obscurezoology
obscurezoology
Obscure Zoology
37 posts
Fun factoids about science and the natural world that you may not know...
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obscurezoology · 11 years ago
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How does one get a degree in zoology? Any good colleges to look at in your opinion? Maybe anything else I should know...? Sorry for all the questions haha
It all depends on what the university offers. The one I studied at offered a Bachelor in Evolutionary Biology which focused on zoology topics. Others might have a fill zoology degree. I'm also in Australia, so if you're in a different country I have no idea how it works. Logically you should be able to search for the major on the institution website.
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obscurezoology · 12 years ago
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Just when you thought you were safe in the water (although if you've been following this blog, I don't see how you could), something like this appears.
The Yeti Crab (Kiwa hirsuta) is a crustacean that was discovered in 2005 in the South Pacific Ocean, along the Pacific-Atlantic Ridge. The discovery founded a new biological family, Kiwaidae, which was later joined by a second species, Kiwa puravida, discovered a year later.
The yeti crab is a decapod (meaning ten-footed) along with other crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish and prawns. This species is most notable for the silky blond setae (bristle/hair-like structures) that cover its legs and claws.
Due to eyes that lack pigment, its thought that this critter is blind. The hairs on its pincers contain filamentous bacteria which its thought are used to detoxify poisonous minerals from the water in a process known as chemosynthesis.
The genus Kiwa is named after the goddess of shellfish in Polynesian mythology, although in Maori mythology, Kiwa is the male guardian of the sea. Hirsuta is Latin for "hairy".
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obscurezoology · 12 years ago
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The Armoured Shrew (Scutisorex somereni) or Hero Shrew is a small mammal primarily found within the Congo Basin in Central Africa, living in lowland and montane tropical moist forest.
This shrew has short legs, dense fur and a slender snout as other white-toothed shrews, but this species is unique for the corrugated interlocking vertebrae that consist of its spinal column. The only other shrew species with such a structure is Thor's hero shrew (Scutisorex thori). 
Having such a densely constructed spine allows this creature to bear a much larger amount of weight on it's back than other shrews, with one expedition team successfully testing up to 72kg (160 lb). That's impressive for a creature that measures ~25cm and weights 70-113 grams (2.5-3.7 in).. In one of the stranger experiment methods I've read, the explorers discovered this fact by accidentally (and then purposefully) stepping on one particular shrew they found, one man going so far as to balance on one foot, and finding the shrew (allegedly) unharmed. It was found that between the strengthened spine and the convex curve behind the shoulders, the vital organs are protected from being crushed in this manner.
This strength works out to the shrew supporting about 1000 times its own body weight, or the equivalent of a human holding up 10 elephants. It's not quite clear the evolutionary purpose of such a spine, but one theory is that it allows the animal to push itself under logs, between palm leaves and tree trunks in its search for food.
Like other small mammals, armoured shrew is an insectivore, but its diet can also include small amphibians and lizards. In captivity, their diet is supplemented with bird and mammal meat.
The native people of its homeland consider the armoured shrew to have magical properties, being used as a talisman by the Mangbetu people. Tradition dictates that any part of the shrew, even ashes, will provide invincibility in battle. Despite this, the species is considered plentiful and "Least Concern" by the UCUN.
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obscurezoology · 12 years ago
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As seen in a recent episode of Bob's Burgers, this weird creature is the Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), and it's the largest rodent in the world. Native to South America, these creatures are most closely related to guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) and rock cavies (Kerodon rupestris). The native Tupi name  ka'apiûara translates to "one who eats slender leaves" or "grass-eater".  
Like other rodents, these guys live in large social groups of about 10-20 individuals, and tend to inhabit savannas and dense forests, usually near bodies of water as these mammals are semi-aquatic. They are so at home in the water that they are capable of remaining completely submerged for up to five minutes, which is often done to evade predators. They can even sleep in the water, keeping their noses above the surface. 
Adult capybaras can grow to about 107-134cm long and stand about 50-64cm tall at the withers. They have slightly webbed feet and vestigial tails, and their hind legs are slightly longer than their forelegs. 
