Egyptian Giant Solpugids (Camel Spider) Camel spiders became an Internet sensation during the Iraq war of 2003, when rumors of their bloodthirsty nature began to circulate online. Many tales were accompanied with photos purporting to show spiders half the size of a human. For many years, Middle Eastern rumors have painted camel spiders as large, venomous predators, as fast as a running human, with a voracious appetite for large mammals. The camel spider's history of misinformation begins with a misidentification. Camel spiders, also called wind scorpions and Egyptian giant solpugids (SAHL-pyoo-jids), are only about 6 inches (15 centimeters) long. Camel spiders are not deadly to humans (though their bite is painful), but they are vicious predators that can visit death upon insects, rodents, lizards, and small birds.
FEI Image Contest 2013 Puts Amazing Electron Microscope PHOTOS In Spotlight Viewing something through an electron microscope may feel as if you're viewing it for the first time. The incredible instrument offers a close-up glimpse of whatever you choose to look at -- even tiny, everyday things, such as insects, crystals, and germs. Each year scientific instruments company FEI holds a contest to showcase such images -- and a call for submissions in the 2013 photo contest already went out. The company is partnering with National Geographic on the contest, and also on a film titled " Mysteries of the Unseen World ." Below, check out some images that were submitted this month. Loading Slideshow Beetle Head A frontal view of a myrmecophilous ground beetle with the antennae removed. Also on HuffPost:
“Sombrero” mountain growth in the Andes rides on rising magma plumes Most of us are familiar with igneous rocks that form in volcanic settings, as lava crystallizes into rock while cooling quickly. It’s easy enough to envision this process since it occurs right before our eyes or at least some cameras (and besides, thousands of science fairs across the country probably display a baking-soda-and-vinegar analog each year). But what about the igneous rocks that form deep below the surface—like the beautiful granites that are so popular for kitchen countertops? Geologists have argued about how this material rises for a long time. But two other models have garnered greater followings. In recent years, evidence of dike-fed igneous intrusions has been mounting, but clear evidence of diapirs has been elusive. Beneath this area of the Andes (near the Chile-Argentina-Bolivia border) lies what may be the largest active magma body in the world—a 100 kilometer wide zone almost 20 kilometers beneath the surface.
The snake whose bite can send you back through puberty I'm sorry but I have to get on my soap box for just a sec...ahem* In response to your statement regarding snake and their bites killing people in the second paragraph, "That's unpleasant, but we already knew that about most snake bites. " As a conservationist, nature boy, amateur herpetologist and all-around good guy, I must protest the implication in that sentence. Most snakes are not venomous and most snake bites are hence harmless. In fact, most snake bites are a result of unnecessary contact, agitation or improper (and needless) handling. I hate that snakes get such a bad rap, and let's face it, it's mostly because of their appearance that they've been demonized in various cultures and histories...also because we have an evolutionary response to be creeped out by potentially harmful forms (spiders, snakes, bright red berries). Anywho, my point is to give snakes a chance, folks.
Feeling Down? Take a Walk in the Woods Do you find yourself ruminating on the all the bad things in life? Psychologists know that's one of the key behaviors that sustains depression, so addressing patterns of rumination is a serious issue. Now, researchers have found a straightforward, if not necessarily easy, way to avoid mulling things over to excess: take a walk, but not down a crowded street; to be effective, it has to be out in nature. To a psychologist, rumination means going over and over everything that's wrong in a person's life, whether it's a bad job or a stubbed toe. Rumination is closely connected to depression, and it has a habit of alienating people from those who might be able to support them. "These findings support the view that natural environments may confer psychological benefits to humans." Mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy are two good ways to treat depression, but Gregory Bratman and his colleagues wondered about a rather less formal approach: walking. Advertisement — Continue reading below
Tinkerbella nana The family Mymaridae includes more than 1,400 species of diminutive insects called fairyflies. They are not flies at all, but tiny wasps that deposit their eggs inside the eggs of other insects. Most of these parasitoids are found in tropical latitudes and the southern hemisphere, where they attack unborn offspring of true bugs, beetles, flies, barkflies and dragonflies. The common name fairyfly was no doubt inspired by the small size, delicate form and wispy wings with long posterior fringes. A new species of fairyfly, Tinkerbella nana, has been described by John T Huber of Natural Resources Canada and John S Noyes of London's Natural History Museum. Fossils of Meganeuridae , giant dragonfly-like insects from the carboniferous period 300 million years ago, have sparked a number of debates over the upper size limits of insects, often attributed to oxygen concentrations in the atmosphere. So how small can an insect be?
