You, Me, The Sea, and Everything In Between

Just a lot of science stuff because the earth is incredible and should be admired. Aspiring Landscape Architect and Arboriculturalist

[woodmeat]

[bazoookles]

[deadjosey-deactivated20200613]

The Black Shuck is a type of Hellhound from England. It is known to live in English Graveyards. When it leaves a area, the ground it was standing on was scorching hot, meaning it destroys the ground it stands on. According to English legend it says if you see it three times you will meet an untimely demise.

[realest-asami-requiem]

Just realized humans don’t have eyeshine, so what is in that video might not be human, but a new cryptid.

The Buck Naked Sprinter

[felineparanormal]

just to elaborate on the above comment because I learned about this in Bio 102 today and immediately thought of this post: yep, if that eye shine is real, then this dude is definitely not human. 

While the human eye does sort of give off a glare when you hit it with light at night time, that glare is always red because it is reflecting off of the blood vessels in the back of the eye. while in animals with night vision like cats, the light reflects off of the tapetum lucidum in the back of the eye which is the part of the eye that gives them far better night vision. 

i for one, am excited to see more encounters of the Angry Naked Night Sprinter 

[its-spooky-bitch]

This is so unsettling

[sappyspice]

and why is it running so fast? omg that thing is not human

[rjzimmerman]

Center for Biological Diversity: List of States Curbing Commercial Turtle Harvest Grows

Texas spiny softshell turtle photo by Gary M. Stolz, USFWS.

Red-eared slider turtle.

Excerpt:

In response to a petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and several Texas-based conservation organizations, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission today approved publication of a proposed rule that would prohibit commercial collection of the state’s wild turtles.

Texas is the latest in a growing list of states — including Missouri, New York and Iowa — that have put an end to unlimited commercial collection of freshwater turtles.

Under current Texas law, unlimited collection of four native, freshwater turtle species is allowed on private property: common snapping turtles, red-eared sliders, smooth softshells and spiny softshells.

Texas modified its regulations in 2007 to protect freshwater turtles from collection on the state’s public lands and waters. But this only resulted in protections for turtles in 2.2 percent of the water bodies in Texas. Recent studies concluded that current turtle collection in Texas is likely not sustainable.

At today’s Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting, staff from the state Parks and Wildlife Department presented their findings based on a review of the petition, along with scientific literature and the department’s own data. Department staff determined that there is sufficient scientific justification to prohibit the commercial collection of the common snapping turtle, red-eared slider, smooth softshell and spiny softshell.

Department officials further explained that turtles are among the nongame species of greatest concern in Texas. Turtles’ slow reproduction makes it unlikely that populations can remain stable when high numbers of adults and older juveniles are steadily removed from a population.

[eartharchives]

Dinosaurs down under

For millions of years, a wide variety of dinosaurs battled harsh, wintry conditions as the Southern Lights flickered above their heads. These unique pioneer discoveries of paleontology, some gigantic and some petite, have all left their remains in opal and rock in the “Land Down Under.”

The list of Aussie dinosaurs is far from a long one, and you could count the best-known dinosaurs with your fingers. The animals that made their living here are among the most surprising. They include some of the cutest, fiercest and possibly the largest dinosaurs ever. Whether they lived in polar forests or wet swampland, these dinosaurs were one of a kind.

Illustrations by Oliver Demuth, Julio Lacerda, Nathan Rogers and Fabrizio De Rossi

[kp777-deactivated20241106]

Scott Pruitt testified before Congress and it got messy

On Tuesday, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt testified for more than two hours before the Senate Environment and Public Works committee about his first year on the job. While Senate Republicans such as Chair John Barrasso, from Wyoming, and Senator Joni Ernst, from Iowa, gave him credit for helping create jobs by loosening regulations, Senate Democrats were far more concerned with the actions he’s taken that have damaged the functioning of the agency and harmed America’s land, water, and air.

[weloveshortvideos]

[ayellowbirds]

i knew that this must happen often because they are primarily fish-eaters, but somehow this is the first i’ve seen it.

[kennedys-obsession]

[rjzimmerman]

A rare venomous sea snake found slithering on the sand in Newport Beach earlier this week was one of a growing number of the serpents apparently drawn far north of their usual habitat by the spread of warm ocean temperatures.

The capture of the sea snake, which was euthanized, was the third report of the species in Southern California since 2015, and the fifth since 1972. (Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County)

Excerpt:

rare venomous sea snake found slithering on the sand in Newport Beach earlier this week was one of a growing number of the serpents apparently drawn far north of their usual habitat by the spread of warm ocean temperatures, a biologist said Thursday.

The yellow-bellied sea snake discovered near the 18th Street lifeguard tower on Monday was the third report of the species in Southern California since 2015 — and the fifth since 1972, said Greg Pauly, herpetological curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

“Oceans are warming and the species that respond to that change will be those that are the most mobile,” Pauly said. “So the big question now is this: Are sea snakes swimming off the coast of Southern California the new normal?”

Sporting short sharp fangs capable of delivering extremely potent venom, the snake — named for its bright yellow underside and flattened yellow tail with black spots — is no joke.

But Pauly said “these are pretty mellow animals” and they are unlikely to bite a person unless they are picked up.

[tkkatherineblog]

[todropscience]

Hung-Chang Liu, and Taiwan ecologist, encountered a female sea turtle nesting on Christmas Island in Australia. The mother sea turtle digged a hole, laid eggs, and covered them with sand and marine debris, the beach was full of litter. 

