Why Do Penguins Fly Not? by Traci Watson Long, long ago, O Best Beloved, the ancestor of the penguins could soar through the air. So why did the penguin give up flight? Rudyard Kipling never wrote a Just So story with an answer, but now scientists have one: The penguin doesn’t fly because it would rather swim. A new study of murres, penguinlike seabirds that retain the ability to take wing, shows just how costly and inefficient it is to be both a diver and a flyer. The new findings back the long-held hypothesis that penguins gave up the heavens more than 70 million years ago to become kings of the waves. “This study contributes a lot by putting hard numbers on the energy costs of moving through both the aerial and aquatic realms,” writes Daniel Ksepka of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, who studies penguin evolution and was not involved with the research, in an e-mail… (read more: Science News/AAAS)  (photo: Kyle H. Elliott; (inset) Samuel Blanc) View high resolution

Why Do Penguins Fly Not?

by Traci Watson

Long, long ago, O Best Beloved, the ancestor of the penguins could soar through the air. So why did the penguin give up flight? Rudyard Kipling never wrote a Just So story with an answer, but now scientists have one: The penguin doesn’t fly because it would rather swim.

A new study of murres, penguinlike seabirds that retain the ability to take wing, shows just how costly and inefficient it is to be both a diver and a flyer. The new findings back the long-held hypothesis that penguins gave up the heavens more than 70 million years ago to become kings of the waves.

“This study contributes a lot by putting hard numbers on the energy costs of moving through both the aerial and aquatic realms,” writes Daniel Ksepka of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, who studies penguin evolution and was not involved with the research, in an e-mail…

(read more: Science News/AAAS) 

(photo: Kyle H. Elliott; (inset) Samuel Blanc)

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers (Tyrannus forficatus) Female Scissor-tailed Flycatchers select males  to pair with, based on the male’s ornate tail plumes. Males will perform elaborate aerial courtship displays to females, showing off their tails, to try to encourage her to mate. Longer tail feathers are more energetically costly to grow and maintain, so a male with very long tail feathers must therefore be in top physical shape. Males with longer feathers are typically snatched up sooner than those with shorter tails. Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are kingbirds, members of the flycatcher genus Tyrannus, along with the closely-related Fork-tailed Flycatcher. photo by Ken Slade - TexasEagle | Flickr (via: Peterson’s Field Guides) View high resolution

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers (Tyrannus forficatus)

Female Scissor-tailed Flycatchers select males  to pair with, based on the male’s ornate tail plumes. Males will perform elaborate aerial courtship displays to females, showing off their tails, to try to encourage her to mate. Longer tail feathers are more energetically costly to grow and maintain, so a male with very long tail feathers must therefore be in top physical shape. Males with longer feathers are typically snatched up sooner than those with shorter tails. Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are kingbirds, members of the flycatcher genus Tyrannus, along with the closely-related Fork-tailed Flycatcher.

photo by Ken Slade - TexasEagle | Flickr

(via: Peterson’s Field Guides)

2headedsnake:

Richard Barnes

Images from the ‘Murmur’ series, 2005

Flocks of european starlings flying above Rome and its suburbs.

(Reblogged from blackkittenclan)

blackkittenclan:

OSCILLATE

from Daniel Sierra on Vimeo.

For his MFA Computer Art Thesis at School of Visual Arts in NYC, Daniel Sierra explored and visualized “waveform patterns that evolve from the fundamental sine wave to more complex patterns, creating a mesmerizing audio-visual experience in which sight and sound work in unison to capture the viewer’s attention.” It sure worked on us. Watch the video after the jump…

The animation was done purely in Houdini.

(via)

(Reblogged from blackkittenclan)
rorschachx: Moor frogs (Rana arvalis) temporarily turning blue at the Ljubljana Marshes, Slovenia. It is thought that males turn blue during the mating season so they can quickly distinguish males from females among the dense frog populations  image by Luka Esenko View high resolution

rorschachx:

Moor frogs (Rana arvalis) temporarily turning blue at the Ljubljana Marshes, Slovenia.

It is thought that males turn blue during the mating season so they can quickly distinguish males from females among the dense frog populations 

image by Luka Esenko

(Reblogged from karlayst)
Sea Turtles on the South Texas Coast 20 sea turtle nests have so far been found on South Padre Island and Boca Chica Beach! The first nest is estimated to hatch the week of June 9th. For more information about attending a public sea turtle hatchling release… visit:  www.seaturtleinc.org or  https://www.facebook.com/SeaTurtleConservation (Photo: Kemp’s ridley sea turtle hatchlings released into the Gulf of Mexico, South Padre Island, summer of 2006) (via: Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge) View high resolution

Sea Turtles on the South Texas Coast

20 sea turtle nests have so far been found on South Padre Island and Boca Chica Beach! The first nest is estimated to hatch the week of June 9th. For more information about attending a public sea turtle hatchling release…

visit:  www.seaturtleinc.org or 

https://www.facebook.com/SeaTurtleConservation

(Photo: Kemp’s ridley sea turtle hatchlings released into the Gulf of Mexico, South Padre Island, summer of 2006)

(via: Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge)

The monkeylike face of a goby fish peers out from the center of a coral labyrinth. The fish depends on the coral for its home, and, in turn, often cleans smothering algae from the coral. This image was accepted into the Art of Science 2013 competition at Princeton University. Photo: Chhaya Werner, Princeton Univ. Art of Science Competition (via: Live Science) View high resolution

The monkeylike face of a goby fish peers out from the center of a coral labyrinth. The fish depends on the coral for its home, and, in turn, often cleans smothering algae from the coral. This image was accepted into the Art of Science 2013 competition at Princeton University.

