>the laziest blog on earth...contact me: mudwerks AT gmail DOT com
ALL MY SONGS!...
AVAILABLE NOW on bandcamp!
Diaphanous Hatchetfish - Sternoptyx diaphana
There are approximately 40 species of marine hatchetfish, all with similar shapes, but varying in size from less than a silver dollar to almost six inches long. The upward-facing (but non-telescopic) eyes and downward-slanting mouth are characteristic of the Sternoptychinae family.
Like many deep-sea creatures, the hatchetfish have bioluminescent photophores on their body - unlike most other deep-sea creatures, though, the hatchetfish directly utilizes their bioluminescence in how they disguise themselves.
The low levels of light that they give off on the bottom half of their body reflect against their silvery scales, giving predators below them the impression that the only thing above is the sky (even if the sky might be thousands of meters above). Complimentary to that camouflage, the upper half of the hatchetfish is more darkly colored, giving predators above the impression that there’s nothing but open ocean below them. This type of camouflage is called “counterillumination”.
Résultats des campagnes scientifiques accomplies sur son yacht par Albert Ier, prince souverain de Monaco. Albert I, Prince of Monaco, 1911.
Thornback ray (Raja clavata) and thornback ray skeleton
Like sharks, rays and skates have fully cartilaginous skeletons, which provide a stable structure but more flexibility than bone. You can see that, much like fish, rays have defined, er, rays, in their fins. The difference is that while fish tend to have a few unconnected rays and a taught tissue between them, the Rajiforms (skates and rays) have many, many rays, which are all connected perpendicularly by collagen. The body is then formed around these rays, which propel the Rajiforms forward in an undulating (wave-like) motion.
A history of the fishes of the British Islands. Jonathan Couch, 1863.
(via scientificillustration)
Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris)
Aww, the sea otter…so cute, so resourceful, so smart. Such adorable bobbing buoys above the Pacific kelp forests. Such…jerks?
Yep, that’s right - just like humans observed decades ago in animals that they considered to be “highly intelligent” (such as dolphins, elephants, and apes), when you get smarter, you get more potential for dickishness. The brain power it takes to use tools and find novel ways to extract food also gives sea otters the mental capacity to understand how to manipulate the behavior of other otters.
To wit: Male sea otters are routine kidnappers. Though otters often raise pups in close proximity to one another, and males occasionally interact with pups in an amicable fashion, one of the most common behaviors of younger males is to kidnap the pup of a sleeping mom and hold it ransom.
The mother goes into a panic and will procure an almost absurd amount of food for the male, just to get her pup back. Older males will engage in kidnapping from time to time, but from what’s been observed thus far, it largely seems to be a behavior of the younger male who hasn’t perfected his hunting skills, and instead of improving his skills, sees an easy way out.
What a jerk.
Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. John James Audubon. Completed and posthumously published by John Woodhouse Audubon, 1858.
(via biomedicalephemera)
Thornback ray (Raja clavata) and thornback ray skeleton
Like sharks, rays and skates have fully cartilaginous skeletons, which provide a stable structure but more flexibility than bone. You can see that, much like fish, rays have defined, er, rays, in their fins. The difference is that while fish tend to have a few unconnected rays and a taught tissue between them, the Rajiforms (skates and rays) have many, many rays, which are all connected perpendicularly by collagen. The body is then formed around these rays, which propel the Rajiforms forward in an undulating (wave-like) motion.
A history of the fishes of the British Islands. Jonathan Couch, 1863.
Viperfish (Chauliodus sp) chasing Hatchetfish (Sternoptyx sp) deep sea by Norbert Wu
(via srta-kubelik)
Limbs of the Cephalopoda
Whether squids, octopuses, and nautilus have “arms” or “tentacles” is often simply a matter of semantics, but the most accepted definitions (from what I’ve found) tend to define the “arm” as a tapered limb, with two rows of suckers along its entire length. “Tentacle” is typically a length of tapered limb with no suckers, leading to a distal club-like appendage, covered in suckers.
One exception would be limbs in the nautilus - they have up to 90 un-suckered limbs, but their limbs are called “tentacles” by those who study them, even without the terminal club.Images:
Top right: Octopus vulgaris and detail of beak and arms
Top left: Detail of tenticular clubs in squid, from the Expedition of the Valdivia
Bottom right: Arm of Illex illecebrosis (Northern Shortfin Squid)
Bottom left: Tentacle of Illex illecebrosis
Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris)
Aww, the sea otter…so cute, so resourceful, so smart. Such adorable bobbing buoys above the Pacific kelp forests. Such…jerks?
Yep, that’s right - just like humans observed decades ago in animals that they considered to be “highly intelligent” (such as dolphins, elephants, and apes), when you get smarter, you get more potential for dickishness. The brain power it takes to use tools and find novel ways to extract food also gives sea otters the mental capacity to understand how to manipulate the behavior of other otters.
To wit: Male sea otters are routine kidnappers. Though otters often raise pups in close proximity to one another, and males occasionally interact with pups in an amicable fashion, one of the most common behaviors of younger males is to kidnap the pup of a sleeping mom and hold it ransom.
The mother goes into a panic and will procure an almost absurd amount of food for the male, just to get her pup back. Older males will engage in kidnapping from time to time, but from what’s been observed thus far, it largely seems to be a behavior of the younger male who hasn’t perfected his hunting skills, and instead of improving his skills, sees an easy way out.
What a jerk.
Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. John James Audubon. Completed and posthumously published by John Woodhouse Audubon, 1858.
(via scientificillustration)
Japetella diaphana tentacles and buccal cavity
Japatella diaphana is an octopus member of the Bolitaenidae family, and like the other members of its family, is very small - 12 cm long at most. They live, eat, and breed in the pelagic zone of the ocean, unlike deep-sea squid, which rarely spend their entire lives at such depths.
Mature females have a bioluminescent photophore encircling their beak.
Die Cephalopoden. Ewald Rubasmen, 1910.
(via scientificillustration)
