sir attenborough

“An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment.”

[cineraria]

[sirattenborough-blog]

[sciencesoup]

Megatherium: The Great Beast

Imagine a sloth as tall an elephant and as heavy as one too, and you’re imagining the Megatherium—a genus of enormous ground sloths. They roamed Central and South America from the late Pliocene period (1.9 million years ago, after the decline of the dinosaurs) to as recently as the Holocene period (8,000 years ago, at the dawn of human civilisation). Fossils have been found from as far north as Texas to as far south as Argentina, and reconstructions show that the Megatherium were built extremely robustly: they had enormous claws, weighed almost 4 tonnes, and stood up to 6 metres tall (three times as high as a tall human!). In size, they were exceeded by only a few other land mammals such as mammoths, so they were undoubtedly one of the most impressive animals to walk the Earth. Their huge claws prevented them from putting their feet flat on the ground, so they must have walked like an anteater—on the sides of their feet. It’s believed that they were primarily herbivores, using their huge claws to reach up into the trees and drag down branches to crush in their powerful jaws, but evidence also suggests they supplemented their diet with meat too, feeding out of opportunity rather than hunting themselves—scavenging carcasses, perhaps by using their brawn to drive predators away from their kills. Their closest living relatives are tree sloths.

(Image Credit: 1, 2)

[astronomy-to-zoology]

People are not going to care about animal conservation unless they think that animals are worthwhile.

David Attenborough (via astronomy-to-zoology)

[sciencesoup]

The Scavenger of the South

Keas (nestor notabilis) are an endangered parrot species native to the southern alpine regions of New Zealand. Named by the Maori people for its distinctive kea cry, the parrots are predominantly green and black, with striking orange and yellow underwings. They’re a highly adaptive species and are considered to be one of the most intelligent bird species in the world, with the equivalent intelligence of a three-year-old child. Their lineage is thought to have diverged from other parrots approximately 80 million years ago when Zealandia split from Gondwanaland, and to scout out food to survive in their harsh alpine environment, keas developed a highly inquisitive nature—which today often makes them nuisances to nearby humans, because the parrots are also mischievous and opportunistic, and never turn down the chance to supplement their mostly-vegetarian diet with human food. They eat nearly anything, so no item of food is safe in their territory—keas are smart and daring enough to pluck it clean out of your hands. Their nature caused conflict with humans throughout the twentieth century: a bounty was introduced, and it’s thought that over 150,000 keas were culled, leaving only 1000–5000 in the wild today. They’re listed as an endangered species, also threatened by introduced pests, logging, scavenging harmful foods, and farmers who still illegally kill them to protect livestock.

(Image Credit: 1, 2)

[astronomy-to-zoology]

David Attenborough Lounging around with Some Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla).

video source

[sirattenborough-blog]

The loss of just one can have a series of unpredictable consequences. The loss of a plant can mean the loss of an insect. The loss of an insect can mean that a bush looses its pollinator. The loss of a bush can mean that a mammal has lost its food plant. Nobody can say exactly when or if, such things are going to happen. But to me, preventing it happening in the first place seems to make absolute sense.

David Attenborough - Kingdom of Plants

[sirattenborough-blog]

They have evolved to occupy almost every environment on the planet. They survive in regions of constant change. They thrive in soils that almost never see rain. And as we will discover, they do much of their living in ways that go almost entirely undetected by us. Kingdom of Plants – David Attenborough

[johnconway]

Comparison between the original, 2001 oil painting (top) and the 2013 digitally reworked (bottom) versions of my Kakuru/Avimimus painting. The original was an attempt at minimalism in palaeontological art, hence the monochrome colour and the bare ground. I feel like this cost the painting naturalism, and failed to make it up in other ways, hence my reworking. The new version is obviously more naturalistic, but I think I managed to preserve and improve on the atmosphere of the old one.

[kingdomy]

Amorous animals show some love

[buttswana-deactivated20180408]

Particles that can ‘Recognise’ Viruses

The particles punch in at about 400 billionths of a metre across and are dotted with silica shells.

The shells were grown using actual viruses as a mold, leaving a perfect blueprint for experts around the world to use.

[free-parking-blog]

Francis Alÿs, Nightwatch, 2004.  

Surveillance cameras observe a fox exploring the Tudor and Georgian rooms of the National Portrait Gallery at night.

[astronomy-to-zoology]

A Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) preening itself using its feet. These hummingbirds must use their feet to preen as their bills are to long to reach anywhere on their body.

From BBC’s Life of Birds, The Mastery of Flight

[sciencesoup]

The Ecosystem of Earth

Earth is a tiny thriving planet in a vast universe, sandwiched between two worlds gone wrong—Mars, which once had water but is now a dry and freezing desert, and Venus, which was once similar to Earth but is now swirling with boiling, toxic cloud. Spinning on between them is Earth: golden, ripe for life. It’s is not a cold, indifferent place—it’s an ecosystem, a sprawling network of interconnected life, and you are part of it. Humans can’t be separated from nature, because we are connected to every living thing. We were an accident, grittily surviving and branching out in the tree of evolution to become what we are today. We are dominating this ecosystem, and the consequences of our actions ripple out to affect every other living being on the planet—sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way, but we don’t know how to balance. We search for life on other planets when we don’t even know how to look after our own. This is the only Earth we have, and perhaps it has created its own destruction.  Perhaps our ever-growing desire for technological advancement will bring about our own demise, our own extinction, in order to save the planet from ourselves—a Shakespearean tragedy on an immense scale. We are children of Earth, and we are killing it.

[sciencesoup]

A Desert Inn

Heading into the vast, barren Kalahari Desert of southern Africa soon, and need a place to crash? I’m sure the peculiar Sociable Weaver bird (Philetairus socius) will be happy to accomodate you. They live in organised colonies and are expert architects, building the largest tree nests in the world out of sticks, grass and cotton. These often honeycomb around telephone poles, for lack of suitable trees. The birds are “sociable” because they’re not in the least territorial, and kindly let other nest in their giant homes too, regardless of species. The nests are popular because the insulate from both the heat and the cold, and they accommodate up to 400 birds at any given time—the South African pygmy falcon, the pied barbet, familiar chat, red-headed finch, ashy tit, and rosy-faced lovebird all find shelter there, nesting right alongside the Sociable Weavers. Vultures, owls, and eagles also roost on the roof of the nest. It’s believes that the Weavers are so willing to share their homes because the other birds can show them new sources of food, and can help keep an eye out for danger—so, amazingly, the teeming nests are like regular inns. Over the years, they just keeping growing and growing, some reaching 6 metres wide and 3 metres tall, and they give wonderfully quirky personalities to inanimate poles.

(Image Credit: Dillon Marsh)

[digbicks]

Lake Hillier on Middle Island, Australia, Jean-Paul Ferrero

[archiemcphee]

Photographer David Chambon has been working on an awesome series of photos featuring insects so thoroughly covered in morning dew, they appear to have been bejeweled. 

Visit Colossal to view more examples of David Chambon’s beautiful work and then head over to 500px and Flickr to see even more.