Dinner’s Revenge: mealworms that survive in the stomach, then eat their way out of predators "Within ten to twenty seconds," came the report, "the mealworm is chewing out of the animal’s stomach.” Photo: Gilles San Martin (cc) Can the eaten eat back? The darkling beetle, small and shy with an understated matte-black carapace, is better known as its adolescent self, the mealworm. I heard about the phenomenon SECOND-HAND from wildlife biologist Tom Pitchford. Mealworm ranchers scoff. As so often is the case with apocryphal tales like this, finding someone who knows someone who’s seen it is easy. Tracy is skeptical. However, like most people who work with captive reptiles and amphibians, Tracy has trouble completely dismissing the stories. Professor Tracy has borrowed an endoscope. Tracy has no funding for the experiment, just enthusiasm. “And this is Frank and Terry, from OMED,” says Tracy as two more men show up in the lab. Tracy holds a bullfrog in sitting position while Lee feeds the scope into its mouth and down to the stomach. The frog is sedated but awake. “Is it chewing?”
untitled Why do women menstruate? Menstruation is a peculiar phenomenon that women go through on a roughly monthly cycle, and it’s not immediately obvious from an evolutionary standpoint why they do it. It’s wasteful — they are throwing away a substantial amount of blood and tissue. It seems hazardous; ancestrally, in a world full of predators and disease, leaving a blood trail or filling a delicate orifice with dying tissue seems like a bad idea. One assumption some people might make is that that is just the way mammalian reproduction works. Phylogeny showing the distribution of menstruation in placental mammals and the inferred states of ancestral lineages. I suppose we could blame The Curse on The Fall, but then this phylogeny would suggest that Adam and Eve were part of a population of squirrel-like proto-primates living in the early Paleocene. There are many explanations floating around. A new paper by Emera, Romero, and Wagner suggests an interesting new idea. That’s a hint. Bonus! (Also on Sb) P.S.
Microplastic Particles Move Up Marine Food Chain on B.C. Coast Plastic fibres and particles in West Coast waters are being consumed and passed up the food chain by tiny marine creatures that apparently mistake them for food, according to a new study from the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre. Researcher Peter Ross and his colleagues found plastic litter in the digestive systems of two key species of plankton that are eaten in large numbers by salmon and baleen whales. Adult salmon returning to the Strait of Georgia may be consuming up to 91 plastic particles a day by eating plankton, and juveniles leaving fresh water up to seven particles a day, while a humpback whale could ingest more than 300,000 particles a day, according to the researchers’ estimates. Several recent studies have documented ingestion of plastics in the wild by fish, bivalves and crustaceans. “Most salmon species feed heavily on (plankton) during their juvenile and adult life stages,” said Ross. However, shellfish consumed in their entirety may pose a risk.
Whip Scorpion We've seen the elegant Scorpion with their often rather dainty pincers, now let's see their relatives, the chunky Whip Scorpions with their own brutal, barbarous claws. Whip Scorpions, also known oddly as Vinegaroons, are indeed arachnids with thick, hefty bodies. Most of them are 3 cm (1.2 in) long or a bit under, but the biggest ones can reach 8.5 cm (3.3 in). But check out those claws! With these they can grapple with small insect and millipede prey, though the bigger ones can also catch small vertebrates. Whatever the prey, the Whip Scorpion simply grabs it and crushes and mushes it in those formidable pincers. Like the Scorpion, the Whip Scorpion cares for her eggs and carries her young on her back. Young Whip Scorpions take about 3 years to reach adulthood, after which they have about 4 more years of life left in them.