Creature 91: Opisthocomus hoazin

The punk of the bird world

Description:
Opisthocomus hoazin is commonly known as the Hoatzin or the Stinkbird. It is predominantly a swamp dwelling bird and is notable for its hairstyle' which is much like that of a punk.

The Hoatzin is one of the few birds which has adapted to eat plant foliage. It has an enlarged crop which is used to ferment plant foliage which can then be digested.  It is this system which gives the bird an awful smell, which apparently smells like rancid feces, also much like a punk. This has earned it the nickname stinkbird.

Distribution:
The Hoatzin is found in the North West of the Amazon rainforest.

Classification:
There has been much debate as to how to classify this bizarre bird, due to its superficial resemblances to various other taxa. Current classification places the Hoatzin as the only living member of the Order Opisthocomiformes, although there are several fossil species. Fossil record indicate that they were one much more widespread and are a relic taxon.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Opisthocomiformes
Family: Opisthocomidae
Genus: Opisthocomus
Species: Opisthocomus hoazin

Image Links:
http://www.factzoo.com/birds/hoatzin-funky-stinkbird-nice-crest.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoatzin#mediaviewer/File:Opisthocomus_hoazin.jpg

Creature 90: Caleana major

A flower that looks like a duck

Description:
Just another Orchid today, there will be several of them, but that's only because they are so weird. Caleana major is commonly known as the flying duck Orchid.

It is a similar story to the fly orchid, although it is in a different genus altogether. Like the fly orchids, the flying duck orchids are mimicking female insects in order to attract its pollinators. The males are lured in and before they realize what is going on they are covered in pollen which they then carry to another flower. The shape is supposed to attract species of sawflies, which are a paraphyletic group similar to wasps. To a human the flower looks a bit like an abstract flying duck but apparently to a male sawfly it looks like a female sawfly.

Distribution:
Flying duck orchid is found in dry eucalyptus forest along the East Coast of Australia including Tasmania as well as the south cost up to the Nullarbor plains.

Classification:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Angiosperms
Class: Monocotyledon
Order: Asparagales
Family: Orchidaceae
Genus: Caleana
Species: Caleana major

Image Links:
http://www.thefeaturedcreature.com/6-amazing-orchids-that-look-just-like-animals/
http://morgana249.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/20-orchids-that-look-like-something.html

Creature 89: Dolichopteryx longipes

A fish with mirror eyes

Description:
Dolichopteryx longipes is commonly known as the brownsnout spookfish. That name alone is enough to call it bizarre, but take a look at its appearance:

Its skin is completely transparent and the rest of its body is sometimes quite translucent.
Instead of using lenses in their eyes to focus their vision on objects they use small mirrors located interior to their eyes. Apparently this is a superior method when you are trying to see the many bioluminescent organisms that live in the oceans abyss.

Despite the fact that the species was first described in 1888, it was not until 2009 that the scientific community saw its first living specimen of this bizarre creature.

Distribution:
The Brownsnout spookfish live at depths between 500 and 2500 m below the surface of the ocean. They have been found in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Classification:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Acinopterygii
Order: Argentiniformes
Family: Opisthoproctidae
Genus: Dolichopteryx
Species: Dolichopteryx longipes

Image Links:
http://quantumbiologist.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/four-eyes/
http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/3504-39-spookfish-39-has-mirrors-for-eyes

Creature 88: Melophorus

These ants job is to eat

Description:
Melophorus are a genus of ants which are commonly known as honey ants or honeypot ants. These ants have a rather cool adaptation to typical feast/famine environment which occur throughout most of Australia. Most people know that ants have special casts which are specially adapted to perform specific tasks such as fighting off invaders or digging tunnels. This genus have a special cast which acts as food storage. When food and water is plentiful they are fed by the other ants. They do not leave the tunnels and just lie there storing sugars in their abdomen in the form of a sort of honey. They can also store water and fatty acids. When times are bad the other ants can approach the food storage ants and stoke their antennae causing the storage ant to regurgitate the nutritious liquids. When the storage ants run out of food they die and are eaten by the other ants.

There are several other genera of ants which have similar adaptations and they are nearly all found in arid environments, and all of them can be called honeypot ants. In most areas in which they occur they have been used as a food source.

Distribution:
Melophorus are found in arid and semi arid areas of Australia.

