10 limbs for hugging!
The Christian Science Monitor (reprinting LiveScience) has published the greatest science headline I think I’ve ever read: School-bus sized squid actually quite friendly, study finds. […]
marine biology
What was I saying about whales?
BBC reports they’re delicious! And oh yeah, you may already have tasted them: A genetic analysis of meat found in Los Angeles showed that it […]
Science Art: Le Physale Cylindrique, Histoire naturelle de Lacépède, 1876.
Click to embiggen Another gorgeous old book illustration from Old Book Illustrations, this one from a Belgian natural history text. It’s a beached sperm whale, […]
SONG: Aquarium (penitential Robyn Hitchcock cover)
SONG: “Aquarium” (To download: double right-click & “Save As”) ARTIST: grant. Originally by Robyn Hitchcock. SOURCE: This is a penitential cover. There’s no specific scientific […]
Shrimp that should not be!
The Associated Press plunges into the icy waters of the unknown to present us with an unspeakable creature… a shrimp that should not be: Six […]
SONG: Staring
SONG: “Staring” (To download: double right-click & “Save As”) ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: “Body of Sea Urchin is One Big Eye,” LiveScience , 28 Dec 2009, […]
Spiny eyes. With legs and mouths.
LiveScience illuminates a mystery I’m not sure I even knew existed – how is it that sea urchins can see without eyes: Although sea urchins […]
Blue whale basso is really profundo.
Discovery gets deep in its musing about a cetacean mystery. The songs of the blue whale have been getting progressively lower in pitch: In some […]
Science Art: Mantis Shrimp by R.A. Lydekker.
The mantis shrimp, Stomatopoda, is one of the most terrifying sea creatures under three feet long. At least to me. They move exceptionally fast and […]
Mouthless worm stranger than previously thought. Oh. OK.
Wired has a lovely story about a charismatic creature that has no mouth, lives inside dead whale bones and is part of a very complicated […]
DMSD stands for “Digital Mantis Shrimp Discs”
Discover has an interesting bit of unexpected biomimicry. The mantis shrimp (probably the scariest marine predator less than 3 feet long) has an unusual way […]
Another Yangzi casualty.
The BBC depresses me again with a story about a unique Chinese fish that’s probably already extinct: A number of fish species vie for the […]
Science Art: Discoaster surculus.
Click to embiggen This is Discoaster surculus. Remember last week, that ocean picture that showed millions of coccolithophores floating in the ocean, sucking up CO2 […]
Prehistoric squid drawn in prehistoric ink.
The Telegraph unveils a beautiful portrait of a fearsome beast – an ancient squid drawn in its own petrified ink: “It is difficult to imagine […]
Science Art: Barents Sea in Bloom (BarentsSea_TMO_2009231)
This image, a recent Picture of the Day at NASA’s Earth Observatory, takes a big view of something very small – lots and lots and […]