BIRDS BUGS & BONES

Primarily a natural science blog, but may also occasionally feature other neat general science things. Zoology | Conservation Biology | Ecology Will contain dead animals and/or gore.These will be tagged appropriately. var sc_project=11662603; var sc_invisible=1; var sc_security="e13a0b60";

[mbari-blog]

We’re looking at right you, Squid Day! 

We’re celebrating International Squid Day with the spectacular octopus squid, named Octopoteuthis deletron because it only has eight arms (like it’s octopus relatives). This species of squid is amazing in so many different ways! Their tentacles are bioluminescent, with light-producing photophores at the end of each arm. ⁠They also have a fascinating way of protecting themselves when threatened by predators. Like a lizard that detaches its tail when attacked, these squid can detach their bioluminescent arm tips, leaving a wiggling arm with a flashing photophore in the grasp of their confused would-be predator. As far as we know, it is the only squid species to exhibit this unusual defensive behavior. 

[hummingyogurt]

Can REBOR fans please just stop existing

Also this method is bullshit, it’s just the nonsense you see below all over again

How did this crap get past peer review?

Even using the “accurate” ones such as the CollectA figures is bullshit as they still will deviate and the soft tissue amount is also generally speculative, but putting the Papo and REBOR models there is just flexing with money instead of science, there is zero scientific value to REBOR’s “King Rex”, it is just an expensive collector item by a shitty company that said themselves that they value “badassness over accuracy”

Link to the paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41513-021-00172-1

[i-draws-dinosaurs]

Having read through this paper I am,,, honestly baffled

They really did just do 3D digital scans of dinosaur toys, and not even good toys at that. They present the 3D scans right next to skeletal diagrams that clearly have very different proportions. 

And like,,,, if you want to estimate body mass, you can make your own models!!! There are professionals in this field who create careful, painstaking digital muscle and volume reconstructions right from the actual bones themselves?? How are off-the-shelf dinosaur toys in any way an acceptable substitute for rigorous scientific reconstructions?

The thing that gets me the most is that, any time that they recover a weird mass value, they attribute it to inaccuracies in the model they used

According to our estimations, Ceratosaurus nasicornis was a medium-sized theropod around 5.06 m length with a body-mass around 843 kg, but as indicated before, probably the model used for calculation is more robust than the animal originally was.

Well then,,, don’t use that model if it’s not correct???

Honestly the use of 3D scans actually adds nothing to the study, half of what they talk about is head to body length ratios, which you can literally just get from the skeletons, no toys needed!

[carharttlesbian]

brassicas compilation

[hummingyogurt]

Can REBOR fans please just stop existing

Also this method is bullshit, it’s just the nonsense you see below all over again

How did this crap get past peer review?

Link to the paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41513-021-00172-1

[thegreenwolf]

Conservationists to Americans: Please stop buying so many bat mummies from Asia

eBay has hundreds of listings for taxidermy bats, and Etsy has nearly a thousand.

As we get into Halloween season, this is your periodic reminder that pretty much all the bat parts that you find for sale are from unsustainable, unethical sources (secondhand is better, but even then they initially came from bad sourcing.) Just because it's legal doesn't make it right.

[strangebiology]

This is probably the most useful and widely-talked about article I did at Newsweek. I even got data from the Department of the Interior through the Freedom of Information Act.

[redhead-veghead]

Bombus impatiens on Clematis

[cedar-glade]

@asgardian–angels​ so, I read through the tags on reblogs because many people have so much info to say or teach and don’t post them but just type them in tags. Im trash at Bee ID because i just started trying very recently (last week) so your comment about T2 tuft just taught me how to ID these bees so thanks. and honestly I would not be able to make out that from this image, I tired to zoom in and follow the contrast bend where the shadow is and I don’t think I can make out hair on T2 which makes me think its a B. impatiens captioned above but im also using a very old dell as my current set up from 2012 :)  but maybe more can join in on the buzz of this post >:-) 

https://mtcubacenter.org/plants/leather-flower/ 

B impatiens^

close look alike example of B. bimaculatus (black topped and T2 slightly tufted vs B. impatiens  where t2 is not tufted and the thorax is not overtly black, only other way is to view face for Malar elongation according to what I could fid on the net.

T2 tuft on common melk weed 

jewelweed/common eastern with no t2 tuft. 

“two spotted with t2 tuft on Monarda fistulosa

vanc  dwarf on an ericaceous lad with bee id diagram. 

[asgardian--angels]

Hope you don’t mind me chiming in. While the photo is at an oblique angle it definitely appears to me that there is a yellow patch on T2 (second tergite). Hard to explain apart from ‘I’ve looked at several thousand bumblebees under the microscope and in photos’ haha. The photos you have in your reblog as examples aren’t all of B. bimaculatus - the first is B. griseocollis, the brown-belted bumblebee, whose T2 patch is quite distinctive in being much broader than bimaculatus and is usually a rusty or brown color.