Classification:
Melophorus are the only members of the tribe Melophorini. They do not form a monophyletic group with the other honey ants, meaning that this adaptation has probably evolved several times.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum :Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Genus: Melophorus

Image Links:

http://enconv.org/docs/index-54151.html?page=2

http://ant.edb.miyakyo-u.ac.jp/AZ/PCD1637/ImageLibrary.html

Creature 87: Sabellidae

A worm that looks like a feather duster

Description:
Sabellidae are a family of segmented worms which look a little something like this:

Those long feathery protrusions called branchiae are actually coming out of their head. Their purpose is to trap small particles of food which they eat. They also serve a respiratory function. Unlike most filter feeders Sabellid worms are remarkable fussy eaters and their branchiae are highly specialized for catching the right type of food. Sabellidae protect their body with tubes of hardened material like sand and bits of shells cemented together by Calcium Carbonate. They spend most of their time with only their head protruding. They can retract their head when they are threatened.

Distribution:
Sabellid are found in the inter-tidal zones all over the world but are more common in warm waters.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Polychaeta
Class:
Order: Canalipalpata
Family: Sabellidae

Image Links:
http://www.redditian.com/r/WTF/28jpwm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabellidae#mediaviewer/File:Feather_duster_worm.jpg

Creature 86: Megaloceros giganteus

This deer certainly could not fly.

Merry Christmas everyone. 
Today I decided to go with the most Christmas related bizarre creature I have. It is an extinct member of the deer family, not quite a reindeer,  but it's the best I could do.

Description:
Megaloceros giganteus is an extinct member of the deer family and its common name is the Irish elk. They were arguably the biggest member of the deer family to have lived but are most well known for their enormous antlers.  Like other deer the males shed their antlers and regrew them every spring. The antlers are used to compete with other males for females. Presumably the male deer would have originally fought with their antlers, but in modern deer fighting is rare and obsolete in some species. The males just measure up the size of their horns and the one with the smaller horns will just back off realizing it is not worth fighting a battle he will probably lose. This development has led to the antlers become more and more ornamental and less and less practical. The Irish Elk took this principle to an extreme.

The Irish elk stood an impressive 2.1 meters tall but their antlers could reach over 3.5 meters in length from tip to tip and could weigh up to 40 kg. Even for such a large animal this would have been a significant burden when attempting to evade hungry predators such as wolf packs or Humans. Many biologists have speculated that the ridiculous size of these antlers was one of the main contributing factors in their extinction. This would fit in quite well with various jokes about the Irish.

Distribution:
The Irish Elk is extinct but it was previously found not just in Ireland but across the whole Palaerctic region. The name comes from the fact that the first specimens were found in Ireland and to date most specimens are found from Irish bogs. The most recent specimens have been dated to 7700 years ago, and so they definitely coincided with modern humans and may have even coincided with human civilization.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Cervidae
Genus: Megaloceros
Species: Megaloceros giganteus

Image Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_elk#mediaviewer/File:%C3%9Cberseemuseum_Bremen_2009_250.JPG

Creature 85: Ichneumon eumerus

Float like a butterfly, sting like a wasp

This is part 2 of 2 in a weird three way coevolution story. Yesterday's post on the Large Blue Butterfly was part 1.

Description:
Ichneumon is a genus of parisitoid wasps, which means they lay their eggs inside other living thing and the young feed of their host while maturing. The species Ichneumon eumerus specializes in laying its eggs inside the Large Blue Butterfly. This may seem like a rather difficult task given that they live inside ants nests and are protected of hundreds if not thousands of loyal ants willing to give their life to defend what they think is their queen. These wasps have a really cool trick to get past the guards.

Somehow the wasps know which ant nests are infested with butterfly larvae. They land near the nest and enter. Ants don't take too kindly to this behavior but the wasp begins emitting pheromones which confuse the ants and drive them crazy. Instead of ferociously tearing the wasp apart, they turn on each other confusing familiar ants with invaders. The wasp safely passes through the nest. Unlike the ants, the wasp is not fooled by the butterfly larvae, he somehow tracks them down and in a room crawling with ant larvae they easily find the caterpillars they are looking for. They inject their eggs inside the wasp and the juveniles begin eating it from the inside out once they are hatched. They leave the inside intact and when the butterfly spins its cocoon the wasp will eventually just replace the caterpillar and will hatch from the cocoon themselves. The pheromones that the caterpillar excretes linger long enough for the wasp larvae to safely hatch.

