eliminate it in the monkeys, he added.

"We think a combination of drug treatments, whatever those may be, plus environmental changes will have a better likelihood of eliminating drug use than either manipulation alone."

Nader said that in addition to the positive effects in changing the environment, the researchers also saw individual differences in the results depending on the animal's social rank.

"That suggests that the same manipulation won't necessarily have the same effect in everyone - a finding that is certainly true with humans," he said.

Other research conducted at the school and presented Sunday included a study on the changes in the brain associated with stressful situations. Researchers found that when stressed, the subordinate monkeys showed decreased activity in the areas of the brain related to stress, anxiety, reward and emotion, while dominant monkeys showed increases in reward-related areas.

The researchers said this difference may explain why the subordinate monkeys got a greater reward from cocaine than food when compared with the higher-status monkeys.

Addiction could be treated with 'replacement' drugs

Additional research, conducted by assistant professor of physiology and pharmacology Paul Czoty, found that it would be possible to treat cocaine addiction with a "replacement" drug that mimics cocaine with less potential for abuse, similar to the way nicotine addiction is treated.

The researchers found that treating monkeys with amphetamine reduced the self-administration of cocaine for up to a month.

Czoty said that while it is unlikely that amphetamines will turn out to be the best treatment for cocaine addictions, "these drugs allow us to prove the concept of using a replacement drug to combat cocaine addiction."

He said the study may also help identify the best dose and schedule for administering replacement drugs.

Incredible insight into the human condition.

Dark Mousette91 - April 8, 2008 06:30 PM (GMT)

:blink: come again?

Roadbuster - April 8, 2008 06:34 PM (GMT)

monkey's on crack.... what's so hard to understand?

It's the Dominion experiments in real life...

Jackass Maximus - April 8, 2008 06:39 PM (GMT)

QUOTE (Dark Mousette91 @ Apr 8 2008, 01:30 PM)

:blink: come again?

Okay...

QUOTE

Incredible insight into the human condition.

Dark Mousette91 - April 8, 2008 06:40 PM (GMT)

<_< real funny

Roadbuster - April 8, 2008 06:43 PM (GMT)

And now... turkeys gone wild...

QUOTE

Postal workers attacked by wild turkeys
Mon Apr 7, 10:49 PM ET

MADISON, Wis. - Rather than rain or snow, or even dogs, postal workers in a West Side neighborhood near Owen Conservation Park are being pestered by wild turkeys this spring. Mara Wilhite, manager of the Hilldale Station Post Office, said she expected to deal with all manner of issues when she went to work for the U.S. Post Office. But that was not one of them.

"Just when you thought you'd heard it all," she said.

About five to 10 of the birds have been pecking at the postal workers as they make their rounds, and some of the birds have attacked the letter carriers with the sharp spurs on their legs. One of the birds went through the open door of a mail truck and scratched the driver.

Wilhite sought help in the matter from Eric Lobner, regional wildlife program supervisor for the state Department of Natural Resources.

Lobner said the behavior is clearly tied to the breeding season, which started recently and runs through about mid-May.

Color plays an important role in turkey breeding, he said, with the color of the male's head during mating season changes from gaudy blue to white to red. Lobner speculated that perhaps the turkeys are attracted to the red, white and blue postal trucks.

Postal workers were armed with water pistols. But Lober said that, while the squirts of water worked for a while, the turkeys now seem accustomed to it.

Some workers have been using long sticks to fend off the birds, he said, adding that he will meet with Wilhite next week to discuss other possible solutions.

Part of the problem, Lobner said, is that residents around Owen Conservation Park around the Parkwood Hills neighborhood may be feeding the turkeys, which makes the birds less afraid of humans. He said pamphlets have been circulated in the neighborhood to discourage people from feeding the birds.

Dark Mousette91 - April 8, 2008 06:47 PM (GMT)

rofl GOLD!!

on a random note, still laughing about your 'spirit of a lost sock' theory :D

Roadbuster - April 9, 2008 03:26 PM (GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/0...html#cnnSTCText

QUOTE

Baby with two faces worshipped as goddess

SAINI SUNPURA, India (AP) -- A baby with two faces was born in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said Tuesday.

