Avatar

The other day a group of my friends and I went to see the movie Avatar, and while the story-line, creatures, action, effects and characters were all wonderfully produced there is something that really irks me deep inside about it.

The dominant species on the planet of Pandora are a feline-humanoid race known as the Na'vi. That is all fine and dandy. They generally human-shaped, feline noses, feline ears, feline eyes, etc.



But then you look at the other species that inhabit this planet. They are hexapods, with four eyes, armoured skin, respiratory spiracles located on or near their chest and maxillae/premaxillae in their jaws similar to Terran fish.



This is also fine. Yet, it is when you look at their shared characteristics that things get interesting. The Na'vi and to an extent the majority of species on Pandora has a bundle of nervous tissue called a "Queue" protruding from their bodies, this tissue allows two organisms to "link-up" and share information, thoughts and memories.

I find such a complex system would not be able to evolve convergently between different organisms and instead an original organism with this adaptation (It seems to be an organisms originating from all the way back to the split between Pandoran flora and fauna) diversified and adapted into a myriad of different forms.

So when I think about this, it seems the Na'vi are too different from their relatives, and should instead still have this strange and distinct hexapedal design with the fish-like jaws and four eyes.

Nevertheless it was a fantastic movie.

Noodles

Turns out that almost half of all species of catfish are venomous. In a new study, they looked at species of catfish that were believed to not be poisonous and found that functional venom glands were present in the majority of species.

Now for an amusing anecdote:

Once upon a time while moving from one house to another I had to transfer my fish. I had put them all in plastic bags similar to what they use at pet stores. One of these fish was a Burmese Catfish* with dorsal and pectoral spines.

Lets just say that a bag full of water with a live fish and several holes punctured through it along with bleeding catfish-wounded finger is an interesting situation to be in.

*I say Burmese Catfish as that is what it was labelled as in the petstore I bought it from, though I doubt that was actually its common name, as I haven't found a picture of it since.

Wind Chills

Sorry for the inactivity, but as I said it is likely to happen during Winter months.

Just wanted to relay that over this past weekend the weather finally managed to drop into the -40 degree celsius range. Brrr.

I hate the feeling you get when your nose hair freezes. You know what I mean?

Hibernation

I kind of started this blog at an odd time during the year. Winter.

Fort McMurray winter's are a harsh thing. -40 degrees celsius, 4 feet of snow, blistering wind chills. Hardly the appropriate weather for (outdoor) entomology, which is something i'm very interested in currently.

Due to this, I may not post very often until the snow begins to break through.

I have one thing of good news though. I recently found out that Keyano (the College where I am doing my University Studies) is offering an Invertebrate Zoology course (Zoology 250) and that will be taught by my current Biology 108 instructor.

He informed me that we may do some exciting field work, like taking an ice auger onto the Snye and seeing if we can find any over-wintering insects, which I will take pictures of, as well as a possible field trip to the Royal Tyrell museum in Drumheller, Alberta, which I'll also take photos of.

Goodnight.

Science Joke

Q: What is a homosexual geneticist's favourite thing in the world?

Highlight text to see the answer.


A: Designer Jeans

Har. Har. Har.

A Nice Find

Last week in my Biology lab we were doing a dissection on Eumatazoans. My instructor decided to dissect a cat and show us how the lungs work.

The cats are harvested from Mexico City and are strays, which are vastly overrunning the city.

While dissecting, one of my classmates asked him to open the stomach in which he found several dozen worms. Generally they were about half an inch in length with light brownish bodies and a darker brown "head", though the colours may have been a result of the preservation fluid. I'm not sure what species they were though.

It makes me wonder what other parasites could be found in its body. Tapeworms, Spiny-headed worms, Hook Worms, Heart Worms, Flukes? Directly after he found those worms, I started looking for parasites in the intestines of a Dog Shark but to no avail.

Pictures may come later.