The king, David Attenborough describes the whole process in his documentary series Life in the Undergrowth. Here is the clip:

Distribution:
Ichneumon eumerus is found throughout the Palaerctic region.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Ichneumonidae
Genus: Ichneumon 
Species: Ichneumon eumerus 

Image Links:
http://www.wired.com/2008/01/butterfly-and-w/
http://britishwildlife.wikia.com/wiki/Ichneumon_eumerus

Video Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCo2uCLXvhk

Creature 84: Phengaris arion

The caterpillar who would be queen of the ants.

This is part 1 one 2 in a weird three way coevolution story. When people think of Bizarre creatures they do not normally think of Europe, but there are some weird enough things that go on up there.

Description:  Phengaris arion just looks like a large blue butterfly and is rather boringly named the Large Blue Butterfly. Apart from the fact that it may look pretty, it does not appear to be very interesting. It is their reproductive strategy that is really interesting. Female Large Blue Butterflies lay their eggs near the nests of genus Myrmica a fairly unremarkable group of ants. After the eggs of the Large Blue Butterfly have hatched the caterpillar begins emitting pheromones that mimic the larvae of ants from the Mytmica genus. When the  ants find the deceptive caterpillar they give it a free lift back to the nest and store it in the chamber with the rest of the ant larvae. This is a very dangerous place to be for any caterpillar as there is nothing ants like more than tearing apart caterpillars and grubs for food. Once in the nest the caterpillar starts to mimic the queen ant with both its pheromones and the noises it emits. This tricks the ants into keeping it well fed and will, in their confusion, sometimes even kill some of their own larvae to keep it fed. Sometimes the greedy caterpillar will take a sneaky munch of the larvae themselves. When the caterpillar becomes an adult it leaves the ants nest and flies away.

This strategy is far from perfect. The ants have been evolving more and more complex pheromone cues discover the intruders. When there is a living queen present in the nest the ants are much more likely to spot the subterfuge. If the wrong species of ant pick up the juvenile, discovery is almost certain. As you can imagine for the caterpillar failure to convince the ants will result in a painful death as their flesh is hacked off in small chunks and eaten by dozens of different ants.

If the trick works than the caterpillar has just found a way of getting fed without any effort. What's more it has an army willing to die defending it in an underground tunnel which they built which makes the caterpillar nice and safe from predators.  Or does it?

Read tomorrow's post in which host-parasite coevolution really starts to get messy.

 To be continued........................

Distribution:

Phengaris arion  is found throughout the Palaerctic region.

Classification:

Phengaris arion was previously known as Maculinea arion but the genus has been changed for reasons best left to Lepidopterists.

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Lycaenidae

Genus: Phengaris

Species: Phengaris arion

Image Links:

https://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/butterflies-which-love-ants-and-the-wasps-that-love-them-all/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Blue#mediaviewer/File:Maculinea_arion_Large_Blue_Upperside_SFrance_2009-07-18.jpg

Creature 83: Onycophora

An animal with a glue lasso

Description:
Onycophora are a whole phylum of animals related to Arthropods and water bears. They are commonly referred to as velvet worms.

Their bodies are made up of many undifferentiated segments with a pair of legs on each, similar to centipedes. Biologists believe that this is the primitive body plant for the Arthropods and water bears as well. They are nocturnal and don't see very well but are voracious predators. They hunt mostly by feeling about the undergrowth with their antennae. If you are a small animal and they touch you once,watch out. They spray a alimy string of  glue like proteins which quickly harden when it makes contact with the prey item. This is similar to silk produced by spiders and other Arthropods, but it is less structured giving it a liquid quality but is strongly adhesive. The strings are shot out in coordinated loops which lasso the prey and stick them to anything they touch. The more they struggle the more immobile they become.  Onycophorans will inject digestive fluids into their prey and drink the partially digested remains, much like a spider. 

This GIF was copies from http://giphy.com/gifs/slime-gy9IT4SniJFFm

Some species of velvet worms are social with a female dominant strongly hierarchical social structure. These species commonly hunt in packs and the alpha female will feed first. Most velvet worm females can clone themselves through parthenogenisis,  and in some species males may be extinct.

Check out this video. It's in Spanish, but if you don't understand it you can probably figure out what he is saying anyway.

Distribution:
Onycophora have a pantropical distribution and are more commonly found in moist environments.

Classification:
Onycophora are probably the sister group to Arthropoda.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Onycophora

Image Links:

http://animais.culturamix.com/curiosidades/animais-em-extincao-onychophora

http://giphy.com/gifs/slime-gy9IT4SniJFFm

Video Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-NV-FpEf0M

Creature 82: Vampyroteuthis infernalis

The vampire squid from hell.

