Dear Kitty. Some blog

Today, not just news of a fish dying in Zeeland, the Netherlands.

From daily bndestem, about the same province:

FLUSHING - In the Arsenal aquarium in Flushing, this Monday thirty seahorses were born.

The creatures are smaller than one centimeter. The last time that seahorses were born in the Arsenal was a few years ago. They also never have been born so late in the year.

In seahorses, the males get pregnant. The babies grow for four weeks in the pouch of their father. Then they are no longer cared for, and they have to find their own food. They eat plankton only. After two months, they are five centimter long, they will start eating solid food and will be allowed back into the aquarium with their parents.

Yesterday, an Atlantic pomfret beached in Wissenkerke, Zeeland, the Netherlands. By the time it was discovered, herring gulls had eaten parts of it.

Today, another Atlantic pomfret beached in Katwijk, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands. About 50cm long; also partially already eaten.

This is a citril finch video.

From daily The Independent in Britain:

Record year for Britain’s twitchers

Birds from Asia and US among highest number of species spotted in a single year

By Lewis Smith

Tuesday, 29 December 2009

Twitchers look set to break the record for the most species sighted by British birdwatchers in a year.

Figures released today show that in 2008, 407 different species are confirmed. Up to 11 more are likely to be added to the list. The total of 418 bird species recorded in Britain in a year beats the previous high of 412 in 2004. Many of the winged visitors sighted, some for just a few minutes, included exotic visitors from across the globe.

Three had never been seen before in Britain: the Alder flycatcher from North America, the Yelkouan shearwater from the Mediterranean and the citril finch, from the Alps.

To the Stulp today.

A goldcrest, hanging upside down from a small coniferous tree branch. A jay. Great spotted woodpecker and nuthatch sounds.

Today, still ice on the Pluismeer lake; so, no little grebes or black-necked grebes now.

This is a video about a squirrel in the USA.

This video is called Birth of a baby orang-utan.

From VOVNews:

Fossils discovered in Tuyen Quang province

December, 25 2009

Vietnamese and French archaeologists have discovered a palaeontological site dating back to over 100,000 years in Da Den Cave in the northern mountainous province of Tuyen Quang.

Quan Van Dung, Director of the Tuyen Quang Museum, said on December 24 that the scientists have found hundreds of artefacts, including bones and teeth of pigs, long-tailed macaques, rhinoceros, deer, orang-utans and other animals.

The archaeologists have also found fossil vestiges of Cobosafia anthropoid, proving the existence of human beings in Tuyen Quang province since the dawn of mankind’ s history, he added.

Dung said that the Tuyen Quang Museum is building plans to protect the relic site and coordinating with domestic and foreign scientists to continue excavating in the coming time.

In Tuyen Quang province, archaeologists have so far discovered thousands of artefacts in nearly 10 sites home to primitive man. The palaeontological site in Da Den Cave houses the most artefacts in the province.

From Nature:

23 December 2009

Fossil evidence of early reptiles‘ last meal

Insect remains found in the mouths of early vertebrate fossils

Janelle Weaver

In the caves of a hilly Oklahoma ghost town, researchers have found what may be the first evidence of preserved insect remains in the mouths of fossilized vertebrates. The find is compelling evidence that early reptiles, the equivalent of modern-day lizards, fed on insects.

Sean Modesto, a biologist at Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia, Canada, and his colleagues found pieces of arthropod skeleton on the teeth inside two 280-million-year-old skulls of a species of reptile they have yet to fully describe. They report the discovery in the journal Biology Letters1.

One skull contained a cuticle with five segments that seemed to be part of an antenna, and the other had a long cuticle fragment that was narrow at one end and broader at the tip. This could have been part of a rear appendage.

“It is extremely uncommon to find the remains of organisms in the mouths of fossilized predators,” says Matthew Vickaryous, who studies the anatomy of fossil vertebrates at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. “To the best of my knowledge, this is a one of a kind find.”

