Amazing Nature

[pharvey]

Well, we have the WOW Science Thread, but I thought we could do something on nature. Just for starters, some ''natural'' camouflage - can you spot the buggers......

Geko Madagaska.JPG (65.62 KiB) Viewed 38429 times

Katydid Costa Rica.JPG (80.27 KiB) Viewed 38429 times

Lizard Namibia.JPG (71.54 KiB) Viewed 38429 times

[dtaai-maai]

That last one's not much cop - she sticks out like a sore thumb!

[sandman67]

Since I was a wee nipper trainee Northern Oik at my grandfathers knee I was brought up with an eternal sense of the wonder of the natural world around us. Some of my biggest "heroes" are naturalists like David Bellamy and David Attenborough....I remember still watchng Life On Earth locked to the TV screen with my dad.

Anyways..... did you know that despite being smart as buttons, having skin that can change colour faster than our eyes can recognise the change, tentacles that can accurately target and hit a moving target in mcroseconds, incredbly fast reaction times, and eyes much better than ours, octupii dont have a brain? They have some sort of distributed neural network of brainlets all over the place.

Talkng of smart stuff...one of the smartest types of bird is the Raven. Although for years people just thought they were orrible eye peckng gallows birds it turns out your average Raven makes a sneaky bottletop nibbling Magpie look like Rick Perry after a night on the hillbilly heroin. Recent studies suggest not only are they smart as knives, they also have a complex language they use to communicate with each other to share information. Who would have guessed all that Rawk Rawk meant something? Seems old Odin made the right choice when he employed two of them to keep an eye on what the humans were up to.

Another mad nature factlet....the largest living organism on Earth is a mushroom. It seems that mushroom growths are interconnected by micro-rootlet systems and what we see as patches of mushrooms here and there are all one big sodding mushroom. There is one in the US that is bigger than Texas.

Aaaand finally..... ever wonder where we all came from? Well, seems that science has traced complex lifeforms all the way back down the evolutionary tree, past hominids, past primates, past mammals, past dinosaurs and lizards, past lungfish, past fish, past 8 foot long sea scorpions and ammonites and trilobites and on and on and on to..... our great times a million ancestor....Stromatolites.

The incredible bit? If you go to Australia you can still see examples of them...here is one. Say hello to our ancestor, one of the oldest forms of complex life on earth.

stromatolites_lge.jpg (65.07 KiB) Viewed 38404 times

[pharvey]

That last one's not much cop - she sticks out like a sore thumb!

definitely sore - not so much the thumb though..... I'm tending to speak at a slightly higher octave these days!!


Sandman wrote Anyways..... did you know that despite being smart as buttons, having skin that can change colour faster than our eyes can recognise the change, tentacles that can accurately target and hit a moving target in mcroseconds, incredbly fast reaction times, and eyes much better than ours, octupii dont have a brain? They have some sort of distributed neural network of brainlets all over the place.

That I find incredible SM - thanks for that.

[pharvey]

Proper mate - pity the human world fails to follow suit at times.

[Frank Hovis]

I got sent this link, it's hardly a marvel of nature, more a marvel of the human brain.
I didn't quite get it until I scrolled down to the picture 'the right way up'.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... skull.html

[pharvey]

Did anyone find the bugger in the 2nd photo though?

[Nereus]

Did anyone find the bugger in the 2nd photo though?

His nose and eyes about 2 inches from the bottom.

[pharvey]

Did anyone find the bugger in the 2nd photo though?

His nose and eyes about 2 inches from the bottom.

Incredible though isn't it?

[Nereus]

Did anyone find the bugger in the 2nd photo though?

His nose and eyes about 2 inches from the bottom.

Incredible though isn't it?

Yeah! So let us in on the secret of the last one.

(or is that you just behind her rear end )

[pharvey]

^^ The last one is the Long Haired General..... was meant as a bit of a joke, but could''t delete the picture........ I have no doubt she will delete now my last remaining testicle!!

[sandman67]

PH

re Octupii and no brains....saw it on a NatGeo program a month or so ago. It seems jellyfish have a similar but less well developed network and rudimentary eyes as well...and do have intelligent reactve capabilty. Amazing eh?

The camoflage stuff reminded me of this classic comedy sketch

[sandman67]

Heres a mad fact I just heard on the radio

The part of your pre-frontal cortex that controls impulsive decision makng doesnt fully develop till you are in your late 20s.

Now that explains a lot about my rotating cycle trainwreck life till I was in my 30s....

So....next time your kid does something dumb cut em some slack....their brain isnt working right yet! It also explans why those fads keep on a rotating and the posters on the bedroom wall and clothes in the wardrobe change more often than the weather.

[JD]

This guy has to be the all time king of Nature films, the current 'Frozen Planet' series is just spectacular.

[pharvey]

Yeah! So let us in on the secret of the last one.

(or is that you just behind her rear end )

Actually posted in error, but couldn't bloody delete it. Nevertheless it does demonstrate my stealthy ''undergrowth'' approach to the Long Haired General..... sometimes required in times of her short arm tactic when approaching from the front.