Description:
Vampyroteuthis infernalis may sound like a scary name, because it is supposed to be. The generic name is a combination of the word Vampire and Teuthis (Greek for squid). The specific epithet infernalis can mean hell in Latin. The common name for this beast is the Vampire squid. It is not an enormously large squid, achieving lengths of up to 30 cm long, but this animals most sticking feature is the webbing between its tentacles. Like vampires they are afraid of sunlight and forcing them to live at ocean depths to which the light cannot reach. Like many other squid they can change the color of their skin, although they have a very limited range, between light red and dark reddish black. Their eyes usually appear reddish. Their tentacles carry multiple fang like barbs which are used for capturing their prey and at the base of the mantle they have a powerful beak. Their barbs, coloration and cape like webbing between their tentacles do give them an unusual vampiric appearance.

They propel themselves with the two fins attached to their mantle. Their skin is covered in light producing cells which are used to confuse and disorient other animals at the depths of the ocean. This is probably used mostly against predators. Not much is known about their diet but we don't think they suck blood.

Distribution:
Vampire squids live at depths of 600- 1500m under the surface of the ocean and they prefer warmer waters.

Classification:
The Vampire squid is the last surviving member of the order Vampyromorphida. There are many extinct families and genera in this order in the fossil record.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Order: Vampyromorphida
Family: Vampyroteuthidae
Genus: Vampyroteuthis
Species: Vampyroteuthis infernalis

Image Link:
https://alm7.wikispaces.com/Vampire+Squid
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/09/25/the-vampire-squid-is-a-garbage-eater-that-collects-raining-rubbish-with-living-fishing-lines/#.VJYpsULYQA

Creature 81: Pantopoda

Not a spider.

Description:
Pantopoda are an Arthropod order which are commonly referred to as sea spiders but don't let the name confuse you because while they live in the seas they are not spiders.

Sea spiders usually posses 4 pairs of legs as do true spiders, although a few species with 5 or 6 pairs have been described. Their legs are long and thin and are attached to a cephalothorax as is the case throughout the chelicerata.

They lack a body cavity for housing their organs and instead their organs wind their way through the sea spider's long appendages. Fossils indicate that they used to have this body cavity but it was lost. They have no respiratory system and oxygen just diffuses across the exterior of their body by osmosis so their body needs to maintain a high surface are to volume ratio. This is part of the reason their body is so elongate and why none of the species grow very large, although the giant sea spider manages to grow to 25 cm long.

Distribution:
Sea spiders are found in all marine environments. Some are deep ocean species and some are surface dwellers. They are more commonly found in seas than open oceans.

Classification:
Pantopoda are the only Order in the class Pycnogonida and and not in the Arachnida with true spiders despite the fact that they usually posses four pairs of legs. They are in the subphylum chelicerata with the arachnids,  scorpions, pseudoscorpians and horseshoe crabs. Some molecular phylogeneticists argue that they may not belong in this group at all but in their own subphylum as the basal group of all arthropods.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Pycnogonida
Order: Pantopoda

Image Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_spider#mediaviewer/File:Pycnogonid.jpg

http://aquaviews.net/explore-the-blue/marine-legends-giant-sea-spider-exist/

Creature 80: Mitsukurina owstoni

The Lord of the Rings meets Jaws

Description:
Mitsukurina owstoni  is commonly known as a goblin shark or a vampire shark. This reference to evil mythological beasts comes not only from their bizarre appearance but from the sharks aversion to sunlight.

The most obvious feature of these unusual beasts is their flat protruding snout which is highly electrosensitive. 

Their long needle-like teeth definitely look like they come from something evil, but their jaw is surprisingly soft and flexible. When they are eating the extend their jaws outward. Not much is known about what they usually eat. Their unusual pinkish colour comes from the fact that their skin is actually transparent and the colour comes from the blood moving around underneath the skin.

Distribution:
Goblin sharks are most commonly found in the waters around Japan but they have been found in various locations across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. Most specimens captured have not been too far below the ocean surface, but this could be a sampling error. Their features and behavior suggest they might prefer the aphotic zone.

Classification:
Goblin sharks are the most basal group of the order Lamniformes, the group which contains most of the creatures which you would think of when imagining a shark.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Lamniformes
Family: Mitsukurinidae
Genus: Mitsukurina
Species: Mitsukurina owstoni

Image Links:

http://www.youramazingpictures.com/2013/07/goblin-shark-mitsukurina-owstoni/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/19546327@N00/416868470/

Creature 79: Urtica ferox

Another deadly stinging plant.

