Nature, Biology, Geology and other stuff

Teacher of Science, Biology and Geology in a Secondary school in Gran Canaria. I do not take credit for all the photos or videos that I post. Clicking on the photo will take you to its original source. If you see your image and you'd like it removed or credited differently, let me know (make sure to note which photos are yours). Sorry if i don´t reblog you back, my dash is already a chaos.

[wapiti3]

Physical and political history of Chile according to documents acquired in this republic for twelve years of residence there.

By Gay, Claudio, 1800-1873 Publication info Paris, Home of the author, 1844-1871. Contributing Library: Research Library, The Getty Research Institute BioDiv. Library

[allcreatures]

A palm-sized baby ray in its ‘Kindergarten Aquarium’ at AquaDom & Sea Life in Berlin, Germany 

[allcreatures]

Picture: EPA (via Pictures of the day: 18 June 2015 - Telegraph)

[allcreatures]

A caracal kitten explores its enclosure at Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic 

Picture: Slavek Ruta/REX Shutterstock (via Animal pictures of the week: 3 July 2015 - Telegraph)

[neaq]

Seen in the Yawkey Coral Reef Center

[astroperlas-blog]

La estela de las islas Canarias vista por el satélite Terra (NASA).

Vía.

[appliedtechnotopia-consulting]

[allcreatures]

Sociable weavers construct permanent nests on trees and other tall objects. These nests are the largest built by any bird, and are large enough to house over a hundred pairs of birds, containing several generations at a time. The nests consist of separate chambers, each of which is occupied by a pair (sometimes with offspring) roost and breed.

Picture: Dillon Marsh / Rex Features (via Tiny weaver birds make huge nests on telegraph poles in the Kalahari desert - Telegraph)

[lickystickypickyzzz]

This incredible invertebrate is Scolopendra gigantea, though it also goes by the names Amazonian giant centipede, Peruvian giant yellow-leg centipede and the bat-eating centipede. Bats are but one of many vertebrates Scolopendra gigantea preys on - it has been known to devour frogs, toad, small lizards, snakes (up to around 24 cm long), mice and birds the size of a sparrow. Though it has a potent venom, it possibly is the least remarkable part of how it preys on bats. In their paper on the subject, Molinari et al identified 3 ways Scolopendra gigantea hunts bats. The first two suggest that it crawled up the bat cave wall to the ceiling and either found a perching bat or waited for a bat to perch near it. The third is the most incredible, describing how the centipede could hang from the cave ceiling and grab a bat in midflight, quickly immobilizing it with venom delivered via its forcibles (or poison claws). Whichever option it is (and Molinari et al appear to lean towards the third), when it attacks the bat it injects its venom near the brain. The centipede then sets to work devouring its meal, holding the bat with its first eight pairs of legs and holding on to the ceiling with its last five to eight pairs. This feat is even more incredible when you consider the difference in mass between predator and prey - while the centipede may weigh around 9.0-9.5g (before eating) it has been observed in this position eating bats weighing around 16.5g.

[somersault1824]

[manuelbiogeo]

In 2011, the Postal Service celebrates the achievements of chemist Melvin Calvin, botanist Asa Gray, physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer, and biochemist Severo Ochoa.

Melvin Calvin (1911-1997) advanced our understanding of photosynthesis and conducted pioneering research on using plants as an alternative energy source. He won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1961. The stamp art includes a photograph of him taken by Yousuf Karsh. The background shows excerpts from the carbon cycle, and chemical symbols and structures he used to represent the process of photosynthesis. Asa Gray (1810-1888), one of the nation's first professional botanists, advanced the specialized field of plant geography and became the principal American advocate of evolutionary theory in the mid-nineteenth century. The stamp art features illustrations of plants studied by Gray and the words "Shortia galacifolia" in Gray's handwriting. Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972) developed a theoretical model that helped explain the structure of the atomic nucleus; for this work she became the only woman other than Marie Curie to win a Nobel Prize in physics. The stamp art combines photographs of Mayer with a chart and a diagram she used to illustrate aspects of the atomic nucleus. Severo Ochoa (1905-1993), a biochemist, was the first scientist to synthesize ribonucleic acid (RNA) and competed in the race to decipher the genetic code. He won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1959. The stamp shows Ochoa in his laboratory in 1959, along with figures representing some of his work on protein synthesis.