Despite large amount of marine debris, newborn sea turtles hatched satisfactorily, trying so hard to go back to the sea.

According to recent research, 91% of the reported cases of entangled turtles that are found are dead. 

Thank to plastic debris, marine turtles suffered serious wounds from entanglement, leading to maiming, amputation or asphyxiation. In case where turtles survived, they dragged discarded rubbish and debris with them. The impact is greater in the newborns and in the youngest specimens, but the number is probably underestimated.

Also, half of the sea turtles on the planet have ingested some form of plastic.  Turtles can be killed directly by ingesting plastics, through blockage of the intestines or through piercing of the intestinal wall. The harmful effects plastic has in the ocean is so great that it seems that sea turtles will not be able to tolerate this threat for long time.

Source: Our Island/ 我們的島

[sieunies]

google just made me so emo

[felicitysmoak-queeen]

oh my god I can’t stop crying

[beingbreannaleigh]

From a strictly marketing standpoint. This is the best ad of all time. Like…well fucking done Google.

[worldwariotwo]

I’m not crying you’re crying

[tyleroakley]

so ready for 2018. let’s do this.

[eartharchives]

Palau Becomes First Country to Require "Eco-Pledge" Upon Arrival

As tourism to this island nation increases, the government has instituted a mandatory pledge for tourists—in the form of a passport stamp.

The island nation of Palau has taken a bold step in a new direction towards conservation: requiring every incoming visitor to sign a stamped pledge in their passports to be good environmental stewards for the duration of their stay.

[zsl-edge-of-existence]

The Chinese giant salamander is the largest living amphibian on the planet.  On average, it reaches about three and a half feet in length and 60 pounds in weight.  However, much larger specimens have been recorded; the largest ever seen was almost six feet long and weight 130 pounds!

[zsl-edge-of-existence]

The Chinese giant salamander is one of an ancient family of salamanders called Cryptobranchidae.  At 170 million years old, these animals are casually called “living fossils”.  There are only two other living species in this family; the Japanese giant salamander (second image) and the American hellbender (third image).

[rjzimmerman]

Earth's Sixth Mass Extinction Already Underway

"The serious warning in our paper needs to be heeded because civilization depends utterly on the plants, animals and microorganisms of Earth that supply it with essential ecosystem services ranging from crop pollination and protection to supplying food from the sea and maintaining a livable climate."

Excerpt:

Scientists warn in a new study that Earth is undergoing a sixth mass extinction that is “more severe than perceived.”

Not only that, human activity—including pollution, deforestation, overpopulation, poaching, warming oceans and extreme weather events tied to climate change—is to blame for this massive loss in biodiversity, according to an analysis published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For the study, researchers from Stanford University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico analyzed data on 27,600 species of birds, amphibians, mammals and reptiles, comprising nearly half of known terrestrial vertebrates.

The results were shocking—about one-third of the species decreased in population size and range. Even common species are in decline.

“We find that the rate of population loss in terrestrial vertebrates is extremely high—even in ‘species of low concern,’” the authors wrote.

Furthermore, in a detailed study of 177 mammals, the scientists found that all of the mammals have lost at least 30 percent of their geographic ranges between 1900 and 2015. More than 40 percent of those mammals—including rhinos, orangutans, gorillas and many big cats—have seen the land they once roamed shrink by more than 80 percent.

Without mincing words, the scientists described Earth’s ongoing loss of wildlife as “biological annihilation” that will have “negative cascading consequences on ecosystem functioning and services vital to sustaining civilization.”

[typhlonectes]

Boy finds ‘extinct’ frog in Ecuador and helps revive species 

by Lou Del Bello

A school-age boy has rediscovered an Ecuadorian frog considered extinct for at least 30 years. The animal has now successfully bred in captivity.

The colourful Jambato harlequin frog (Atelopus ignescens) was once so widespread in Ecuador that it turned up in people’s homes, was something children played with and was used as an ingredient in traditional medicine. Then it was suddenly wiped out, probably by a combination of climate change and fungal disease.

“It was such a long-standing presence in the Ecuadorian community that we would have never conceived it could disappear,” says Luis Coloma of the Jambatu Center for Research and Conservation of Amphibians…

(read more: New Scientist)

photograph by Luis Coloma | JCRCA

[earthstory]

Let’s finish with the sauropods, some of the largest land animals ever. The upper photo here is a sauropod vertebrae. It’s the size of a single human. The next 2 images show sauropod growth - a small bone in a baby, followed by intermediate and fully grown leg bones. As with the other animals, researchers at the museum have used modern microscopic techniques on these bones to establish that they’re fully grown and how old the organisms were - by the time they were about 20, they were fully grown and practically football field sized.

the final image is a death assemblage. A number of bones of juvenile diplodocus were found encased in mud - far more than you’d ever expect to find in one spot. The dinosaurs probably got stuck in mud and were trapped there until they died. Some of them even show bite marks.

[sixpenceee]

Lethal doses for each of these drugs.

[mishkablackpaw]

Carfentanyl is so dangerous that if it touches your skin you will absorb it, and depending on the dose you will instantly overdose. First responders are in extreme danger when they go to overdose calls. They have to go in teams of two, wear gloves and have many doses of naloxone.

Fun fact, one dose naloxone is only effective against heroin. It takes several doses for the other two drugs and then its possible it won’t work.