Now that the crisis of anyone noticing my looming laziness has been averted: More neat animals!
This week's series is of the spiny variety. Not, however, in the sense of having pointy bits (unfortunately). Nope, we're going to look at those wonderful back-bone filled animals we all know and love!
That's right: Phylum Chordata! (well, all of these guys also belong to subphylum Vertebrata, but I'm going to ignore that part.)
8. Homo sapiens: I can't remember the common name for these bald monkeys, but I'm sure it'll come to me.
Now, some may accuse me of specicism for putting us on the list of most interesting animals of 2005, but it's actually been a pretty interesting year for us. Primarily: the discovery of Homo floresiensis near Australia. The jury is still out on whether or not they are a separate species, or just a branch of H. Sapiens.
Also a hot topic: the exploration of which genes have been under the most recent selection pressure, including those affecting regulation of brain function.
7. family Gasterosteidae: commonly known as sticklebacks.
These little guys are a hot item this year because of plates they lack. There is substantial evidence of multiple speciation events leading to several different species of fresh-water sticklebacks, from independent colonizations. However, one of the features common to the fresh-water varieties is the reduction in the number of bony plates on the fish. This has now been tied to the change in frequency of a single gene. This is a big issue primarily because it's speciation cropping out of a change in one gene. The traditional theories involve far more gradual processes.
6. The Welsh fighting pony.
I know this thing exists, because Swambo mentioned finding it at one point, and the mere idea of cock-fighting midget horses is cool enough to make the list. There is now a prize for anyone who can find me references and pictures of this mythical beast! The prize shall entail a glowing endorsement of your wonderfulness on this very blog! who could ask for more?
Here's a teaser photo for the topic of our next bunch of animals, this time next "whenever the hell I get around to it":
5 comments:
My money is on turtles, cause they get all the fun of being either a true anapsid (the last anapsid) or a messed up diapsid (Turtles need to be diapsids like they need a hole in their head... well actually two holes) Then we have the fun little question as to where do they come from when we first find them in the mid Triassic they look like turtles. The question is, are they really the offspring of the Pareiasauriae or Procolophonidae? Also what is with the bringing the girdles inside the ribs?
Oh and there are two cooler inverts then you posted on that are alive, one is the ice worm (the only animal to actually gain energy as it gets cold) and the Alcon Blue Butterfly who in caterpillar form tricks ants into caring for it for up to 2 years...
Diapsid - amniotes (tetrapods with an amnion in the egg) characterized by the presence of two temporal fenestra (holes in the head) used in the suspension and innervations of the dentry bone (the lower jaw)
ex: birds, snakes, iguanas
Anapsid - amniotes lacking in temporal fenestra. Only apparent extant (living) member in the turtles.
Synapsid - amniotes with one temporal fenestra. Only the mammals show this as a feature in extant organisms
Pareiasauriae (mid to upper Permian) -considered to be a herbivore, has skeletal coverings composed of dermal bone, also are as ugly as sin.
Procolophonidae (lower Permian - Lower Triassic) -herbivore with crushing dentition, has otic notch embayment of the quadrate
I'm trying my damnedest to avoid technical language on the main post. If you need definitions for anything in the post, don't be afraid to post. It's pretty easy for me to just include terms i've worked with for years without thinking about if others can understand.
In other news: Just because I went with the chordates already, doesn't mean I'm finished with the inverts. In fact, the ice-worms will probably make it on to the list, because the annelid worms are bitchin'. I'm really not following any specific order in listing these, other than trying to keep together phyla.
I do wish I had included the horseshoe crap in the Arthopoda however, simply because they look so damned neat.
the horseshoe crap, Eric? Care to tell us anything? Hmm?
So .... how 'bout that new Prime Minister?
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