Crocodyliforms

These are some recent prehistoric crocodyliforms that were found in the Sahara and were featured on National Geographic, and the Discovery Channel's "Daily Planet" that I really like the art for:

Araripesuchus rattoides - "Rat Croc"

Anatosuchus minor - "Duck Croc"

Kaprosuchus saharacus - "Boar Croc"

Araripesuchus wegeneri - "Dog Croc"

These four were discovered in the same rock bed as Sarcosuchus imperator ("Super Croc"), as well as a fifth that I don't have art for; Laganosuchus thaumastos ("Pancake Croc"). If you'd like to read more go here, or here. Out of all of them I have to say my favourite is A. minor.

Art by Todd Marshall

The Story of the Sad Amatuer Entomologist

There once was a boy who lived far north. He was really interested in insects, but whenever it would snow they would disappear! Unfortuantely it snowed where he lived almost half the year! At one point in his life, when he had gotten older, one of his teachers had inspired him to become interested in insects again, though when this happened, it was winter!

Oh no!

And that is the story of the Sad Amatuer Entomologist.

To the Moon!

The moon Europa that is. Supposedly under its thick ice crust there is a constantly moving ocean of liquid water, that could hypothetically harbour life. According to a new article on National Geographic I read, scientists are starting to believe that fissures would allow large amounts of oxygen to enter the body of water, providing a substantial boost for life there. Potentially allowing fish-sized organisms to grow.

Sounds interesting, and I really hope this is how it turns out. A problem that occurs with this though, is that the ice on Europa is so thick it would prove a problem to get to the water under the surface, while still broadcasting a clear signal back to Earth...

Another article I read recently discussed how a satellite that could "see-through" ice and was being used to map the under-ice lakes and land structures of Antarctica. Is it possible that we could use a similar satellite in orbit of Europa, albeit releasing a stronger radar signal?

Time For the Fish Portion of the Blog

So far I've dedicated the majority of the posts in this blog to Arthropods, so I figure I'll take a brief hiatus to discuss the icthylogical portion.

In recent news, a  ten-foot long great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) was found of the coast of North Stradbroke, Australia. It was caught alive in a drum line. Not very exciting. Except, the shark was nearly bitten in half. Experts think the offending shark responsible for the bite was atleast twenty-feet long.

Recruit

I think I'll join the Entomological Society of Alberta...

Answers

Last Saturday I posted about the photo of a wasp my father had taken. I had a chance to talk to him yesterday, and he explained that he took the photo in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia.

I guessed that it was some sort of ichneumon wasp, though I was wrong, and the strange insect was identified by the friendly people at BugGuide. It turns out that this wasp is called Pelecinus polyturator and is one of three species that are in the genus Pelecinus, which happens to also be the only extant genus in the family Pelecinidae.

Here is another photo:

Penecinus polyturator

And since we're on the topic of weird arthropods, I thought we might discuss one of my favourites. The newly discovered "Shocking Pink Dragon Millipede" (Desmoxytes purpurosea). D. purpurosea was discovered in Thailand, and was named third in the top ten species in 2008 by the International Institute of Species Exploration.
Its colour and spines are not the only thing interesting about D. purpurosea, it also smells like almonds. This is due to its ability to produce the extremely toxic substance hydrogen cyanide.

Egg-laying Machines

Or not...

Currently I'm trying to raise mealworm beetles (Tenebrio molitor). I got them from our local petstore for 70% off, which was still horribly overpriced as they were just going to throw them out anyway. From what I hear T. molitor is an egg-laying machine, from what I've seen T. molitor is a mating/cannibalize-your-next-of-kin machine. Its quite strange.

I think it might have been their "habitat". I was keeping them in a 5 gallon container with some sand, rocks and a piece of wood (I never knew a beetle could wedge itself into a hole or crack so well). I took them out of that and put them into a smaller container with milled flax seeds so they could burrow around and hopefully lay some eggs.

We'll see.

EDIT:

Since Mr. Orstan (sorry I couldn't figure out how to get the diaeresis above the "O") asked here are some photos.