The baby, Lali, apparently has an extremely rare condition known as craniofacial duplication, where a single head has two faces. Except for her ears, all of Lali's facial features are duplicated -- she has two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes.

"My daughter is fine -- like any other child," said Vinod Singh, 23, a poor farm worker.

Lali has caused a sensation in the dusty village of Saini Sunpura, 25 miles east of New Delhi. When she left the hospital, eight hours after a normal delivery on March 11, she was swarmed by villagers, said Sabir Ali, the director of Saifi Hospital.

"She drinks milk from her two mouths and opens and shuts all the four eyes at one time," Ali said.

Rural India is deeply superstitious and the little girl is being hailed as a return of the Hindu goddess of valor, Durga, a fiery deity traditionally depicted with three eyes and many arms.

Up to 100 people have been visiting Lali at her home every day to touch her feet out of respect, offer money and receive blessings, Singh told AP.

"Lali is God's gift to us," said Jaipal Singh, a member of the local village council. "She has brought fame to our village."

Village chief Daulat Ram said he planned to build a temple to Durga in the village.

"I am writing to the state government to provide money to build the temple and help the parents look after their daughter," Ram said.

Lali's condition is often linked to serious health complications, but the doctor said she was doing well.

"She is leading a normal life with no breathing difficulties," said Ali, adding that he saw no need for surgery.

Lali's parents were married in February 2007. Lali is their first child.

Singh said he took his daughter to a hospital in New Delhi where doctors suggested a CT scan to determine whether her internal organs were normal, but Singh said he felt it was unnecessary.

"I don't feel the need of that at this stage as my daughter is behaving like a normal child, posing no problems," he said.

Jackass Maximus - April 9, 2008 03:40 PM (GMT)

Look at that cute little dimple!

Dark Mousette91 - April 10, 2008 06:31 PM (GMT)

so...is she gonna be worshipped even as she gets older(if she lives that long) or is she gonna be shunned

Jackass Maximus - April 10, 2008 06:40 PM (GMT)

She'll be worshiped until a hapless villager discovers a Coca-Cola bottle. Then the poop hits the fan.

Roadbuster - April 10, 2008 07:34 PM (GMT)

QUOTE

Frog without lungs found in Indonesia
By MICHAEL CASEY, AP Environmental Writer
Thu Apr 10, 7:51 AM ET

BANGKOK, Thailand - A frog has been found in a remote part of Indonesia that has no lungs and breathes through its skin, a discovery that researchers said Thursday could provide insight into what drives evolution in certain species.

The aquatic frog Barbourula kalimantanensis was found in a remote part of Indonesia's Kalimantan province on Borneo island during an expedition in August 2007, said David Bickford, an evolutionary biologist at the National University of Singapore. Bickford was part of the trip and co-authored a paper on the find that appeared in this week's edition of the peer-reviewed journal Current Biology.

Bickford said the species is the first frog known to science without lungs and joins a short list of amphibians with this unusual trait, including a few species of salamanders and a wormlike creature known as a caecilian.

"These are about the most ancient and bizarre frogs you can get on the planet," Bickford said of the brown amphibian with bulging eyes and a tendency to flatten itself as it glides across the water.

"They are like a squished version of Jabba the Hutt," he said, referring to the character from Star Wars. "They are flat and have eyes that float above the water. They have skin flaps coming off their arms and legs."

Bickford's Indonesian colleague, Djoko Iskandar, first came across the frog 30 years ago and has been searching for it ever since. He didn't know the frog was lungless until they cut eight of the specimens open in the lab.

Graeme Gillespie, director of conservation and science at Zoos Victoria in Australia, called the frog "evolutionarily unique." He said the eight specimens examined in the lab showed the lunglessness was consistent with the species and not "a freak of nature." Gillespie was not a member of the expedition or the research team.

Bickford surmised that the frog had evolved to adapt to its difficult surroundings, in which it has to navigate cold, rapidly moving streams that are rich in oxygen.

"It's an extreme adaptation that was probably brought about by these fast-moving streams," Bickford said, adding that it probably needed to reduce its buoyancy in order to keep from being swept down the mountainous rivers.