As herbivores, their main diet includes grasses and aquatic plants, as well as fruit and tree bark. They're selective feeders and will seek out specific plant species, ignoring others. Capybaras are also coprophagous, meaning they eat their own feaces as a sour of bacterial gut flora, to help properly digest the cellulose and extract the maximum nutrition from their food, similar to other rodents such as rabbits. Also like other rodents, their front teeth grow continuously to compensate for the constant wear from eating grasses.
Just like guneapigs, capybaras aren't able to synthesize vitamin C, and captive animals who aren't given vitamin C supplements have been reported to develop gum disease as a sign of the old pirate ailment; scurvy.  
In the wild these guys live for about 8-10 years, although often less as they're frequently predated on by jungle cats and native eagles, as well as anacondas. 
When mating, the female holds all the cards of choice. As they only mate in water, if a female does not want to mate with a particular male, she will either submerge or leave the water. Gestation lasts about 130-150 days and litters of between one and eight young are born. This species frequently is observed using alloparenting, where individuals other than the actual parents will help raise the young. 
Capybaras are commonly hunted for their meat and hide, as well as the grease from their skin which is used in the pharmaceutical trade, but they aren't considered a threatened species thanks to their rapid reproductive rate. In some areas, capybaras are farmed and their meat even considered acceptable to eat during certain religious festivals when other meat is forbidden. Capybaras are sometimes kept as pets in the US, like the one pictured above, even though it's technically illegal to do so. 
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obscurezoology · 12 years ago
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Hi! I hope you are having a good day! I am researching the blue sea slug for a school paper and I cannot find it's digestive system... can you please help??
Hmm, this is a hard one. I did find some information on Gastropods (which is the phylogenetic class these slugs belong too).
Wikipedia says "Many marine gastropods are burrowers, and have a siphon that extends out from the mantle edge. Sometimes the shell has a siphonal canal to accommodate this structure. A siphon enables the animal to draw water into their mantle cavity and over the gill. They use the siphon primarily to "taste" the water to detect prey from a distance. Gastropods with siphons tend to be either predators or scavengers." (Sorry, feeling too lazy to paraphrase atm)
There's also more info on the physiology here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digestive_system_of_gastropods Remember that Blue Sea Slugs are a marine species, so not everything there will be relevant.
I hope that helps!
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obscurezoology · 12 years ago
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Another addition to the "Animals that closely resemble Pokemon" collection is this adorable creature, the Venezuelan Poodle Moth (Artace cribaria(?)). Newly identified (2009), not much is known about this species just yet, other than it is most certainly of the family Lasiocampidae.
It was first discovered in the Gran Sabana region of Venezuela by Dr Arthur Anker. There are about 10-15 new South America species of Artace identified so far, so it's not yet known if this one is a species in it's own right or merely a regional subspecies.
Still, if it's discovered this creature is capable of spreading a poisonous powder and evolves from a tiny spherical caterpillar, I won't be surprised.
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obscurezoology · 12 years ago
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I won't make a habit of posting memes, but I couldn't resist when I saw this.
And this handsome fellow is the Goblin Shark (Mitsukurina owstoni). This deep-sea shark is poorly understood, with much more research needed. It's considered a "living fossil", as it's the only remaining species in the Mitsukurinidae family, other members having been traced back to as far as 125 million years. 
Goblin sharks have a very unique appearance, even amongst sharks.They have a long, flat snout with jaws that are able to protrude to snap up prey,  Their skin has a pink colouration and they have been found between 3-4m long, although are thought to be able to grow longer. The long snout is covered in special sensors called ampullae of Lorenzini, which are capable of detecting minute electric fields, such as those produced by nearby prey.
Goblin sharks are endemic around the world to submarine canyons, continental slopes and other seamounts at depths greater than 100m. Adults are generally found at greater depths than juveniles.
These sharks prey on cephalopods, crustaceans and teleost fish along the sea floor and in the middle of the water column.