How About Dem Apples?

I don't really have anything to post today, so instead I'll post an excerpt from Brain Fuel: 199 Mind-Expanding Inquiries into the Science of Everyday Life by Joe Schwarcz, PhD.

What are "love apples"?

There are two answers to this one. Firstly: tomatoes. The fruit originated in south America and was introduce to Europeans by the conquistadors in the seventeenth century, but it failed to enthuse European palates. At least until some clever marketer labelled the tomato as an aphrodisiac and started referring to it by the Latin expression poma amoris. But it was when the French got into the game and christened the tomato pomme d'amour that tomato sales in Europe really took off. Maybe that's the origin of our expression "she's a hot tomato." the French were perceived to be great lovers, and if they thought the tomato had special properties, well then, it surely must be the case. Americans apparently either did not hear of this connection orb were just too worried about the safety of tomatoes to be charmed by its aphrodisiac potential. They were convinced that tomatoes, belonging to the same plant family as the belladonna, were poisonous. So Americans did not start eating tomatoes until around 1820, when, according to legend, Robert Gibbon Johnson, in what appeared to many to be a public display of bravery, ate a tomato in front of a crowd in Salem, New Jersey.

Tomatoes of course do not have aphrodisiac properties, but they still do deserve our love. they have pretty interesting health properties. the fruit is rich in lycopene and vitamin C; lycopene has been strongly linked with a reduced risk of prostate and cervical cancer.

Answer number two is that in the Elizabethan Age lovers exchanged "love apple," which really were apples. But specially treated apples. A woman would keep a peeled apple in her armpit until it was saturated with her sweat, and then give it to her sweetheart. And guess what? Modern research has shown that there may be compounds in underarm secretions that have some attractive properties for members of the opposite sex.

So there you have it. I don't regret the horrible pun title as well. If you're interested in buying the book the ISBN is:
978-0-385-66602-2

Galactic Taxonomy

I figure that once humans start exploring the galaxy and finding some forms of life, sapient or otherwise, that it will only be a matter of time until binomial nomeclature is applied to those organisms.

Last Friday I posted about the Burgess Shale. One of the main problems with the Burgess organisms is taxonomy. Taxonomists are so reluctant to put them into their own phylums. Instead they become shoe-horned into other groups regardless of how related they are to that group.

I figure that once a new planet or system with life is discovered, they will try to categorize these organisms under the groups currently set up for Earth-based life, even though it is almost certainly going to be different to life on Earth. My worrying is not very substantial though, as i'm sure, that as professionals, they will have their own ideas on how to confront this situation.

I propose the following template for a taxonomic system that goes up to the level of "System":

>System
>>Planet
>>>Domain
>>>>Kingdom
>>>>>Phylum
>>>>>>Class
>>>>>>>Order
>>>>>>>>Family
>>>>>>>>>Genus
>>>>>>>>>>Species

So as an example, the simplified taxonomy of humans:

>System - Solar
>>Planet - Terran
>>>Domain - Eukaryota
>>>>Phylum - Chordata
>>>>>Class - Mammalia
>>>>>>Order - Primates
>>>>>>>Family - Hominidae
>>>>>>>>Genus - Homo
>>>>>>>>>Species - Homo sapiens

As for the problem of life being found on meteorites or asteroids. Under the planet level they could be notarized as "Intrasolar Body [1P/Halley]" for example.

Suprise

Yesterday I had a biology lab dealing with Artemia salina, we would put them in several tubes, simulating different temperatures, pH's and light strengths to determine what their preferences were.

Then we had to count them.

Fortunately for me my biology instructor allowed me to take some home to try and raise. Currently they're in their nauplii stage.

Besides that, my father surprised me with a picture of some sort of ichneumon wasp. I need to find out if the picture was taken in Alberta or Nova Scotia.

It's a Wonderful Life

Currently I'm reading the book Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould (1989). It documents how the reconstruction of the Burgess Shale organisms and environment has "re-shaped" the conventional views of evolution.