He said the frog could help scientists understand the environmental factors that contribute to "extreme evolutionary change" since its closest relative in the Philippines and other frogs have lungs.

Bickford and Gillespie said the frog's discovery adds urgency to the need to protect its river habitat, which in recent years has become polluted due to widespread illegal logging and gold mining. Once-pristine waters are now brown and clogged with silt, they said.

"The gold mining is completely illegal and small scale. But when there are thousands of them on the river, it really has a huge impact," Bickford said. "Pretty soon the frogs will run out of the river."

Roadbuster - April 10, 2008 07:39 PM (GMT)

QUOTE

"Lyuba" gives scientists glimpse of mammoth insides
By Dmitry Solovyov
2 hours, 29 minutes ago

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian scientists say they have obtained the most detailed pictures so far of the insides of a prehistoric animal, with the help of a baby mammoth called Lyuba found immaculately preserved in the Russian Arctic.

The mammoth is named after the wife of the hunter who found her last year. The body was shipped back to Russia in February from Japan, where it was studied using computer tomography in a process similar to one doctors use to scan patients.

"We could see for the first time how internal organs are located inside a mammoth. It is pretty important from a scientific point of view," said Alexei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Science's Zoological Institute, who has been leading the project.

"Her internal organs were well preserved -- the heart was seen distinctly with all its ventricles and atria, as well as the liver and its veins," Tikhonov told Reuters.

"This is the best preserved specimen not only of the mammoth but of any prehistoric animal."

The mammoth species has been extinct since the Ice Age. Tests on Lyuba showed she was fed on milk and was three to four months old when she died 37,000 years ago in what is now the Yamalo-Nenetsk region in Russia's Arctic.

Scientists were excited by the find because, although her shaggy coat was gone, her skin was intact, protecting her internal organs from contamination by modern-day microbes.

Tikhonov said the computer tomography, which provided a sharp three-dimensional image of Lyuba's insides, revealed no injuries or fractures.

The scans showed her airways and digestive system were clogged with what scientists believe was silt, leading them to conclude that she must have drowned.

GENETIC MAP

Tikhonov, who heads the Zoological Museum in Russia's second city of St Petersburg, said Lyuba's contribution to science could be far bigger than thought up to now.

"If we take samples of Lyuba's tissues by biopsy, without unfreezing her, there is a big chance we can obtain promising results in genetics and microbiology," he said by telephone from St Petersburg.

"I believe the genetic map (of the mammoth) will be decoded within a year or two. As for (Lyuba's) practical use, we will have discovered methods of decoding the genetic map of any extinct prehistoric animals," he said.

"There were species that died out during the human era. And while I do not think someone would attempt to reproduce the mammoth, it would still make sense to bring back to life gigantic birds from Madagascar or New Zealand, or the Steller's sea cow (an extinct mammal), and so on and so forth."

Lyuba's body is stored in a purpose-built container that maintains sub-zero temperatures to prevent the pre-historic tissue from decomposing. She will soon be flown to Salekhard, capital of the Yamalo-Netnetsk region.

"She will be exhibited in Salekhard starting this summer," Tikhonov said. "A special glass-case with constant sub-zero temperatures has already been prepared for her."

Roadbuster - April 10, 2008 07:42 PM (GMT)

QUOTE

"There were species that died out during the human era. And while I do not think someone would attempt to reproduce the mammoth, it would still make sense to bring back to life gigantic birds from Madagascar or New Zealand, or the Steller's sea cow (an extinct mammal), and so on and so forth."

wha...? Exactly why would it make sense to bring back any extinct species? I mean, yeah, if made extinct fairly recently by overhunting or such, sure. But in general, species are made extinct by natural selection, and should probably be left as extinct.

Roadbuster - April 10, 2008 07:45 PM (GMT)

good day for weird life stories...
pics and video at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7339508.stm

QUOTE

Ancient serpent shows its leg
By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News

What was lost tens of millions of years ago is now found.

A fossil animal locked in Lebanese limestone has been shown to be an extremely precious discovery - a snake with two legs.

Scientists have only a handful of specimens that illustrate the evolutionary narrative that goes from ancient lizard to limbless modern serpent.