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obscurezoology · 12 years ago
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This monstrous creature is the Lion's Mane Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata). The largest known species of jellyfish, with the largest recorded specimen with an up to 2.29m bell and tentacles of 37m long, which washed up on Massachusetts Bay in 1870. Specimens found in lower latitudes are often much smaller than those found in the northern waters.
The Lion's Mane Jellyfish frequent cold, boreal waters such as those found in the northern Atlantic and the Arctic, as well as the northern Pacific Oceans. Similar unclassified jellyfish have been found in the seas around Australia and New Zealand. Taxonomy for the Cyanea is still under some deliberation between zoologists, some believing that all species in the genus should be grouped together, while other believe a distinction should be made between the red Lion's mane and the slightly smaller blue jellyfish species found in the eastern North Atlantic.
The bell is divided into eight lobes. The longest, silvery tentacles emanate from the bell's subumbrella, with an arrangement of colourful shorter arms emerging from the centre of the bell.The long sticky tentacles are arranged in a series of rows, grouped into eight clusters of about 100 tentacles each. These tentacles are primarily used to sting prey, but also have their drawbacks, getting caught on sea anemones, and consequently torn apart and consumed.
While in the open ocean, this jellyfish acts as a floating oasis for some species of shrimp, butterfish, harvestfish, medusafish and juvenile prowfish, offering protection from predators and a reliable source of food.A number of species predate on the jellyfish itself, including seabirds, sea turtles, larger fish and even other jellyfish species. Leatherback sea turtles, for example, feed on them exclusively during summer season in the oceans around Eastern Canada. Lion's mane jellyfish predominately feed on zooplankton, small fish, moon jellies and ctenophores. These jellyfish float near the surface, no more than 20m deep, with slow pulsations that drive them forward. They primarily depend on ocean currents when traveling great distances.
Like other jellyfish species, Lion's Manes have four stages of growth; a larval stage, polyp stage, an ephyrae stage and medusa stage. Through these stages, they are capable of both sexual reproduction (medusa stage) and asexual reproduction (polyp stage). In sexual reproduction, the female carries the fertilised eggs in its tentacles where they hatch into larva. When the larva are old enough, they're deposited on a hard surface where they grow into polyps. These polyps then reproduce asexually to create small stacks of ephyraes. The individual ephraes break off and eventually grow into the medusa stage, as full-grown jellyfish.
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obscurezoology · 12 years ago
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Chevrotain's, or Mouse-Deer (of the family Tragulidae) are adorably tiny ungulates of which there are only 10 living species. Most of them can be found in the forests of South and Southeast Asia, with a single species dwelling in Central and West Africa.
The Asian species are the smallest species of ungulate in the world, ranging from about 0.7 to 8kg. The African species is larger, ranging from 7 to 16 kg.
The name Chevrotain is French for "Little goat". Recent authorities have taken to calling only the species with pale or stripped upper markings Chevrotains (including the African species), and all other species Mouse-Deer.
These guys are primative ruminants, with a four-chamber stomach, much like modern ruminants (Cows, sheep, giraffes, deer, goats, etc), although in this species, their third stomach chamber is poorly developed. Also like other ruminants, they lack upper incisors. Some species are exclusively herbivorous, while others such as the Water Chevrotain also eats crabs and insects, or scavenges meat and fish.
All species lack horns, but have elongated canine teeth, which is especially prominent in males, and is used in fighting. Their short legs lack agility but enable them to maintain a small profile when running through the dense foliage of their habitats.
Chevrotain's live in solitary or mating pairs and mark territories of about 13 -24 hectares, but ignore neighbours rather than competing aggressively.
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obscurezoology · 12 years ago
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This amazing specimen is the Blue Dragon (Glaucus atlanticus) otherwise known as the blue glaucus, blue sea slug, blue ocean slug and the sea swallow. The only member of the genus Glaucus, with its closest relative the pelagic aolid nudibranch (Glaucilla marginata).
The blue dragon is pelagic and is distributed throughout the world's oceans, in tropical and temperate waters.
