Small Brains & Gunshots Some critters have all the luck. The platypus might be the strangest animal on the planet, or, at least, possess the highest number of bizarre traits. But the duckbill doesn’t have a monopoly on interesting attributes. In the project’s early days, we investigated the snapping shrimp, also known as the pistol shrimp. This Lynchian […]
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Platypus, Platypuses, & Platypodes On this whacky world of ours, a scad of critters compete for the title of most bizarre. The variety of life is so immense that picking one is likely a fool’s chore. Certain faunae (arcane pluralization foreshadowing) objectively qualify for a shortlist of the most bizarre creatures. One such beast is
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The Walking Sticks of Ball’s Pyramid Today’s topic might win an award for the most misleading title. Given our penchant for hiking, one might surmise we’ll explore a special cane used on trails to a majestic pyramid crafted by humans (or aliens, amirite?) to look like a sphere. I’m not exactly sure how a spherical
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Taters, the Space Laser Cat “Everyone loves Taters.” –Ryan Rogalin, Jet Propulsion Laboratory In our current understanding of the cosmos, nothing travels faster than light. All the incarnations of the electromagnetic spectrum move at 299,792,458 meters per second in a vacuum, which is approximately 186,000 miles per second or 671 million miles per hour. That’s some serious
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The Crabs of Christmas Island In 1615, about 200 miles south of the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra, Europeans first spied a 52-square-mile spit in the distance. Nearly three decades later, Captain William Mynors sailed aboard the Royal Mary for the East India Company. On 25 December 1643, Mynors spotted the same isle and decided to
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Paleoburrows The science of paleontology relies heavily on fossils. This statement is a bit inane, as paleontology is defined as the study of prehistoric life, broadly covering anything that lived before the Holocene epoch (our current age, which stretches to a point a little more than 10,000 years ago). Obviously, to glean anything about organisms
Kelping Whales Earlier in 2023, we investigated the strange behavior of orcas in Portuguese waters. Not only were they attacking boats, but they seemed to be teaching the behavior to other orcas. One theory that might explain the behavior relates to fads. The intelligent creatures who run in tight groups sometimes display odd conduct for certain
Puffling Patrol The Atlantic Puffin loves rocky coasts. Cliffs on remote islands without natural predators provide wonderful nesting habitats for these birds. Puffins inhabit a wide swath of land from North America to Europe and northward toward the Arctic Circle. Despite this wide home base, puffins really love one place above all others: Iceland. More than 60% of all Atlantic puffins
Dalmatia Make a list of the world’s 101 Most Recognizable Dog Breeds and one type of canine will likely top it. Photo by Bradlien Photo by Carlos Estrada Disney’s 101 Dalmatians A white coat punctuated by black dots can mean only one type of pupper. Adored by firefighters and bizarrely coveted by Disney villains, the Dalmatian is
Fat Bear Week Katmai National Park in Alaska is a massive tract, larger than Connecticut. It’s home to one of the most alien locations on the planet: The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. The result of the largest volcanic eruption by volume in the 20th century, the valley is strewn with ash, in some places as