Photo: Chhaya Werner, Princeton Univ. Art of Science Competition

(via: Live Science)

Evolution shapes new rules for ant behavior Stanford Biologist Deborah M. Gordon’s decades-long study of the collective behavior of harvester ant colonies has provided a rare real-time look at natural selection at work. by Bjorn Carey In ancient Greece, the city-states that waited until their own harvest was in before attacking and destroying a rival community’s crops often experienced better long-term success. It turns out that ant colonies that show similar selectivity when gathering food yield a similar result. The latest findings from Stanford biology Professor Deborah M. Gordon’s long-term study of harvester ants reveal that the colonies that restrain their foraging except in prime conditions also experience improved rates of reproductive success. Importantly, the study provides the first evidence of natural selection shaping collective behavior, said Gordon, who is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment… (read more: Stanford University)                        (image: NSF) View high resolution

Evolution shapes new rules for ant behavior

Stanford Biologist Deborah M. Gordon’s decades-long study of the collective behavior of harvester ant colonies has provided a rare real-time look at natural selection at work.

by Bjorn Carey

In ancient Greece, the city-states that waited until their own harvest was in before attacking and destroying a rival community’s crops often experienced better long-term success.

It turns out that ant colonies that show similar selectivity when gathering food yield a similar result. The latest findings from Stanford biology Professor Deborah M. Gordon’s long-term study of harvester ants reveal that the colonies that restrain their foraging except in prime conditions also experience improved rates of reproductive success.

Importantly, the study provides the first evidence of natural selection shaping collective behavior, said Gordon, who is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment…

(read more: Stanford University)                        (image: NSF)

nature sluts.

astronomy-to-zoology:

Geography Cone (Conus geographus)

…is a species of cone snail found throughout the Indo-Pacific, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and parts of Africa and Madagascar. Like other cone snail species the geography cone is a piscivore (fish eater) and dispatches its prey with a venomous barb that is shot like a harpoon. It is one of the most venomous cone snails known to science and is responsible for several human deaths, its venom has no known antivenom and treatment is limited to keeping the victim alive until the toxin wears off. Have fun swimming….

Phylogeny

Animalia-Mollusca-Gastropoda-Neogastropoda-Conoidea-Conidae-Coninae-Conus-geographus

Image Source(s)

(Reblogged from astronomy-to-zoology)
somewhere, not far away… View high resolution

somewhere, not far away…

(Reblogged from ohsomedayy)
adorablespiders: Viciria sp. female jumping spider with her precious eggs, Malaysia (photo: Hock Ping GUEK)

adorablespiders:

Viciria sp. female jumping spider with her precious eggs, Malaysia

(photo: Hock Ping GUEK)

(Reblogged from dendroica)
denizensofearth:  African Striped Grass Mice These mice belong to the family Lemniscomys, whose members are known as striped grass mice, African striped mice, or zebra mice. There are 11 recognized species, all of which are found in sub-Saharan Africa but one, the Barbary striped grass mouse (L. barbarus).  They are generally found in grassy habitats and are mostly diurnal, but they are very adaptable and can be found in a variety of habitats, particularly where their ranges overlap.  They are very short-lived and average only a year in the wild, and feed on plants and some insects. (x)(x) View high resolution

denizensofearth:  African Striped Grass Mice

These mice belong to the family Lemniscomys, whose members are known as striped grass mice, African striped mice, or zebra mice. There are 11 recognized species, all of which are found in sub-Saharan Africa but one, the Barbary striped grass mouse (L. barbarus).  They are generally found in grassy habitats and are mostly diurnal, but they are very adaptable and can be found in a variety of habitats, particularly where their ranges overlap.  They are very short-lived and average only a year in the wild, and feed on plants and some insects.

(x)(x)

(Reblogged from denizensofearth)

rejouir:

It’s Nothing Specific, just beautiful

When we came across Nothing Specific, a strange thing happened. The site, made up of the photography of Christopher Gray, is restrained to the point of enigmatic, but disappear into one of his portholes and one needs no explanation…

(read more: Its Nice That)

(Reblogged from rejouir)
mucholderthen: Physiological Color Change by ~elizabethnixon Ever wonder how an Anole changes color? Here’s how! Done in adobe photoshop. ~40+ hours (CLICK IMAGE TO SEE LARGER) ANOLES [family Polychrotidae] Due to their ability to change color, anole lizards are frequently referred to as American chameleons.  Also, because they can run up walls, they are sometimes confused with geckos.  Not closely related to either of those groups, in fact, they are more closely related to iguanas. View high resolution

mucholderthen:

Physiological Color Change

by ~elizabethnixon

Ever wonder how an Anole changes color?
Here’s how! Done in adobe photoshop. ~40+ hours

(CLICK IMAGE TO SEE LARGER)

ANOLES [family Polychrotidae]

Due to their ability to change color, anole lizards are frequently referred to as American chameleons.  Also, because they can run up walls, they are sometimes confused with geckos.  Not closely related to either of those groups, in fact, they are more closely related to iguanas.

(Reblogged from scientificillustration)