Lucky find

Modesto and his collaborators made this discovery entirely by chance. “You don’t expect to see the last meal lodged in the teeth of fossils,” Modesto says. “The modern equivalent is finding a popcorn kernel shell in the tooth of an ancient Mayan.”

The two skulls come from an enigmatic group called parareptiles, which first appeared nearly 300 million years ago and for the most part became extinct by the end of the Permian period, with just a few species lingering into the age of dinosaurs.

“To have pieces of both vertebrate and invertebrate preserved at the same time is very unusual,” Vickaryous says. Vertebrate palaeontologists may overlook small pieces of invertebrate remains when excavating spectacular vertebrate fossils. Beyond the initial detection, preserving the remains requires careful recovery and preparation, he adds.

In younger specimens, researchers have found mollusc shell fragments in the gut of a fossil sea turtle2, preserved fish remains in a bird’s stomach3, lizard and mammal skeletons in fossil dinosaur stomachs4 and dinosaur remains in a fossil mammal’s stomach5. In fossil reptiles from the Permian, scientists have found plant material in the gut6 and reptile bones in the mouth7.

But little other evidence is available for the dietary habits of the vertebrates that lived during the Permian, says Conrad Labandeira, palaeoecologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. “This paper may be more important in the long run than the original description of the fossil bones.”

Insectivorous evidence

Roy Beckemeyer, palaeoentomologist at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum in Lawrence, has studied Permian insect fossils in Oklahoma. He evaluated photographs of the finds and verified that the fragments were from an arthropod. “We know of roughly 200 species of insects in this area during that time,” Beckemeyer says. “There’s a very good chance that these reptiles were insectivorous.”

Scientists had long suspected that early reptiles were insectivorous because of the shape of their teeth, which are sharp and curve inward, making them ideal for piercing insect skeletons and holding struggling prey in place. But that evidence is indirect because it relies on comparisons between extinct and living animals.

“It’s pretty much smoking-gun type of evidence when you actually have the organism in the part of the anatomy responsible for feeding,” Labandeira says. “It’s very compelling evidence that closes the case.”

References
1. Modesto, S. P. , Scott, D. M. & Reisz, R. R. Biol. Lett. 5, 838-840 (2009).
2. Kear, B. P. Biol. Lett. 2, 113-115 (2006).
3. Mayr, G. J. Ornithol. 145, 281-286 (2004).
4. Currie, P. J. & Chen, P.-J. Can. J. Earth Sci. 38, 1705-1727 (2001).
5. Hu, Y. , Meng, J. , Wang, Y. & Li, C. Nature 433, 149-152 (2005).
6. Karlsruhe, W. M. & Sues, H.-D. Paläontol. Zeitschr. 67, 169-176 (1993).
7. Eaton, T. H. Jr American Museum Novitates No. 2169 (1964).

Some of the first animals to venture onto land commandeered empty seashells for protection, according to an April report in Geology: here.

This video is called Leatherbacks: Litoghahira, Solomon Islands.

From the University of Exeter in England:

Turtles‘ Christmas journey tracked by scientists

December 23, 2009

The journeys of two marine turtles around the world’s oceans will be available to view online this Christmas, thanks to a new research project launched by the University of Exeter.

Noelle and Darwinia are two adult female leatherback turtles that nest in Gabon, Western Central Africa. The research team has fitted each turtle with a small satellite tracking device, which enables the scientists to monitor their precise movements and observe where and how deep they dive. The tracking began on 7 December 2009 and so far the turtles have travelled 800 miles between them.

Their progress can now be viewed online: www.seaturtle.org/tracking and people can also get the latest news on the turtles by signing-up for daily email alerts. Noelle and Darwinia are members of the world’s largest nesting population of leatherback turtles, but their environment is threatened. The waters around Gabon are increasingly subject to industrial fishing and oil exploitation, particularly from nations outside West Africa, including countries in Europe.

Leatherbacks are of profound conservation concern around the world after populations in the Indo-Pacific crashed by more than 90 percent in the 1980s and 1990s. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists leatherback turtles as critically endangered globally, but detailed population assessments in much of the Atlantic, especially Africa, are lacking.