Researchers at the European Light Source (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, used intense X-rays to confirm that a creature imprinted on a rock, and with one visible leg, had another appendage buried just under the surface of the slab.

"We were sure he had two legs but it was great to see it, and we hope to find other characteristics that we couldn't see on the other limb," said Alexandra Houssaye from the National Museum of Natural History, Paris.

The 85cm-long (33in) creature, known as Eupodophis descouensi , comes from the Late Cretaceous, about 92 million years ago.

Unearthed near the village of al-Nammoura, it was originally described in 2000.

Its remains are divided across the two interior faces of a thin limestone block that has been broken apart.

A portion of the vertebral column is missing; and in the process of preservation, the "tail" has become detached and positioned near the head.

But it is the unmistakable leg bones - fibula, tibia and femur - that catch the eye. The stumpy hind-limb is only 2cm (0.8in) long, and was presumably utterly useless to the animal in life.

Current evidence suggests that snakes started to emerge less than 150 million years ago.

Two theories compete. One points to a land origin in which lizards started to burrow, and as they adapted to their subterranean existence, their legs were reduced and lost - first the forelimbs and then the hind-limbs.

The second theory considers the origin to be in water, from marine reptiles.

This makes the few known bipedal snakes in the fossil record hugely significant, because they could hold the clues that settle this particular debate.

"Every detail can be very important in establishing the great relationships and that's why we must know them very well," explained Ms Houssaye.

"I wanted to study the inner structure of different bones and so for that you would usually use destructive methods; but given that this is the only specimen [of E. descouensi ], it is totally impossible to do that.

"3D reconstruction techniques were the only solution. We needed a good resolution and only this machine can do that," she told BBC News.

That machine is the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. This giant complex on the edge of the Alps produces an intense, high-energy light that can pierce just about any material, revealing its inner structure.

For this study, the fossil snake was clamped to an inclined table and rotated in front of the facility's brilliant X-ray beam.

In a process known as computed laminography, many hundreds of 2D images are produced which can be woven, with the aid of a smart algorithm, into a detailed 3D picture.

The finished product, which can be spun around on a computer screen, reveals details that will be measured in just millionths of a metre.

The E. descouensi investigation shows the second leg hidden inside the limestone is bent at the knee.

"We can even see ankle bones," ESRF's resident palaeontologist Paul Tafforeau said.

"In most cases, we can't find digits; but that may be because they are not preserved or because, as this is a vestigial leg, they were never present."

To modern eyes, it may seem strange to think of a snake with legs.

But look at some of the more primitive modern snakes, such as boas and pythons, and you'll see evidence of their legged ancestry - tiny "spurs" sited near their ends, which today are used as grippers during sex.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Jackass Maximus - April 10, 2008 08:06 PM (GMT)

QUOTE (Roadbuster @ Apr 10 2008, 02:42 PM)

wha...? Exactly why would it make sense to bring back any extinct species?

Because people will pay money to see it.

Roadbuster - April 10, 2008 08:08 PM (GMT)

Yessss... and that always works out well in stories...

user posted image

Jackass Maximus - April 10, 2008 08:14 PM (GMT)

Ethics and economics rarely share precedence outside of the classroom. Jurassic Park could very easily be the Futility of our generation.

Dr Archeville - April 11, 2008 01:59 AM (GMT)

QUOTE (Roadbuster @ Apr 10 2008, 03:42 PM)

To find out what they taste like!

Prisma Nova - April 11, 2008 02:07 AM (GMT)

Hmmm... interesting, I'm now curious on how T-Rex would taste. My bet it will taste like chicken, but spicier. I can't help it if I'm carnivorous.

*drools*

Jackass Maximus - April 11, 2008 03:10 AM (GMT)

I'll have the primordial soup, please.

Roadbuster - April 21, 2008 04:44 PM (GMT)

Day of the super dogs...

QUOTE

Lucky dog! Adrift pooch is plucked from Pacific isle

By SOLVEJ SCHOU, Associated Press Writer
Fri Apr 18, 11:58 PM ET

LOS ANGELES - Snickers the Sea Dog is barely more than a pup, but he's already an old salt.

