Old Weblog - August 2003
Animal behaviourists usually expect males to compete with each other for mates, with females preferring the larger, more aggressive or better-endowed winners. But this is not so for certain salmon and quail.
The oldest known strand of spider silk has been found, preserved in Lebanese amber. It dates from the Early Cretaceous Period, more than 120 million years ago.
Scientists believe the shape of the penis may have evolved to help men remove the semen of love rivals during sex.
I'm usually pretty sceptical about all these evolutionary 'explanations' for just about any human characteristic you care to mention (especially those that mention sex), but this one does at least have a ring of plausibility about it: sexual organs are highly variable between most species, and are often the easiest way to tell similar species apart.
Scientists in India have discovered a new dinosaur species that roamed the Narmada valley 65 million years ago.
The upper temperature limit at which life can exist has been extended to 121°C, 8°C higher than the previous record holder. The hardy organism, given the preliminary name Strain 121, was found at a "black smoker" hydrothermal vent on the floor of the northeast Pacific Ocean.
This brainless mud worm [Xenoturbella] is a long-lost relative of human beings, scientists have discovered. It appears the slug-like creature found living at the bottom of a Swedish lake shares its ancestry with people… Scientists hope studying the worm will give them a better understanding of vertebrate evolution.
When I first read this, I thought it was stating the bleedin' obvious: if you go back far enough, all species have a common ancestor, so of course we're related to Xenoturbella. But what this research apparently shows is that Xenoturbella, like vertibrates, belong to a group called the deuterostomes, making them more closely related to vertibrates (and hence us) than to the bivalve molluscs, to which they were previously thought to be closely related.
I'll shut up now.
Hunters from Iceland's Marine Research Institute have killed the first of 38 minke whales they intend to take from local waters over the next six weeks.
All in the name of science, allegedly.
A few years ago, thanks to a chance encounter with a bristle-worm fossil, Andrew Parker, an Australian marine biologist, thought he had an explanation for the Cambrian Explosion. His book, In the Blink of an Eye, asserts that the event that changed the world was, in fact, the arrival of vision.
Interesting idea. The article includes an interview with Parker.
A mysterious, 41ft by 19ft (12.4m by 5.4m) gelatinous mass of flesh that washed ashore in southern Chile this June came from a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), not a giant octopus (Octopus giganteus) as some sleuths suspected.
Scientists working in the jungles of Venezuela have discovered 10 new species of fish and a previously unknown species of shrimp… The scientists are now calling on the Venezuelan Government to protect the Caura River Basin, where the species were found, designating the 4,500-hectare (11,115-acre) area a wildlife reserve.
Humanity's time spent fleeing from predators is almost finished, which in the long run may be as tragic as being eaten.
Marvin Minsky reviews David Quammen's new book, Monster of God.
Vigilant Indian airport officials have found nearly 1,000 endangered star tortoises crammed into three pieces of hand luggage aboard a flight to Singapore. They believe the 960 rare animals were destined to become delicacies served up by restaurants in the far-east.
In which yours truly shows off his dimly remembered classical education in a specious discussion about a species' name.