Still cold today, still snow on the pavements.

However, the river is still open.

Five ring-necked parakeets flying overhead, calling.

This is a video of a ring-necked parakeet in the Vondelpark, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

This video is called David Attenborough - Animal behaviour of the bowerbird - BBC wildlife.

From Cosmos Magazine in Australia:

Eight weird instances of animal sex

Wednesday, 23 December 2009

by Cat O’Donovan

SYDNEY: The animal world is full of strange diets, peculiar social structures and, of course, weird mating behaviours. From courting to intercourse, animal reproduction involves dramas that make the love lives of daytime soap operas seem tame.

GRAND DESIGNS

British TV naturalist David Attenborough described bowerbirds of Papua New Guinea as having “a passion for interior decoration”. To impress the ladies, a male constructs his bower, or courtship arena, out of twigs and decorates it with colourful objects such as feathers, beetle wing cases, flowers and chewed up vegetation. If the female is suitably impressed by his decorating skills - and his courtship dance out front - she takes up residence in the bower and mates with him.

GARDEN OF LOVE

The bright red velvet mite (Trombidium holosericeum) is a teeny gardener. Males deposit sperm in small mounds on sticks and twigs, then carefully construct an intricate silken trail to it. When a female stumbles across an impressive ‘garden’ of silk, she follows the trail and if she approves, she’ll sit on the sperm and fertilise her eggs. But watch out! If a rival male strolls past a garden, he’ll rip it up. All’s fair in love and gardening.

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE?

You’ve heard of birds dancing and singing to attract a mate, but what about spiders? When a male jumping spider (Habronattus dossenus) sees a potential mate, he pulls out his best moves, and provides the music too. A U.S. study used a laser vibrometer to record a male spider’s rhythmic repertoire. The spider moved his abdomen to create ‘thumps’, ’scrapes’ and ‘buzzes’ in time to his crazy foreleg-waving dance. He’s bad.

SICKLY SWEET

Several species of parrot, including pet budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus), regurgitate food as part of a courtship ritual. Unlike humans, it’s not because they’re nervous or have had too much to drink: it’s a sign of male quality! If he vomits up a large heap, it suggests he’s fit, healthy and a good provider for a family. The more he chucks up, the more likely he is to get lucky. Not so likely to impress human females, though.

FIGHT CLUB

Sex can be strenuous, especially for haermaphroditic flatworms, such as Pseudoceros bifurcus. During sex, the flatworms use their penises as weapons in a battle to inseminate each other. When one stabs the other, it injects sperm into the body cavity and - hey presto! - the winner becomes the de facto male. The loser has to invest time and energy developing the eggs, whilst the winner can move on to their next sex battle immediately.

BODYGUARD

A team of researchers at the University of California, in Berkeley, tracked a pygmy species of octopus called Abdopus aculeatus during mating season. Not only did each male octopus court and guard his selected female (they preferred the larger ladies that could produce more eggs), he also fought off rival males that came too close. To mate, the male extends a modified arm to the female, and uses it to to pass sperm packets to her. It almost looks like they’re holding hands.

TWO-IN-ONE

Marsupials split from placental mammals over 100 million years ago. So while they share a lot of mammalian characteristics like fur and breast feeding, there are some notable differences. One is in their genitals. Male opossums, for example, have a bifurcated penis, meaning it has two ends. Why? To go in the female’s two vaginas of course! Both are fully functional, with fertilisation possible through both. During birth, the vaginas join to form one larger birth canal.

NIL BY MOUTH

In these species, fertilisation depends on oral sex. Cichlid fish are found in the Rift Valley lakes of Africa, such as Lake Victoria and Lake Malawi. They carry their eggs or young in their mouths to protect them until they are big enough to fend for themselves. To achieve fertilisation by stealth, the male of some species has egg-shaped spots on his anal fin. When a female approaches and attempts to gather up the ‘eggs’, the male ejaculates and the female gets a mouthful of sperm to fertilise her eggs.