Nature's Children

[Mark]

The jewel squid seemed interesting to me. It's got wonky eyes and if you scroll down the page you can read about their eyes which will grab your attention I think.
Mark
http://www.oceans.gov.au/norfanz/CreatureFeature.htm

[Mark]

In passing, the little serpent star referenced on the previous/above post was interesting too. Here is another tidbit about them. "Lashing arms, as active as a tiny octopus." I say it is like some silicon chip driving a robotic shape, that's the way I feel when I look at insects traversing across the floor in my house from time to time. It's as if they aren't yet conscious, but mere specks of life seeking some abstract thought. In the above link it states they, these stars, can reproduce by spitting into two parts. I remember a children's book on clams in the library where I work, the fishermen netting clams collected starfish as well in their nets and then hacked the starfish with a small axe and tossed them back into the water. But the starfish, now chopped in two pieces, merely regenerated the lost parts of each half. That stuck with me, it struck me as very funny, the irony of it. Starfish feed on clams, wrapping their arms around the clam and slowing wearing the clam down until they open up and the starfish eats them in with their stomach that they force into the clam, how strange that godly plan is as well. Imagine expelling your stomach out of your mouth and gobbling up some food that way.
In a developmental biology class I had in college, it said a child under 6 months of age, if you were to cut off the tip of the pinky finger at the knuckle, doctors in the past would stitch it up and it didn't heal properly, but if you leave the finger alone, it will completely regenerate, the cells at this young age still know how to fix things, something like Mr. Starfish.
Buy a dozen stars for $20.00.
Mark
http://www.gulfspecimen.org/brittlestar.html

[Mark]

I was watching some show on bears and the researchers said that going into the encloser with the bears was risky but necessary to study them. They had raised them since they were cubs to be tame but they are still wild animals that could decide to attack the researches, try as they might to continue to raise them carefully.
While I don't know if this was the same research center, the idea is the same, study bear hearts in hibernation because they are similar to damaged human hearts but they recover somehow after hibernation is over. The show I saw had a few full grown bears and some guys in the encloser just playing with them.
One thing dawned on me when they were talking about the risk of being in the grassy enclosers with the bears, was that even our species has the same problem, sometimes our little babies grow up and attack others, try as well might to raise them tamely. Just turn on the evening news. People sure kill each other on a grand scale. It just struck me as funny trying to raise safe bears, yet look at our own race. ha
Mark
http://www.natural-resources.wsu.edu/re ... people.htm
http://experience.wsu.edu/iss/nrsweb/be ... &profile=0

[Mark]

Last night I was watching a show about the Humboldt squid, and this diver was getting hit/attacked by them which he said was something if you consider their weight and speed at which they swim, which I think he said was 30 mph and the weight of a hockey player.
After the first strike another one grabbed him at 30 feet and dragged him down to 70 feet so quickly that it ruptured his eardrum.
Some fishermen were catching the squid with jigs and it was very impressive to see the massive quantity of water they could jet out as they were being pulled into the boat. The show stated that if you fell in the water at night with all the squid it would be very dangerous.
The diver built himself a special plated suit to protect himself. He said that being deep in the water and a bite from one of these squid along your ribs could cause seawater to rush in and compress your lungs very quickly.
Anyway, it was an entertaining show on the Discovery Channel I think it was. The squid would even start attacking each other and it was a challenge/effort for the fisherman who had hooked a squid to get it up with yet another squid eating/attacking the hooked squid. The fishing technique was just using a line in hand, no rod or equipment.
Mark

[Mark]

Some interesting stories towards the bottom of the article of a few attacks of the Humboldt squid. They play pretty rough.
Mark
http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/iss ... over_story

[Mark]

These are a few passages that I found touching in the book entitled "The Doodlebugs" that some recent member recommended for reading. I would agree, it was good reading.
Mark

[Mark]

One for El-Kablooey and his duck.
Mark
http://www.aylesburyducks.co.uk/

[Mark]

It looked so alive.
Mark

[Mark]

A forward on the doodlebug.
Mark

[Mark]

http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/l ... m211ax.htm
A cute little guy.
http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Oddball ... kipper.htm
http://sleep1937.tripod.com/id7.html
They like to eat crickets. You and your mudskipper.
http://www.petfish.net/articles/Gobies/ ... ippers.php
http://www.fishtanksandponds.net/live-s ... ippers.htm
http://www.franksaquarium.com/shellie.htm
Loren Eiseley mention.
http://www.themudskipper.org/
http://www.themudskipper.org/Reprod.html
Fish out of water.
http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/0902/0902_feature.html

[Mark]

Shrimpoluminescence and sonoluminescence.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... hrimp.html
Mantis sounds.
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~dcf103/mantis1.htm
Soon enough, I heard cracking noises coming from the tank...eviction notice.
http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/logs/053198.htm
One time I accidentally caught/hooked one of these guys, a plain color species though, and oddly I was using a regular shrimp for bait that day. He was about 6 inches long perhaps. It's funny how similar they are to the praying mantis, their arms that is.
http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0723/

[Mark]

A rain of mudskippers, those guys need to stay in the water where they belong I say. If you muddle through this, page 5 and 6 are kind of rewarding I thought.
Mark
http://www.global-mindshift.org/make/pdfs/TheSnout.pdf

[Mark]

Carl,
It doesn't sound like you had a very rigorous survival training class, eating gourmet foods and all. "Cicada-Licious" "Iroquois delicacy"
Mark
http://www.chat11.com/How_To_Eat_Cicadas

And this Queensland fruitfly sounds like one of my puslejets that finally starts. ha
http://www.ars.usda.gov/sp2UserFiles/pe ... 029-8o.wav
Here's some other bug sounds someone out there may like.
http://ars.usda.gov/pandp/docs.htm?doci ... bactrocera

[Mark]

I like the way this guy revs up. He's what the one sounded like in my backyard one day. They really crank out the sound if you stand right next to them, just one little cicada on my peach tree trunk. Turn up the volume to listen.
Mark
http://buzz.ifas.ufl.edu/706pf.htm
http://buzz.ifas.ufl.edu/706sl.wav

[Mark]

A fish that gets 80% of it's oxygen from the air, by breathing. It's kind of like those mudskipper fish in some respects, but the "eels" don't climb trees like the mudskippers. ha Check the size and weight these fish grow to.
Mark
http://www.whozoo.org/Intro2000/tashcorm/tempagetwo.htm