Its pretty interesting, it covers the initial discovery and collection of the fossils on the Burgess Shale Formation in the Canadian Rockies of B.C. by Charles Walcott in 1909, and goes on to further describe how Walcott's initial idea of how the organisms there fit into modern phylogeny was wrong.

A chapter or two later it talks about how Harry Whittington and his research students, Simon Conway Morris and Derek Briggs, went about documenting and describing the fossils systematically, revealing that the organisms were not just regular arthropods that could be shoe-horned into existing groups but instead diverse and specialized organisms different then anything living today.

I left of at the discussion and recreation of Wiwaxia corrugata, and will probably continue reading tonight.

Surprisingly, like Gould, my favourite Burgess organism is Opabinia regalis. Now if only we could build some sort of time machine. That would be exciting.

O. regalis

W. corrugata

Wiwaxia corrugata image from stephenjaygould.org
Opabinia regalis image from a random google search

Hidden Treasures: Amber Enclosed Invertebrates

Back in March, National Geographic featured an article on their website about the European Synchrotron Research Facility and how they were using high powered x-rays to look into pieces of opaque amber, and guess what they found...

Invertebrates. dun dun dun.

Personally I find this amazing. Discovering a piece of the fossil record that otherwise would be unknown, hidden within the fossilized resin. But what is really astounding is how much detail is actually preserved on the specimens. Everything from a tiny hair to the veins on a wasp's wing.

One thing I find odd though, is that National Geographic uses photos that are not even on the Institutes website, in fact, National Geographic displays more photos then their actual website does. Quite the conundrum.

Trichomyia lengleti

Image provided by Paul Tafforeau/European Synchrotron Research Facility.

Ant Colonies

One thing I've been interested in recently is making a large ant colony. More specifically a large ant colony utilizing that blue gelatinous substrate that is found in AntWorks(c) ant farms. I've been trying to find a general list of the chemical ingredients but haven't had much luck so far.

I asked my Chemistry instructor who was not sure what it could be and doesn't have the spectroscopy equipment available to see its chemical make-up. I figured it could possibly be an agar solution with some sort of fungicidal agent added to it, and when I presented this idea to my Biology instructor he disagreed stating that the agar would dry up too quickly. As an alternative he figures it could possibly be a chemical called polyacrylamide. While I'm not sure what it is, I do know that I would love to have a large amount of it.

In my region there isn't very many species of ants. The most common ants found are black ants (Formica podzolica) which while not as stunning as the green-head ants (Rhytidoponera metallica) found in Australia, I'm sure that F. podzolica would be amusing in their own way.

Although if I were to start a colony I think I would try to use one of the more interesting ants in my region, the carpenter ant (Camponotus herculeanus). The problem with using C. herculeanus though, is that I'm not sure if it would even try to tunnel in the jelly-like substrate. I know that they don't actually eat the wood that is left over from creating their galleries, so I don't think it would be too big of a stretch...

Here are some pictures:

C. herculeanus

F. podzolica

R. metallica

Achenomorphus Corticinus

Over the past two weeks I had been collecting A. corticinus (paederine rove beetle) specimens that kept frequenting a wet towel in my basement bathroom. It would be a little too dark, cold and damp down there for me, but they seemed to like it enough. I haven't seen any more of them so I assume that they've all been either caught by myself or crushed by my counterpart girlfriend Shauna.

After the two weeks, I had collected 9 specimens ranging in size from ~4-7 mm with elytra ranging from black to brown to red. I was keeping them in a tub that I had received with my mealworm beetles from our local petstore with a handful of leaf-litter from my front lawn. My original intent was to bring them to my Biology instructor who said that we could use them in our invertebrate lab.

To my dismay they expired before I actually had a chance to get them to the school! I'm not sure why either, it is quite the mystery. Just my luck I guess.

I still ended up bringing them, and hopefully my instructor will preserve them.

I should probably get some ethanol so I can begin preserving things myself...