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The Prehensile Tailed Pokemon Porcupine (Coendou prehensilis) is an arboreal species of porcupine endemic to South America. They tend to stick to small groups or remain completely solitary, but if food and mates are abundant will tolerate larger amounts of each other. Males have a tendency to spray females and their offspring as a way of marking them as ‘territory.’  Most of their life (up to 85%) is spent in trees. Since they are nocturnal, foraging occurs at night. Anything from tree bark to fruits and even unripened seeds are an acceptable meal. They especially love the seeds of coco palms! Unfortunately, some bugs find them to be a good food source. Assassin beetles.. Yes, that’s their name.. Love to feast on the blood of these porcupines- in turn, the porcupines become a reservoir for a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi.  Perhaps the cutest thing about this animal is the various forms of communication. A gain in popularity was because of it’s little grunts in this episode of Scishow. Aside from vocal communication, they also have a very distinct chemical smell to get messages across. They produce a waxy substance with a pungent smell along their lower backs, and in areas frequented by porcupines, you can often smell them once they’ve already passed. 
wnycradiolab: freakyfauna: Shark silhouettes. From Shadows in the sea, Chilton Books (1963), Philadelphia. Found here. Yeah, we are really, really small.
elegantbuffalo: Parallel Evolution: when similar characterisitcs arise in closely related organisms Most people who have studied even a little evolutionary biology are aware of the marvelous diversity of the Lake Victoria cichlids. These fish have radiated to fill nearly all available niches in the lake. Over only a few million years, 300 species were developed from one ancestral populations.What you may not know is that there are cichlids in Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika, too, and all originated from similar ancestral populations. What’s more, the cichlids in each of the three lakes have evolved to fill nearly the exact same niches. The correspondence in ecology and morphology between the fish of the three lakes is the most spectacular example of parallel evolution that I’ve seen. Take a look at this figure, where the fish on the left come from Lake Tanganyika and the ones on the right are from Lake Malawi. kewl.
It looks like a weird worm, doesn’t it? Mmm, better look a little closer. There are scales on that little thing! Funny thing is, we’ve probably all seen one of these and assumed it was an everyday earth worm. As one of the world’s most widely distributed snake, The Brahminy Blind Snake’s (Ramphotyphlops braminus) origins trace back Southeastern Asia.. They might also be the world’s most harmless snake. Easily handled, you can opt to leave them alone or pick them up to show others! Just be careful not to hurt them, since they’re little and can be delicate. If you are picking one up, one way to tell it’s not an earthworm is they have tongues like other snakes. Another way is that earthworms have segmented bodies, but blindsnakes are smooth all around! Those little tongues are used for locating their meals- the eggs, larvae, and pupae of ants and termites! So, they’re really beneficial for house owners! Since they burrow through soil and leaflitter, it’s easy to assume they came from the soil of imported plants. That’s why they’re also known as the “Flower Pot Snake!” A parthogenetic species like the Desert Grassland Whiptail, all species identified thusfar have been female. That means they reproduce asexually, and all individuals are genetic copies of their mothers. Up to eight offspring can be produced, whether from eggs or live bearings! Photo by Hankplank

Genghis Khan-tucky: elevatortonowhere: Paleozoic invertebrates are just like the weirdest...

collapsiblepants:

elevatortonowhere:

Paleozoic invertebrates are just like the weirdest things I mean

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w h a t

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what even is this

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this is not a plant it is an animal HOWimage

why

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OH YEAH AND THESE DUDES WERE SIX FEET LONG AND WOULD PROBABLY WANT TO KILL YOU WHAT THE CRUD

NOPE

WRONG!

moreanimalia: alltailnolegs: Snakes and Sound “In order to test the hypothesis that snakes can not only perceive airborne sounds, but also respond to them, an acoustic isolation chamber was designed and constructed to perform best within the 150–450Hz range in which snakes perceive sound. Suspended within this acoustic chamber was a steel mesh basket designed to minimize the potential for groundborne vibrations. A synthesized tone was created out of 20 different 150ms sounds, each separated by a 50ms period of silence; the acoustic energy of each of the 20 sounds was concentrated between 200–400Hz, and each sound included frequency modulation.The trial stimuli were presented to western diamondback rattlensakes Crotalus atrox at a level 5–10 dB above their perception threshold. Four significant behavioral responses were observed upon stimulus presentation: cessation of body movements, reduction or cessation of tongue flicking, rapid jerks of the head and rattling. At least one significant behavioral response was observed in 92% of the behavioral trials. This study provides the first experimental evidence that snakes can respond behaviorally to airborne sounds.”   Full pdf document read here: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?v3b8xe93l032v3c
allcreatures: lickypickystickyme: Most animals, humans included, can only turn their heads so far without snapping their necks or causing a stroke. But owls can rotate their necks 270 degrees—an impressive ¾ of a full rotation—without causing any harm. Owls have unmoving eyeballs, so neck rotation is necessary for the animal to have any sort of peripheral vision. How can owls pull it off without cutting off the blood supply to their brains? For the first time, researchers at Johns Hopkins think they may have an explanation. By dissecting dead owls, the researchers pinpointed adaptations in the vertebrae and blood vessels that they think allow the owl to achieve such a feat. Their illustrated results were published in Sciencetoday, and won first prize for posters in the NSF/Science visualization challenge. The researchers analyzed the insides of the owls by conducting CT scans andangiography, whereby they injected the owls’ blood vessels with dye and then performed X-rays. By manually turning the owls’ heads and watching what happened, they found that the insides of the owl are unlike any other bird. First is the transverse foramina—the holes in their vertebrae through which the vertebral artery is threaded. In the owls, these holes were ten times bigger than the artery itself. The researchers suggest that the extra space may give the artery some extra wiggle room and provide a protective air cushion. Plus the owl’s vertebral artery has some slack because it enters the base of the neck at a higher point than in most birds. Second, the arteries under the jaw are expandable. Most animals’ arteries become increasingly smaller, carrying less and less blood as they move further from the heart. But the trio of arteries in the owl’s jaw can fill and form blood pools. This way a supply of oxygenated blood can flow to the brain and eyes, even when head rotation prevents fresh blood from making its way up through the vessels in the neck. Third, certain arteries in the owl’s brain are linked by a tiny channel, providing a sort of arterial detour. This allows for uninterrupted blood flow even if one of the arteries is blocked. With these and other uniquely functioning blood vessels, scientists are finally getting (and illustrating) a clearer picture of the owl’s fascinating neck. Image courtesy of marilyn barbone / shutterstock
rhamphotheca: Striped Whiptail Lizards:  Adaptation and Species Studies in White Sands, NM, USA These lizards, as well as the lesser earless lizard and the Eastern fence lizard, have evolved blanched coloration at White Springs. Scientists from the lab of Erica Bree Rosenblum, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Idaho, have identified the specific mutations that turn White Sands’ lizards white. They also have conducted experiments to see whether White Sands’ lizards are becoming new species. For example, earless lizards will preferentially choose other White Sands’ lizards as mates. Therefore, researchers can study both adaptation and speciation at White Sands. The stark, white dunes of White Sands are an ideal environment to observe evolution in action. These dunes are geologically very young — only a few thousand years old — and in that time, a number of animals have adapted to this new environment. Natural selection has favored lighter colored animals on the dunes for camouflage against the white sand and avoidance of predators. Species of mammal, reptile and insect have rapidly developed adaptations to this unusual environment… (read more: National Science Foundation) (photo: Erica Bree Rosenblum, Univ. of Idaho)
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