[heythereuniverse]

[manuelbiogeo]

heythereuniverse:

Bacillus Anthracis (Anthrax)

[manuelbiogeo]

La Edad Mesozoica es conocida comúnmente como "la Edad de los Dinosaurios", y la razón es que estas criaturas dominaban los ambientes terrestres.  Sin embargo, los océanos Mesozoicos también tenían su buena cantidad de criaturas, como los Ictiosaurios, poderosos nadadores con grandes mandíbulas y colas con forma de media luna que llegaban a tener tamaños que ningún delfín moderno podría llegar a tener, llegando a los 15 metros de largo.

Los Ictiosaurios aparecieron por primera vez en el Triásico, aproximadamente al mismo tiempo que los primeros dinosaurios y sobrevivieron hasta la mitad del Cretácico, hace unos 110 millones de años. El primer Ictiosaurio fue descubierto en 1811 por una niña en los acantilados alrededor de Lyme Regis, en Inglaterra.

En esta época también se encontraban los Plesiosaurios, que han sido descriptos como "serpientes unidas con cuerpos de tortugas". Estos animales tenían cuerpos con forma de tortugas con cuatro largas aletas, colas cortas y puntiagudas y cuellos largos similares a los de las serpientes. Sus cabezas relativamente pequeñas estaban armadas con afiladísimos dientes. Aunque nada se sabe a ciencia cierta sobre sus hábitos de apareamiento, podrían haber tenido las mismas prácticas que las tortugas modernas. El Plesiosaurio más grande llegaba a tener una longitud de 14 metros, de los cuales más de la mitad pertenecían a sus cuellos.

Otros animales marinos gigantes eran los Pliosaurios, de los cuales se creía que estaban relacionados con los Plesiosaurios, pero estos tenían cuellos más cortos, y cabezas y mandíbulas más grandes. El Pliosaurio más grande era el Kronosaurus, que medía 12.8 metros de largo.

Los Ictiosaurios, Plesiosaurios y Pliosaurios estaban tan perfectamente adaptados a su ambiente que sus esqueletos casi no demuestran similitudes con otros reptiles. Su posición y relación taxonómica con los reptiles terrestres permanece incierta.

[feedbackpositivo]

[manuelbiogeo]

feedbackpositivo:

Falls of fire por Nikhil Shahi

“Every year for a few days in the month of February, the sun’s angle is such, that it lights up Horsetail Falls in Yosemite, as if it were on fire. It truly is an amazing experience”

[ohtobesimplyme-deactivated20130]

[napoleonicrevival]

[rhamphotheca]

[manuelbiogeo]

rhamphotheca:

Common Eider (Somateria mollissima) diving for mussels on the bottom of the Arctic Sea.

(from: Planet Earth - BBC)

[plantedcity]

[manuelbiogeo]

plantedcity:

The ‘2010 State of the Climate’ Report:

Indicators show a “clear and unmistakable signal” that our world continues to warm, making extreme weather events more likely

From The Washington Post:

The world’s climate is not only continuing to warm, it’s adding heat-trapping greenhouse gases even faster than in the past, researchers said Tuesday.

Indeed, the global temperature has been warmer than the 20th century average every month for more than 25 years, they said at a teleconference.

“The indicators show unequivocally that the world continues to warm,” Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center, said in releasing the annual State of the Climate report for 2010.

“There is a clear and unmistakable signal from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans,” added Peter Thorne of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, North Carolina State University.

Carbon dioxide increased by 2.60 parts per million in the atmosphere in 2010, which is more than the average annual increase seen from 1980-2010, Karl added. Carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas accumulating in the air that atmospheric scientists blame for warming the climate.

The warmer conditions are consistent with events such as heat waves and extreme rainfall, Karl said at a teleconference. However, it is more difficult to make a direct connection with things like tornado outbreaks, he said.

“Any single weather event is driven by a number of factors, from local conditions to global climate patterns and trends. Climate change is one of these,” he said. “It is very likely that large-scale changes in climate, such as increased moisture in the atmosphere and warming temperatures, have influenced — and will continue to influence — many different types of extreme events, such as heavy rainfall, flooding, heat waves and droughts.

The report, being published by the American Meteorological Society, lists 2010 as tied with 2005 for the warmest year on record, according to studies by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA. A separate analysis, done in Britain, lists 2010 as second warmest.

…

For more, check out the rest of the article, the full report, its highlights and colourful press briefing slides. 

(Image credit: NOAA)