Eat Plankton

Check out the looming mouth of the basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus). This behemoth is the world's second largest fish (second only to the whale shark). Despite its endangered status, it is found in all of the world's temperate oceans.

That mouth balloons open so that it might dine on whatever floats into it, which is typically a wide variety of plankton.

There are a lot of athletes out there who try to bulk up using steroids, HCG, etc. I have a tip for you who are so inclined to cheat: take a hint from the animal world, especially from the largest pelagics and marine mammals. Eat plankton. Try cruising the blue waters of the ocean with your mouth wide open for a few months and see what happens.

Photo source: Knuttz

How Does a Bat Fly?

The obvious answer to this question is that they flap their wings. But the more complete answer is intriguing. Here's a video from LiveScience.com illustrating how bats fly differently from birds. I'm looking forward to the industrial applications of this new finding; I could really use a bat-shaped flying car.

Thanks for the link, Ida.

Only One Way

Scarab beetles are one of those creatures that produce comely adults from abhorent larvae. This is very much the case with the white grub.

These grubs (from a variety of scarab beetles) are a plague found in many lawns in the northeastern US (and no doubt many other places on the planet). If you get patchy dead spots on your lawn, then you know what I mean. Unfortunately, they are very resistant to pesticides. The only way to get rid of them is to dig through the topsoil of your entire lawn by hand, extract each grub as you find it, and eat it. The gastric juices of the human digestive system are the only way to kill them.

Thanks for the photos, Holly.

Photo source: University of Connecticut

Insects and Spiders Galore

Jack sent me this link to an amazing Dark Roasted Blend post on Glamorous Insects. And wouldn't you know it, the bulk of the photos belong to our very own Igor Siwanowicz.

Here are but a few of the photos. I strongly recommend, especially if you are an insectophile, that you click the links above and look at all the others. Food for the eyes, my friends.

Tell Me It Isn't True

I am no photoshop expert. But I'm hoping that this is doctored. I don't know if I can live in a world in which butterfly sandwiches are served and eaten. Photo source: Knuttz.net

Prepare to Feast

Below is a photo of what a splash of seawater looks like under the microscope, magnified 25 times. You're looking at a group of plankton. Now, plankton is a catch-all term for a variety of animal and plant life. Plankton is defined by its size, and by the fact that they are unable to swim against ocean currents. Plankton includes:

Marine viruses (the femtoplankton), microscopic algae and bacteria, tiny worms and crustaceans, as well as the egg, juvenile and larval forms of larger animals and plants such as seaweeds, crabs, lobsters, fish and urchins. Because they drift with ocean currents, even large jellyfish are classed as plankton.

Plankton, both plant and animal in nature, are the bread-and-butter of the oceanic food chain. And there's plenty of it. So, the next time you're in the ocean, strap on your bib, open wide, and prepare to feast.

Thanks for the link, Ida. Photo source: DailyMail

Yak Riding

I have no idea where this photo was taken, or what festival/holy day/cultural event sponsored it. All I know is that the foot in the lower right-hand corner fleeing the duo is what makes this photo. I love the idea of a monkey riding a yak and chasing people down. Once again, I root for the monkey/yak team. Photo source: Knuttz.net

Sockeye

I believe this is a male sockeye salmon (aka red salmon, blueback salmon, and kokanee) preparing to spawn. These fish have an interesting life cycle. They hatch typically in a lake or river, spend a few years there, and some either make their way to the ocean, where they range from Japan to Siberia, to Alaska, to Canada, or remain in their freshwater homes all over northwestern North America.

When breeding time approaches, the ocean-living salmon return to their lake of birth, following their nose and the sun. Once they hit fresh water, their scales turn red and the males grow some gnarly fangs (see below).

I, for one, am really, really glad that I don't have to turn red, grow fangs, and return to my birth hospital to spawn. My wife would have a hard time with that.

Photo credit: Jeremy Sarrow © California Academy of Sciences