Nature's Children

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:23 am

I was reading a book on turtles today and saw this prehistoric turtle fossil.
What a strange structure, notice how the bottom of the shell/plastron has a spiny structure. Must have been wondrous times back then and look where it was found. ha

"Unlike most modern turtles, Archelon didn't have a solid shell, but instead had a skeletal framework supporting a leathery or bony carapace. Other distinguishing features include a pointed tail, a narrow skull, a relatively narrow, high-vaulted shell, and a pronounced overbite.[4]"
"The live weight of an Archelon ischyros is estimated at more than 4,500 pounds (2200 kilograms)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Arch ... eleton.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archelon
http://taggart.glg.msu.edu/isb200/mesob7.gif
http://www.euroturtle.org/biology/fossil.htm
http://www.oceansofkansas.com/Turtles/Plastron1.jpg

Some interesting perspectives towards the bottom of this link/page.
http://www.oceansofkansas.com/Turtles.html
http://www.oceansofkansas.com/Turtles/A ... PM3000.jpg

One day I was listening to the radio in my car and heard that a guy was bothering a sea turtle while diving at a local wreck. The funny thing was that the turtle didn't like being bothered and the radio announcer said that the turtle got mad, swam around and grabbed the top of the diver's scuba tank and shook the diver vigorously. I always thought they were docile. ha
Another time I was out fishing about 25 miles out, anchored, with my Dad and brother asleep/napping in the cabin, and I was justing sitting in a chair in the dark except for the stern light watching the rods waiting for a bite. A little flying fish jumped in the boat perhaps attracted by the light. I threw it back in the water. It was dead calm and quiet. Suddenly, I was quite startled when a large sea turtle surfaced right next to the boat and gasped in a huge breathe of air. What a noise if you aren't expecting it. ha
My Dad had a Trojan much like this one, if you want to picture the scenario. Yawn.
http://www.trojanboats.net/images/boat% ... 011-05.jpg

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:52 am

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stor ... 816317.htm

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Wed May 14, 2008 2:54 pm

"And some aliens could even be free from original sin, he speculates."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7399661.stm

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Wed May 21, 2008 9:20 pm

Published online 21 May 2008 | Nature 453, - (2008) | doi:10.1038/453435b
News in Brief: Sidelines
Sidelines
Scribbles on the margins of science.

On the Record
“The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses.”

Albert Einstein, in a 1954 letter that sold last week at auction in London for £170,000. Richard Dawkins was one of the losing bidders.
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080521/ ... 3435b.html

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:07 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io3u7diLCfU
I wonder how well or long it could fly/glide if dropped carefully from a slow plane. I always liked it when I went fishing, our boat would scare up clusters of a dozen or more sometimes as we sped out to sea. They're fun to watch.
Artist's rendering. ha
http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/dr ... ings/1.jpg
http://www.lostcity.washington.edu/miss ... 03_big.jpg
Salmon of doubt.
http://www.compilots.com/downloads/data ... g_fish.jpg
http://qued.com/jkt/saipan/images/73501 ... ish_DN.jpg

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Sat May 24, 2008 8:26 pm

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008 ... p.php#more

Squid photoreceptors can send the message "It's light!", and they shout it back when the lights are on, and go quiet when it's dark. Logically, this is equivalent to what the vertebrate eye does, it's just that the polarity is reversed. We have an electrical switch installed that you flip down to send a signal back, while squid have a switch that you flip up.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008 ... id_eye.php

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon May 26, 2008 4:25 pm

I wonder how much thrust the water-jets make?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008 ... 256117.htm

Jim Berquist · Post by **Jim Berquist** » Mon May 26, 2008 4:48 pm

Wow! A life Time supply of calamari!!!!!!!!

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Thu May 29, 2008 2:06 am

http://michaelgr.com/2008/05/09/virtual ... i-paradox/
http://michaelgr.com/2008/04/13/on-the- ... -and-seti/

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Sat May 31, 2008 1:04 am

Odd beetles and naked eyes.
http://www.polarization.com/beetle/beetle.html
http://www.polarization.com/haidinger/haidinger.html

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Sat May 31, 2008 4:21 pm

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/227

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 2:49 pm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8498621/
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techi ... bers_x.htm
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1 ... reefs.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexactinellid
http://cgi.ebay.com/VENUS-GLASS-SPONGE- ... otohosting

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:32 am

A book I am reading - Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin © 2008.

"Slit the belly of a shark from mouth to tail. The first thing you'll see is liver, a lot of it. The liver of a shark is gigantic. Some zoologists believe that a large liver contributes to the buoyancy of the shark. Move the liver away and you'll find the gonads extending up near the heart, in the "chest" area. This arrangement is typical of most fish: the gonads lie toward the front of the body.
In us, as in most mammals, this arrangement would be a disaster. Males continuously produce sperm throughout our lives. Sperm are finicky little cells that need exactly the right range of temperatures to develop correctly for the three months they live. Too hot, and sperm are malformed; too cold, and they die. Male mammals have a neat little device for controlling the temperature of the sperm-making apparatus: the scrotum. As we all know, the male gonads sit in a sac. Inside the skin of the sac are muscles that can expand and contract as the temperature changes. Muscles also lie in our sperm cords. Hence, the cold-shower effect: the scrotum will tuck close to the body when it is cold. The whole package rises and falls with temperature. This is all a way to optimize the production of healthy sperm.
The disadvantage is that the plumbing that carries sperm to the penis is circuitous. Sperm travel from the testes in the scrotum through the sperm cord. The cord leaves the scrotum, travels up toward the waist, loops over the pelvis, then goes through the pelvis to travel through the penis and out. Along this complex path, the sperm gain seminal fluids from a number of glands that connect to the tube.
The reason for this absurd route lies in our developmental and evolutionary history. Our gonads begin their development in much the same place as a shark's: up near our livers. As they grow and develop, our gonads descend. In females the ovaries descend from the midsection to lie near the uterus and fallopian tubes. This ensures that the egg does not have far to travel to be fertilized. In males the descent goes farther."
http://richarddawkins.net/article,2125,n,n

Author Biography
NEIL SHUBIN is provost of The Field Museum as well as a professor of anatomy at the University of Chicago, where he also serves as an associate dean. Educated at Columbia, Harvard, and the University of California at Berkeley, he lives in Chicago.
http://www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/cat ... 0375424472

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 4:00 am

On the plus side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE-Nyt4B ... re=related

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:33 pm

http://tenfootstop.blogspot.com/2006/07 ... njury.html

People who have 'stumbled onto' these animals while wading have reported a shock similar to being hit by a very large fist. Recovery is usually uneventful, but it should be borne in mind that such electrical discharges could knock a diver unconscious.
http://www.elasmo-research.org/educatio ... teries.htm

www.pulse-jets.com