Crocodile Tongues

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

Crocodile's tongues are attached to the tops of their mouths, and are unmovable.  For more information click here.

I've only seen crocodiles in zoos.  Have you seen a crocodile, and if so where do you see it?

Lewis and Clark, and the Whale Skeleton

Photo of whale skeleton courtesy 123rf.com

On this day in 1806, Lewis and Clark discovered a skeleton of a 105 feet long blue whale that had washed up from the Pacific Ocean onto the banks of Ecola Creek in what is modern-day Cannon Beach, Oregon.  They discovered the Tillamook Indians nearby boiling the blubber, and purchased some blubber from them.  Clark named this creek Ecola Creek or E co-la, which means Whale Creek.  (All the links in this paragraph are relevant to the expedition.)  For more information, click here, and click here, and click here.

Meriwether Lewis is a very, very distant relative of mine, so I probably have a little greater than average interest in the expedition.  What events in history most interest you and why?

Frozen for Years...

Photo courtesy ARKive

The Siberian Salamanders have an anti-freeze-like compound in their blood that allows them to survive in up to 50-degrees below zero Farenheit.  They can remain frozen for years, then thaw and begin breeding.  For more information, click here , and click here.

If you have seen a salamander, where did you see it?  Do you know what kind of salamander it was?

Animal with Transparent Eyelids!

Photo courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk

Beavers are found in North America, Europe, and Asia.  They can hold their breath underwater for 15 minutes, and have transparent eyelids that act like goggles!  For more information click here.

Life on Europa

Photo of Jupiter and it's moons courtesy 123rf.com

New evidence suggests that there may be life in an underground ocean on Europa, Jupiter's ice-covered moon.

For more information, see the article on the website of UniverseToday.com.

Fish Schools' Rules

Photo courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk

New studies of the movement of schools of fish indicate that each fish in the school eyes only the one or two nearest neighbors, and moves in the direction and with the same speed of their nearest neighbor(s).

For more information, see the article in ScienceNews.org.

Where is the Driest Desert on Earth?

Photo courtesy of FreeImageFinder.com

The Atacama Desert is a 600-mile (1,000 km) strip of land on the South American Pacific Coast, running through Chile and Peru.  Outlying less-dry areas of the desert run through Bolivia and Argentina.  The Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world with no rainfall having been recorded since rainfall records began being kept.  It is also the highest desert on earth, and one of the coldest deserts on earth.  Since certain bacteria and sea-life fossils have been found in gypsum boulders (similar to rocks on the planet Mars), it is believed that the Atacama Desert was once underwater.

For more information in addition to the above links, see the websites of the Gypsum Association and the ALMA telescope, which is the Atacama Large Millimeter Array telescope erected in the Atacama Desert by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Have You Heard of Herds of Seahorses?

Yes, a group of seahorses is called a herd.  Seahorses are carnivorous fish found in shallow tropical waters.  They do not have teeth or a stomach, so food passes quickly through them, which requires that they constantly eat to stay alive.   A two-week old seahorse can eat up to 4,000 brine shrimp per day.  The average lifespan of seahorses is one to five years.  The scientific name is Hippocampus, and there are over 50 kinds of seahorses.  The different kinds of seahorses range in size from 1/2 inch to 8 inches.

Mating occurs year-round, usually under a full moon.  During mating a female seahorse will deposit her eggs into the pouch of a male.  The male fertilizes the eggs by releasing his sperm into the water then swimming through it.  Then the male continues to carry the eggs until birth, which is unique in all of nature.  Gestation lasts up to six weeks.  As few as five or as many as about 1,500 can be born.  Less than 1% of young seahorses make it to adulthood, mainly because they have to fend for themselves as soon as they are born.

For more information, pictures, and videos, click to view Seahorse Worlds website.

The Fascinating Celebes Sea

The Celebes Sea is home to more underwater species than anywhere else on the earth, including 580 of the world's 793 species of reef-building corals, and about 3,000 species of fish.

For more info, click to view The Encyclopedia of Earth website.

For more maps, click to view The World Atlas website.