The 8-month-old pooch spent three months adrift in the Pacific with his owners and a parrot until their 48-foot sailboat ran aground in December on tiny Fanning Island, 1,000 miles south of Hawaii. Snickers and Gulliver had to be left behind as their owners hitched a ride on a cargo vessel.

Then in March, the SOS was sent out in a boating journal that the orphaned critters were to be destroyed on Fanning, one of 33 scattered coral atolls that make up the remote island nation of Kiribati.

As word spread, a bevy of people worked to rescue the cocker spaniel and the macaw, including a man who desperately wants to adopt them: retired Las Vegas resident Jack Joslin.

"I love animals," Joslin told The Associated Press on Friday. "I had two dogs up until the middle of March. Then I had to have my border collie euthanized. The day they called saying the ashes were back was when I read the story (about Snickers). It occurred to me I could do something."

On April 9, Norwegian Cruise Line workers rescued Snickers from Fanning and dropped him off on Oahu island, Hawaii, where he will remain in quarantine until he is flown to Los Angeles.

Hawaiian Airlines, moved by the dog's survival story, has given the go-ahead on flying the animal for free to the mainland, said Peter Forman, a Hawaii-based airlines historian who helped negotiate Snickers' transport.

Forman said he expects Snickers to arrive sometime in the next three days.

Snickers' original owners, Jerry and Darla Merrow, had set out from California's Moss Landing but their catamaran developed mast problems, said Gina Baurile of the Hawaiian Humane Society.

The boat drifted to the tiny atoll, where it hit a reef and the couple swam 200 yards to shore with Snickers and Gulliver.

Baurile said the pets were left in the care of islanders.

"They don't have the same concept of taking care of pets," Baurile said.

Efforts to contact the Merrows on Friday were unsuccessful. Joslin said he has been unable to contact the pair, and Baurile said she believes the Hawaiian Humane Society never tried to reach them.

"The Merrows got to the point where they had to move on with their lives," said Forman, who is friends with Robby and Lorraine Coleman, a couple with a sailboat off Fanning Island who originally talked to a boating journal about Snickers.

"The Merrows basically signed a release of ownership of the dog," Forman said.

Robby Coleman started watching out for the dog and parrot on the island, Forman said.

"Robby put out the SOS and a lot of people got involved," Forman said.

Contacted by Joslin, the Hawaiian Humane Society took the lead on Snickers rescue.

The organization worked with Norwegian Cruise Line, and a ship was sent out to Fanning Island to pick up the dog, said Norwegian Cruise Line spokeswoman Krislyn Hashimoto.

The Hawaiian Humane Society provided pet carriers, flea treatment and food, Baurile said.

The dog landed in Honolulu on Wednesday, cleared Customs and has been in quarantine since, awaiting transport to Los Angeles, Hashimoto said.

Getting the parrot off the island will be more difficult, said Joslin, who wants to adopt the animal.

There is a plan to move Gulliver to Christmas Island, near Fanning Island, and eventually to L.A., one of two U.S. ports that accept exotic birds.

"Snickers is going to live with me, I hope, for a long time," Joslin said. "And we're trying like hell to get the bird back here."

QUOTE

Dog crosses desert, mountains and somehow gets back home
Sat Apr 19, 7:42 PM ET

ELY, Nev. - A dog that ran off during a road-trip rest stop apparently made her way nearly 80 miles across Nevada's high desert and two mountain ranges to return home a week later.

Moon, a Siberian husky, was reunited April 14 with owner Doug Dashiell, who had last seen her April 6 near Railroad Valley, about 77 miles from his home in Ely.

Moon, who is nearly 2 years old, was no worse for the wear, with the exception of stinking like a skunk that apparently sprayed her somewhere along the journey.

"I've had trouble with her running away before. She's always come home," Dashiell said. But he didn't expect her to show up after a week had passed.

"After seven days — no way," he told the Ely Times for a story Thursday.

Then the White Pine Veterinary Clinic called Dashiell and told him Moon was back in town. She had wandered up to an Ely residence where Alvin Molea took her home, fed her and gave her a place to sleep.

Molea called the clinic because the dog was wearing a tag from it.

The dog's journey would have taken her across the White River and Ward mountain ranges.