The best ways to separate impatiens from bimaculatus are, as you said, 1) presence of a centrally-located (sometimes distinctly two-lobed) yellow patch on T2 vs all black in impatiens, 2) long malar space (aka a long face) in bimaculatus vs just ‘average’ in impatiens, and 3) a distinct black central circle of hair on the scutum (upper face of thorax) vs a diffuse grayish area in impatiens. Malar space is not often visible in the field, but can be distinguishable in photos if high resolution and at the right angle. However it usually isn’t needed for these particular species if the other features are visible (it can become more important for species like auricomus, pensylvanicus, and terricola that can look otherwise identical). Malar space specifically refers to the ratio of how long the distance is between the bottom of the eye and the midpoint of the mandible attachment to the width of the base of the mandible. ‘Long’ is longer than the base is wide, ‘equal’ or ‘average’ is equal, and ‘short’ is shorter than the mandible base is wide. 

If you’d like to learn more about bumblebee ID, a good book is Bumble Bees of North America by Paul Williams et al. Impatiens, bimaculatus, and griseocollis are all extremely common in the eastern US, although impatiens is generally by far the most common. 

(Always feel free to ask bee ID questions, I hope I can help!)

[redhead-veghead]

SO sorry for such a delayed response (sometimes I forget I post on here) but thank you so much for that info! I went through my camera roll to see if I had a clearer picture to show the coloring on T2 and I did! I was using the book The Bees in Your Backyard, pictures on Bugguide and I asked some hort people for help IDing before I posted. Thank you so much for your knowledge and input ; I just like to look at bees and occasionally try to ID them because I like to know what I’m looking at: I’ll update the original post to reflect the correct name!

[goodstuffhappenedtoday]

He realized his dogs have an unusual skill. Now he uses them to help save turtles.

By Cathy Free

John Rucker was a high school English teacher in North Carolina when he stumbled upon something interesting: Whenever he took his two dogs hiking, they would run into the tall grass and bring him back box turtles. Like a gift, his Boykin spaniels would gently lay them at his feet, unharmed.

He mentioned it to a few people, and soon, biology teachers from the University of North Carolina started reaching out to him and asking whether he would take their students out so they could put transmitters on the turtles to study them.

Several years later, the outings were so successful, Rucker was fielding calls from wildlife veterinarians and zoologists who were studying turtle populations.

“Because turtles aren’t easily detected in the wild by the human eye, I could see that I was on to something,” said Rucker, now 73.

Now, two decades later, Rucker’s spaniels are a highly in-demand, specialized team trained to sniff out box turtles by following their urine trails.

The dogs — Yogi, Ruger, Jenny Wren, Lazarus, Scamp, Skeeter and Rooster — travel across the country with Rucker helping to track turtle populations and identify threats and diseases.

[bladelei]

Good Bois for SCIENCE

[7eselt]

@alrtist

[jugglingdinosaur]

All of Mantis and Cicada chapter 1 in order. Chapter 2 coming out soon! Check out more of my webcomics here: http://stupidpoop.thewebcomic.com/

[wiisagi-maiingan]

Teach your children to respect animals and the world around them. Teach them that nature isn't their toy and that their actions have consequences. Teach them compassion for other beings and creatures.

[wiisagi-maiingan]

A lot of people on this post are focusing on pets, which is fair but not what I intended. Any decent pet owner would teach their children how to respect their pets, their dogs and cats and the like, but pretty much everyone neglects lessons about other animals and nature in general.

Teach your kids that:

nests are important and that they need to be left untouched and undisturbed

they should NEVER take an animal that they find outside and that if they find an injured animal, they should give it space and find an adult to help

wild animals in general need a wide berth and that ANY animal can be dangerous if it feels threatened

wild animals are not pets under any circumstances

it's kinder and very easy to catch and release bugs outside instead of killing them

all bugs are important, even spiders and wasps and other scary ones

everything in nature has a job in general, and everything has a role to fill

something being scary or creepy does not mean it deserves to die

[deactivated-blog]

Tetraglenes hirticornis (Fabricius, 1798) by urjsa on Flickr.

[animalids]

Ladybird spider (Eresus kollari)

Photo by Armen Seropian

[a-book-of-creatures]

Chonk spider

[a-book-of-creatures]

Actually that ‘s a female ladybird spider! Ladybird spiders have some pretty extreme sexual dimorphism that makes them very easy to differentiate. This is the male:

See why they’re called ladybird spiders?

But either way I’m sure she will happily accept your invite for cocoa!

[theauspolchronicles]

Hey thinking about the important of planting trees and reforestation? Here’s some Australian organisations/charities that you can donate/volunteer with to help plant more trees.

Reforestnow is NSW based

Treesforlife is Adelaide based

Trilliontrees is Perth based

Greeningaustralia is Canberra based

I’m still trying to find others in specific places like Victoria and Queensland but the SEO is failing me. However, there’s also govolunteer.com.au where you can find environmental volunteer opportunities in your area (as well as humanitarian, animal welfare, etc, so versatile website).

