Life on Earth

[Orpheus]

Any way you slice it, this species is completely cray-cray: A Pet Crayfish Can Clone Itself, and It's Spreading Around the World

Here's what disappoints me about this (and all other) coverage: they're crayfish; they're overrunning Europe -- and NO ONE HAS REPORTED IF THESE ONES ARE TASTY!

[Orpheus]

They call it a Kingfisher for a reason.

[huggle]

Marbled crayfish (Procambarus fallax f. virginalis - pretty animals) have fortunately not yet spread to my district. Other Procambarus species have, though, and cause a huge problem since they carry the crayfish plague, a fungus that kills native European species while the invasive American ones are immune. Whole rivers can die out within a couple of days. That's why we always carry 2 sets of boots and gloves when we sample: one is soaking in desinfectant while we wear the freshly desinfected ones; when we switch between streams, we also switch boots and gloves
We try to gradually solve the problem by simply eating the invaders. If a marbled one turns up, she'll land on someone's plate pretty quickly. I fancy they might be tasty with a little chervil.

In Germany, we call Kingfishers Eisvögel (ice birds) because of the blue sheen of their feathers. It's the same colour you sometimes find in glaciers:


My favourite animal is the Short-Eared Elephant Shrew. IMHO it's the living proof that evolution has a sense of humour. This little chap is Rudi, one of the two shrews I adopted at the local zoo
(It's a small zoo in urgent need of funds and therefore many people adopted animals. For example, the beavers have been adopted by a dentist, the storks by a group of midwives, a cross-eyed Meerkat was adopted by an ophthalmologist and the penguins by the workcrew of the ice hockey stadium while the team itself (Straubing Ice Tigers) adopted two Siberian tigers )

[RJDiogenes]

Any way you slice it, this species is completely cray-cray: A Pet Crayfish Can Clone Itself, and It's Spreading Around the World

This is a job for... Norton's AntiCrayfish!

We try to gradually solve the problem by simply eating the invaders.

Sort an anti-V situation. That begs to become a TV series.

For example, the beavers have been adopted by a dentist, the storks by a group of midwives, a cross-eyed Meerkat was adopted by an ophthalmologist and the penguins by the workcrew of the ice hockey stadium while the team itself (Straubing Ice Tigers) adopted two Siberian tigers

That's great.

[Orpheus]

We try to gradually solve the problem by simply eating the invaders.

Sort an anti-V situation. That begs to become a TV series.

Little known fact: Soylent Green is people, but Martian people. They taste/smell like super-chocolate. "War of the Worlds" was a coverup for what really happened at Grover's MIll.

[RJDiogenes]

We're on the verge of a blockbuster here. To Serve Little Green Men.

[huggle]

coincidentially, I learned today that these parthenogenetic crayfish are now being sought by scientists in Heidelberg - they hope to use them for cancer studies. The crayfish apparently are a genetically purer clone than clone mice (and cheaper).
sorry - the article is available only in German: http://www.br.de/themen/wissen/marmorkr ... n-100.html
Only the last paragraph deals with the medical research. It's not very informative and was written by a layperson. It says:
Reaserching the marbled crayfish might offer a key to understanding tumors says Mr Lyko who leads the dept for epigenetics of the German Cancer Research Center. Like in these crayfish, the cells in a tumor have their origin in just one single cell. By multiplication it spreads rapidly. Exactly how this process works and what this implies regarding the growth of a tumor is not yet known. Furthermore, the scientists intend to find out what interplay between a clonal system - like the marbled crayfish - and its surroundings takes place. The crayfish might help in the development of a model for tumor growth.

[RJDiogenes]

So the Earth is in danger of dying from Stage IV Crayfish?

[Orpheus]

Amusingly, the word for both cancer and crabs in German is "Krebs", IIRC.

[RJDiogenes]

Those are very different diagnoses here.

[Bill]

some cloud images.. life on earth=

[Bill]

IDK I am putting images of pretty parts of earth and effects and stuff here is that oK? just like things like this===

yes or no?

[RJDiogenes]

Beautiful pictures are always a "yes."