Poop-Flinger Prime - April 21, 2008 07:41 PM (GMT)

milo and otis have nothing on those guys

Roadbuster - April 30, 2008 05:06 PM (GMT)

vid: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/04/30...quid/index.html

QUOTE

Huge squid has world's largest eye, say scientists

(CNN) -- Scientists studying the carcass of what they call the heaviest squid ever found have discovered it has eyes as big as soccer balls -- reportedly the largest in the world.

The colossal squid's eyes were measured at about 27 centimeters (10.8 inches) across by researchers, who have been defrosting it and a smaller specimen at Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand.

"This is the only intact eye (of a colossal squid) that's ever been found. It's spectacular," squid specialist Kat Bolstad of the Auckland University of Technology told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Bolstad, one of a team of international scientists brought in to examine the creature, added: "It's the largest known eye in the animal kingdom."

His assertion was backed up by Swedish professor Eric Warrant of the University of Lund, who specializes in vision in invertebrates.

"This is the largest eye ever recorded in history and studied," Warrant told AP. "It has a huge lens the size of an orange and captures an awful lot of light in the dark depths in which it hunts."

Scientists snaked a camera into the colossal squid's body and measured its beak and tentacles in an exam broadcast live on the Internet. Watch scientists studying the squid. »

"It didn't seem really fair that only a handful of people would get to see an animal like this up close," said Steve O'Shea, a marine biologist at the Auckland University of Technology.

He led a team that examined the corps of the colossal squid on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in a lab at Wellington's Te Papa.

"It's the end of three days without much sleep," O'Shea told CNN. "It's been an exhausting exercise."

Blog dispatches from the lab provided updates ("They're going to rotate the Squid!") peppered with commentary ("anything with lots of legs/tentacles gives me the willies but if it's here -- and not moving is a plus in my book -- you have to touch!")

A New Zealand fishing boat snagged the squid in February 2007, as it sought toothfish in the Antarctic waters of the Ross Sea. The crew hauled in a line with many baited hooks and discovered a massive squid feasting on one of the hooked fish, the museum says on its Web site.

Researchers determined it was a colossal squid, a species first documented in 2003 that tends to weigh more than the also-big giant squid.

The larger colossal squid that scientists examined this week weighed 1,091 pounds (495 kilograms) and measured about 32 feet (10 meters), the museum said.

"We probably have more questions than we have answers now," O'Shea said just after completing the exam.

Yet the team made at least one key finding.

When they measured the colossal squid's beak, O'Shea said, they were stunned to discover that it was shorter than colossal-squid beaks recovered from the stomachs of sperm whales, which prey on squid.

That led O'Shea to conclude that even heavier colossal squid lurk somewhere below the surface, unseen by human eyes.

"They grow considerably larger," he said.

Prisma Nova - April 30, 2008 05:19 PM (GMT)

Can you imagine the big party we could have with a fried squid that size?

Jackass Maximus - April 30, 2008 06:32 PM (GMT)

methinks you'd need Unkie Moe's Navy surplus deep-fryer.

Poop-Flinger Prime - April 30, 2008 07:26 PM (GMT)

mmmm fried calamari

Roadbuster - May 6, 2008 07:33 PM (GMT)

This coulda also made it into Mad Mad Science...

QUOTE

Eagle to get second chance with 'bionic beak'

ST. MARIES, Idaho (AP) -- She has been named Beauty, though this eagle is anything but.

Part of Beauty's beak was shot off several years ago, leaving her with a stump that is useless for hunting food.

A team of volunteers is working to attach an artificial beak to the disfigured bird, in an effort to keep her alive.

"For Beauty it's like using only one chopstick to eat. It can't be done" said biologist Jane Fink Cantwell, who operates a raptor recovery center in this Idaho Panhandle town.

"She has trouble drinking. She can't preen her feathers. That's all about to change."

Cantwell has spent the past two years assembling a team to design and build an artificial beak. They plan to attach it to Beauty this month. With the beak, the 7-year-old bald eagle could live to the age of 50, although not in the wild.

"She could not survive in the wild without human intervention," Cantwell said.

The 15-pound eagle was found in 2005 scrounging for food and slowly starving to death at a landfill in Alaska. Most of her curved upper beak had been shot away, leaving her tongue and sinuses exposed. She could not clutch or tear at food.

