New Animal Discoveries!

[RJDiogenes]

I was thinking that, too. I didn't know we still had armored fish.

[Lupine]

Yeah it makes you wonder what else is lurking out there.

[RJDiogenes]

Trilobites. I'm really hoping for Trilobites.

[Madeliaette]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/ ... c=fb&cc=fp
they look cute!!!!

[RJDiogenes]

Bloody Hell, those are big bugs. And they have very interesting mating and social behavior. I wonder if they are actually the same as they were on Lord Howe Island. Such a tiny population living in isolation for nearly a hundred years, could have evolved to be significantly different from the original stock. That might be why they had such a hard time with them in captivity-- they may be very sensitive to local conditions. Which means they may not prosper as much as expected if re-introduced to the main island. It's great that they now have thousands of them instead of just a couple of dozen. Maybe they can even increase the population at the pyramid.

That's a fascinating video, too. I love how the little manhole cover pops off the egg.

[Lupine]

Not exactly a new animal discovery, just ridiculously cute.

[RJDiogenes]

Aw, she's adorable. And that guy keeps her at home with him. He is certainly a dedicated curator.

I wonder if they have any idea why she failed to bond with her mother.

[Lupine]

With my mother's goats it would happen occasionally with yearlings and their first kidding. First time mothers sometimes aren't the best ones.

[RJDiogenes]

I've seen it happen once with one of our cats, back in the 60s, but that cat was a psychopath. She drove away all the kittens and even killed one of them.

[Lupine]

^We had a cat like that once. The crazy beast would even go after the dog.

[RJDiogenes]

Some of them can be really nasty. We had some feral ones in the city that were almost unstoppable, and they had no fear about coming into the house to steal food.

[Lupine]

^And in a follow up to that, there's news out there that urban animals are getting smarter!
I for one welcome our new animal overlords.

[RJDiogenes]

That's very interesting. I wonder if it's really evolution or simply environment. From working in the medical field, I know that children of immigrants from places with scarce resources and low public health standards will mature faster, reach puberty sooner and grow larger than their parents' generation. It's not because of evolution, obviously, but it's basically bodies accustomed to living on very little overreacting to a land of plenty. Say what you will about fast food and stuff, but it's far better than what much of the world must subsist on. I wonder if something similar is happening here.

I'm not sure how to explain the smaller brain sizes of domesticated animals, though, unless it's an artifact of overall smaller body sizes.