At full size, the blue dragon can grow up to 3cm in length. The six appendages running either side of its tapered body, branch out into rayed cerata (structures unique to sea slugs which aid in respiration and contain components of the digestive system). It feeds using a radula; a chitinous ribbon with serated edges used for scraping or cutting food before it enters the oesophagus.
They feed almost exclusively on Physalia, a species equipped with stinging nematocysts (of which the blue dragons are immune to) that the they are then able to store in special sacs called cnidosacs in the tips of their cerata, to use the venomous nematocysts for themselves. In this, they are able to concentrate the venom and produce a more powerful and deadly sting than a Man o' War (upon which the blue dragon also feeds).
This sea slug floats around upside down in the water, bouyant via a gas-filled sac in their stomachs. Their colouring is supported through this motion, with the blue or blue and white underside helping camouflage them from predation from sea birds, and their silvery grey dorsal side camouflaging them from fish looking up from below.
Like all heterobranchs, the blue dragon is a hermaphrodite (posesses both male and female reproductive organs). They mate with their ventral sides facing, and both animals produce egg strings.
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obscurezoology · 12 years ago
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The Sea-firefly (Vargula hilgendorfii) is an ostracod crustracean endemic to the southern seas of Japan. As a bioluminescent species, it produces a blue-coloured light through a reaction between the substrate luciferin and the enzyme luciferase.
This firefly is minute, at only three milimetres long. Being nocturnal, it buries itself in the sand of shallow water and only comes out at night to feed.
This speces of sea-firefly was discovered in 1890 by Gustav Wilhelm Muller, who named the species after zoologist Franz Martin Hilgendorf.
Dried sea-fireflies were occasionally used as a light sources during WWII by the Japanese army, to read maps with the dim light.
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obscurezoology · 12 years ago
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Tanuki (Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus) or Japanese Raccoon Dog is a small mammal found in Japan and named for its obvious resemblance to that of a raccoon.
A staple of much of Japanese folklore, the Tanuki has a reputation for being mischievous and jolly, as a master of disguise and shapeshifting, while also being absentminded and gullible.
There is some scientific debate regarding possible speciation of the Tanuki and other raccoon dogs, due to chromosomal, weight and behavioral differences, with genetic analysis confirming the unique sequences of mitochondrial DNA.
This species is of a low extinction risk, and is only on display in two accredited American zoos; Zoo Atlanta and Red River Zoo.
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obscurezoology · 13 years ago
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A dear friend of mine once described this species as resembling a grumpy old man. A curious looking creature, the Blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is a deep sea fish found off the coasts of mainland Australia and Tasmania.
Of the Psychrolutidae family, these fish live at depths between 600 - 1,200 metres under the sea. Instead of a gas bladder, blobfish maintain buoyancy due to their predominantly gelatinous flesh, which is slightly less dense than water. This allows the fish to float above the sea floor with little energy expenditure. Rather than hunting or foraging, blobfish eat primarily edible matter that floats in front of them.
Blobfish are often caught through deep-sea fishing or bottom trawling nets as bycatch, a practice which causes great damage to the seafloor and threatens this peculiar creature and other bottom-dwellers with extinction.
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obscurezoology · 13 years ago
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The Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum) is one of two venomous lizard species in existence (the other being the Mexican Beaded Lizard, H. horridum). Gila Monsters originate in southwestern USA and northwestern Sonora, Mexico.
The name Gila refers to the Gila River Basin in Arizona, where this lizard was once plentiful.
A heavy lizard, the gila monster grows up to 60cm long, and is sluggish in nature. So even though it is venomous, it poses little threat to humans. Despite this, it has a fearsome reputation and is sometimes killed, even in Arizona and Nevada where it is protected by state law.
Gila monsters spend up to 90% of their time underground in rocky shelters or burrows, and are most active in the morning during the dry season, or warm nights. They are most often preyed upon by coyotes and raptors.