Beauty was taken to a bird recovery center in Anchorage, where she was hand-fed for two years while her caretakers waited in vain for a new beak to grow.

"They had exhausted their resources and she would likely be euthanized," Cantwell said.

Beauty was taken in 2007 to Cantwell's Birds of Prey Northwest ranch in Idaho after permits were obtained from the federal government.

Soon after, Cantwell met Nate Calvin during a speaking engagement in Boise. Calvin, a mechanical engineer, offered to design an artificial beak. A dentist, veterinarian and other experts eventually volunteered to help.

Molds were made of the existing beak parts and scanned into a computer, so the bionic beak could be created as accurately as possible.

"One side has much greater damage than the other," Cantwell said. "It's not as simple as a quick, snapped-off beak, 90 degrees and flush."

The nylon-composite beak is light and durable, and will be glued onto the eagle.

The team decided against fastening the new beak with screws because the stump is so close to the brain and eye, Cantwell said. But if the glue fails, screws will be tried, she said.

The artificial beak won't be strong enough to allow Beauty to cut and tear flesh from prey. But it will help her to drink water, and to grip and eat the food she is given.

Cantwell has been using forceps to feed Beauty, who is often treated to strips of salmon.

A successful attachment of a prosthetic beak is rare but not unprecedented, said Dr. Julia Ponder, executive director of The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota.

"Not enough of these have been done out there to say, `yes, it can be done successfully,"' Ponder said. "Whether or not it will be functional is a question."

Dr. Erik Stauber of the nearby Washington State University veterinary hospital in Pullman does not have a lot of faith the artificial beak will work.

"It's a valiant effort to do something," he said. "We have no experience with it."

While birds of prey are notoriously skittish around humans, Beauty has become somewhat comfortable with people. She allows herself to be carried by Cantwell, and tolerate the poking and prodding by those making the beak.

"She laid on the table for nearly two hours, fully conscious, knowing full well I was handling and restraining her, and never once trying to escape," Cantwell said. "I suspect she knows we not trying to hurt her."

Beauty has the potential to breed or be a foster mother for orphaned eagles. Cantwell has other plans for Beauty as well.

"She's a miracle recovery patient from her initial injuries," she said. "She will be a huge educational tool, primarily to instruct people on why we should not shoot raptors and why they are beneficial to the environment.

"Give me an hour with a third or sixth grader and they will never shoot a raptor."

Shooting a bald eagle, though they are no longer on the endangered species list, remains a violation of federal law

Poop-Flinger Prime - May 6, 2008 08:03 PM (GMT)

if the asshole who did that is found he should be shot in the face

all praise Hammurabi

Prisma Nova - May 6, 2008 08:51 PM (GMT)

A remarkable story. I hope it will be successful.

Roadbuster - May 8, 2008 06:00 PM (GMT)

So... apparently Wasp spunk inside of orchids...

QUOTE

Sexy orchids do more than embarrass wasps?
1 hour, 11 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Orchids that mimic female wasps may not only waste the time of the male wasps they lure into spreading their pollen -- they also seduce them into wasting valuable sperm, Australian researchers reported on Wednesday.

And the flowers benefit twice -- getting help in their own reproduction, and perhaps indirectly producing more male pollinators in the process.

Some of the most exotic orchids are known to have evolved their convoluted shapes to attract insects, who unwittingly collect and transfer pollen as they try to mate with the flowers.

"The effect of deception on pollinators has been considered negligible, but we show that pollinators may suffer considerable costs," Anne Gaskett of Macquarie University in Sydney and colleagues reported.

"Insects pollinating Australian tongue orchids (Cryptostylis species) frequently ejaculate and waste copious sperm," they wrote in a report in The American Naturalist.

It is not harmless to the wasps, who may suffer more than an inconvenience. "Male pollinators can prefer orchids to real females, prematurely end a copulation with a real female to visit an orchid, or be unable to find real female mates among false orchid signals," the researchers wrote.

"Unquestionably, producing sperm, ejaculate, or seminal fluids is costly for many animals. The energetic demands of sperm production can result in reduced body mass, a shortened life span, or limited lifetime sperm production," they added.