And there are some that I can’t find a volunteer section for but things like carbonneutral and Found for National Parks and Wildlife have a donate to plant a tree option. For an international option that includes Australia there’s also onetreeplanted.org

[notkatniss]

On top of the Yankees field cat there was a praying mantis on top of the nationals players hat tonight. Huge night in baseball

[heinousactszx]

He was keeping the mantis updated on the number of outs, too

[catgirlthighhighs]

Ratatouille

[geneslovee]

The fires in Siberia have burned down over 2 million acres of the forest and we need your help

I live in Yakutia, Russia, where most of the fires are taking place and I'm trying to raise awareness about the situation worldwide so we can get some external help.

Neither our federal nor local government is doing anything to put these fires out. They lie and say the situation is under control, when it certainly isn't.

Take a look at the current AQI of the city! We have been the most air polluted place in the WORLD for a few days now and the AQI used to be closer to 1300. It's still extremely dangerous to even open the windows or go outside.

This is a map of all the fire hotspots. Our nature, our life is burning alive.

Yakutia is the homeland of many Indigenous peoples and we are all suffering right now. The Russian government doesn't care about us, they only care about the money they can earn from mining our diamonds and precious metals but can't take care of our generous land. The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) has always prided itself on its nature and wildlife, since we were kids we've all been taught to preserve it and take care of it. Who are we without it?

Here's a thread from one of the people to volunteered to put out the fires. There's many pictures attached, and you should be able to read it through Twitter's built in translator. It gives a closer more intimate look at how things really are here: https://twitter.com/mienekiene/status/1415859223292899332

Старик и твиттер on Twitter

“Записался добровольцем на тушение пожаров в Горном. Сегодня уже выезжаем😶”

The situation is so bad news programs and newsletters in other countries are covering it. The Siberian fires were recently the main topic in New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/world/europe/siberia-fires.html

As Frozen Land Burns, Siberia Fears: ‘If We Don’t Have the Forest, We Don’t Have Life’

Northeastern Siberia is a place where people take Arctic temperatures in stride. But 100-degree days are another matter entirely.

So I urge you, PLEASE help us spread awareness about it so we can get some external help since out government doesn't give two shits about us.

Use the hashtag #SaveYakutia on social media to boost it up.

Read about it, talk about it, reblog, boost, anything is deeply appreciated by me personally and everyone here. I'm tired of Indigenous peoples being ignored and left to suffer alone.

[mbari-blog]

It’s true that both sharks and Shark Week get a bad rap, but we’ll take any excuse to highlight these phenomenal fishes!⁠ 🦈✨⁠ ⁠ This shark’s name is as cute as it is! Lollipop catsharks, Cephalurus cephalus, have large heads and gills, which may help them absorb oxygen in low-oxygen environments. This individual was filmed in the Gulf of California at 707 meters (2,320 feet) deep. ⁠In the Gulf of California, these sharks are often found with their cousins, the filetail catshark, Parmaturus xaniurus. The two species may be difficult to tell apart from a distance, when individuals are small, or when P. xaniurus uncharacteristically has its gills expanded in low oxygen environments.⁠

[pokecinizated]

[replicated-archive]

telling teenagers it doesn’t get better is so cruel and irresponsible. you’re suppose to be the adult stop trying to get doomer cred and act like a sympathetic human being

[menacevessel-deactivated2020083]

Broke: it doesn’t get better

Woke: it’s gets better if you put in the work to MAKE it better

[neontologist-deactivated2020100]

ok but your brain finishes re-wiring itself and completes the adolescent maturation process at around age 27-30 so it literally does just get better

[roach-works]

reaching thirty is like making it to a save point. it really does get better. 

[rustybottlecap]

This is all the more important right now with the pandemic potentially wasting a big portion of many kids’ childhood and teenage years. They musn’t think this is it for them. Hell no.

[naamahdarling]

And things aren’t set for you after 30. I was suffering miserably at 30. I’m 43 new, and have a new life and am the happiest I have ever ever been. It gets better. Yes, even for ADULTS, it can get better.

[frostyemma]

It gets so much better.

Despite the general ups and downs of life (and there have been some DOWNS), my life is better in almost every way than it was in my 20s.

Stick around. It gets better.

[gallusrostromegalus]

For everyone who made it to 30 and is still going “AAAAAAAAAA”: I have it on the very good authority of my assorted great-aunts who have made it to 100 that IT IN FACT, CONTINUES TO GET BETTER. Your financial stability improves (yes, even for my centurion relatives that lived through the Great Depression), you become more comfortable in your identity, you can discover a new hobby or great life passion at any age, every marriage I’ve seen start after the age of 35 has been wildly sucessful, and when you’re an old person you have basically unlimited ‘be a weird motherfucker’ privleges.

If you’re a millenial, take care of your teeth and honestly you have 50/50 odds of making it to 100. The odds are even better if you’re Gen Z. We’re here for the long haul, and it keeps getting better.