Their primary diet is bird and reptile eggs, as well as feeding on small birds, mammals, lizards and frogs, insects and carrion. They hunt with an extremely sensitive sense of smell, and often swallow their prey whole and head-first, even still alive if it's small enough, where it's helped down through powerful muscular contractions and neck flexing. The venom is produced by modified salivary glands in the Gila Monster's lower jaw, unlike snakes who produce venom in their upper jaw. The venom is a neurotoxin, thought to be used more for defense. The venom isn't toxic enough to kill a human, with no reported fatalities after 1939, and prior deaths attributed to primitive medical treatments.
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obscurezoology · 13 years ago
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Most of the creatures of the deep sea are amazingly awesome. And this creepy critter is no exception. Chimaeras (Chimaeriformes) are cartilaginous fish, sometimes called ghost sharks, ratfish, spookfish or rabbitfish (not to be confused with actual spookfish (Opisthoproctidae), rattails (Macrouridae) or rabbitfish (Siganidae)). Fossil evidence suggests they were once an abundant and diverce order, and branching away from their closest living relatives, sharks, nearly 400 million years ago, and have since remained isolated.
They live in deep temperate oceans, most species dwelling up to 2,600 metres below sealevel. Chimaera grow on average to about 150cm in length. Their skeletons are constructed of cartilage, like other Chondrichthyes, and their skin is smooth and consists of placoid scales. Most species have a venomous spine located in front of the dorsal fin.
Like sharks, chimaera reproduce using a clasper for internal fertilisation and females lay eggs with leathery cases. But unlike sharks, male chimaeras also have a retractable tentacle-like sexual appendage on the forehead, and in front of the pelvic fins. Also unlike sharks, they do not have a multitude of replaceable rows of teeth, having only three pairs of large permanent grinding tooth plates. Their upper jaws are also fused to their skulls (unlike sharks) and have separate anal and urogenital openings. Chimaera are the only vertebrates to retain traces of a third pair of  limbs.
Credit to rhamphotheca for bringing this species to my attention. You should also check out their blog. It's awesome.
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obscurezoology · 13 years ago
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This sci-fi looking creature is a Tardigrade (Tardigrada), otherwise known as waterbear or moss piglet. Just to add to their awesome level, these water-dwelling creatures are polyextremophiles; organisms capable of thriving in a variety of physically or geochemically extreme conditions which would be deadly for most life on earth.
They can withstand temperatures from above absolute zero (-273 degrees celsius) to 151 degrees celsius, pressures greater than that found in the deepest oceans trenches. They can survive gamma radiation, solar radiation and ionic radiation, levels hundreds of times higher than would kill a person. They can survive without food or water for nearly 10 years, and dehydration to the point that their bodies contain only 3% water, and still be able to bounce back, rehydrate, forage and reproduce. Since 2007, Tardigrades have been exposed to the vacuum of space for several days in low earth orbit, and are the first know animals to survive space. 
They were discovered back in 1773 by Johann August Ephraim Goeze. Over 500 species of tardigrade have been discovered since.
When full grown, Tardigrade can be up to 1 millimetre long. They are prevalent in lichen and moss, but can also be found in a multitude of environments around the world, from sand dunes, beaches, soil, marine and freshwater sediments, in high densities (up to 25,000 specimens per litre).
The tubular mouth contain stylets, which they use to pierce plant cells, algae or small invertebrates, releasing the contents of cells and bodily fluids. These are lost when the animal moults, but a new pair is secreted from a pair of glands that lie on either side of its mouth. They have no lungs, so gas exchange happens along the whole body.
While some species are parthenogenetic (asexual reproduction with the growth and development of an embryo without fertilisation), others are oviparous reproducers, where eggs are deposited while molting, in its shed cuticle, before being covered with sperm. Only a few species mate and fertilize internally. When young hatch (after fourteen days), the have the full compliment of adult cells. Maturity is reached through hypertrophy (the enlargement of individual cells) as opposed to cell division, as occurs in most multicellular organisms.
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obscurezoology · 13 years ago
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This is the Penis Fish (Urechis unicinctus), named such because of its obvious similarity to the male organ. Another name is the Fat Innkeeper Worm.
Not much is known about this weird little guy, except that it's an aquatic worm, creating tunnels in the sand and mud. Also it is commonly eaten in several Asian cultures, and used as fishing bait.
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