But this arms race of sexual trickery works in more than one way for the flower. "We also show that orchid species provoking such extreme pollinator behavior have the highest pollination success," they added.

"How can deception persist, given the costs to pollinators?"

They found that the wasps who frequent these flowers are haplodiploid species. Like bees, ants and similar species, offspring produced by sexual unions are female, while females can also produce males asexually.

"Therefore, female insects deprived of matings by orchid deception could still produce male offspring, which may even enhance orchid pollination," the researchers wrote.

Gaskett's team examined flowers after wasps visited them and found the hoodwinked males did eventually learn their lesson.

"With experience, male Lissopimpla excelsa wasps become less likely to copulate with and pollinate sexually deceptive Cryptostylis orchids," they wrote.

:sexy:

Prisma Nova - May 8, 2008 06:17 PM (GMT)

So, orchids act like Decepticons...

Roadbuster - May 8, 2008 06:20 PM (GMT)

... horny Decepticons :decepticon:

Now for something COMPLETELY different!

QUOTE

Neither fish nor fowl: Platypus genome decoded

by Marlowe Hood
Thu May 8, 8:52 AM ET

PARIS (AFP) - Arguably the oddest beast in Nature's menagerie, the platypus looks as it if were assembled from spare parts left over after the animal kingdom was otherwise complete.

Now scientists know why. According to a study released Wednesday, the egg-laying critter is a genetic potpourri -- part bird, part reptile and part lactating mammal.

The task of laying bare the platypus genome of 2.2 billion base pairs spread across 18,500 genes has taken several years, but will do far more than satisfy the curiosity of just biologists, say the researchers.

"The platypus genome is extremely important, because it is the missing link in our understanding of how we and other mammals first evolved," explained Oxford University's Chris Ponting, one of the study's architects.

"This is our ticket back in time to when all mammals laid eggs while suckling their young on milk."

Native to eastern Australia and Tasmania, the semi-aquatic platypus is thought to have split off from a common ancestor shared with humans approximately 170 million years ago.

The creature is so strange that when the first stuffed specimens arrived in Europe at the end of the 18th century, biologists believed they were looking at a taxidermist's hoax, a composite stitched together from the body of a beaver and the snout of a giant duck.

But the peculiar mix of body features are clearly reflected in the animal's DNA, the study found.

The platypus is classified as a mammal because it produces milk and is covered in coat of thick fur, once prized by hunters.

Lacking teats, the female nurses pups through the skin covering its abdomen.

But there are reptile-like attributes too: females lay eggs, and males can stab aggressors with a snake-like venom that flows from a spur tucked under its hind feet.

The bird-like qualities implied by its Latin name, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, include webbed feet, a flat bill similar to a duck's, and the gene sequences that determine sex. Whereas humans have two sex chromosomes, platypuses have 10, the study showed.

"It is much more of a melange than anyone expected," commented Ewan Birney, who led the genome analysis at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge.

The animal also possesses a feature unique to monotremes -- an order including a handful of egg-laying mammals -- called electroreception.

With their eyes, ears and nostrils closed, platypuses rely on sensitive electrosensory receptors tucked inside their bills to track prey underwater, detecting electrical fields generated by muscular contraction.

"By comparing the platypus genome to other mammalian genomes, we'll be able to study genes that have been conserved throughout evolution," said senior author Richard Wilson, a researcher at Washington University.

In captivity, platypuses have lived up to 17 years of age.

In the wild, they feed on worms, insect larvae, shrimps and crayfish, eating up to 20 percent of their body weight every day.

Males grow to a length of 50 centimetres (20 inches) and weigh about two kilos (4.5 pounds), with females about 20 percent shorter and lighter.

The genome sequenced for the study belongs to a female specimen from New South Wales nicknamed Glennie and can be accessed at www.ncbi.nih.gov/Genbank.

Roadbuster - May 9, 2008 05:32 PM (GMT)

Only in Lousiana would they admit to having a green puppy:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2...reen.puppy.wdsu

Poop-Flinger Prime - May 12, 2008 12:08 PM (GMT)

maybe they tried to breed a coon dog that would blend in with its surroundings

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