Description:
Urtica ferox is commonly known as Onga onga or the New Zealand tree nettle. It is in the stinging nettle genus Urtica, but it makes its more common northern hemisphere relative look like a pansy. It has a woody stem and can grow up to 5 m tall. Its leaves are elongate with a dramatically serrated fringe. They also posses needle like spines that are not your friend.

Those spines will penetrate your skin and inject a caustic neurotoxin into you with even just a light touch. The neurotoxin cause pain, numbing and limb immobilization. These symptoms can last for days in extreme cases.There has been one recorded case of someone who was heavily stung by several plants dying from the poison.

Distribution:
The New Zealand stinging nettle is, unsurprisingly, found in New Zealand. It is present on both main Islands usually at altitudes of over 300 m or in disturbed habitats or forest edges. I have seen some websites claiming that it is also found in Australia but I am pretty sure that is false. The kiwis can keep this one.

Classification:
The genus Urtica is in the same family as the Australian plant  Dendrocnide moroides which I have talked about in an earlier post. In fact Dendrocnide moroides was originally described in the genus Urtica. While these nettles and some other members of the genus Urtica are often referred to stinging nettles, the term is usually used to refer to the species Urtica dioica.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Angiosperms
Class: Dicotyledon
Order: Rosales
Family: Urticaceae
Genus: Urtica
Species: Urtica ferox

Image Links:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Urtica_ferox#mediaviewer/File:Ongaonga_close-up.jpg
http://www.trimblefoundation.org.nz/urtica-ferox-onga-onga-at-rewanui/

Bizarre Creature in my Bedroom

Today I caught one of the creatures I have already written about in my bedroom. Lampona, the white tailed spider. You can read my post on it here.

Here are some pictures I took of it with my Olympus TG-3. I'm no photographer, but I am learning.

My usual licensing conditions apply to these images. You can do whatever you want with them in any form you want to use them with no conditions whatsoever. If you do use them for anything I would consider it the polite thing to do to include a link to this page.

Creature 78: Atta

Ants who grow their own food underground.

Description:
Atta are one of two genera of ants which are commonly referred to as leaf cutter ants. They are famous for their long ant lines crawling up the trunks of trees into the leaves which they cut with their mandibles and carry back to their colony. In fact it has been suggested that the Atta genus is responsible for the decomposition of 20% of South American leaves.

What many people don't know is that they cannot eat these leaves. So why are they putting in so much effort into collecting them? Deep within their colonies they carve out enormous chambers in which they deposit these leaves and carefully cultivate leaf eating fungi. These fungi are the primary food source of the leaf cutter ants.

Like other ants Atta are eusocial and have a highly specialized division of labor. There are three main casts, The queen, the soldiers and the workers. Nothing particularly unusual there. Atta also have a number of different types of workers which are determined by their head size. There are some that collect the leaves and bring them back to the nest; some that cut them up into tiny pieces; some that roll the tiny pieces into little balls and some which go around cultivating the fungus on the different balls of leaves placed on them. Leaf cutter ants are careful not to over harvest individual trees as they do not want to kill the trees close to their nests which could be a good source of leaves later.

Distribution:
Atta are found in South and Central America as far North as Texas

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Genus: Atta

Image Links:
http://downtoearthquestions.blogspot.com.au/2010/12/leafcutter-ants.html
http://thorinsmut.tumblr.com/post/65535312795/just-designing-goblins-for-my-nanowrimo-project
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atta_(genus)#mediaviewer/File:Atta.cephalotes.3.jpg

Creature 77: Fuligo septica

A shape shifting monster in your garden.

Fuligo septica may sound like a fairly disgusting name for a species, but its common name, the Dog vomit slime mould sounds even worse. They may look quite disgusting,  but they are actually very cool creatures.

Description:

The slime moulds have several phases to its life cycle. It life cycle starts off as an single cellular organism much like an amoeba. They reproduce asexually for a while while mostly eating bacteria. When conditions are right these amoeboid can breed with each other. The result of this breeding is a multi nuclear blob without any cellular division which can either be thought of as a single cell with multiple nuclei or multiple cells with a fused cytoplasm. This monstrosity can grow meters in size as it consumes micro-organisms in its path. The freakiest thing about it is that it is capable of self movement. O.k. it is not very fast, sometimes it can achieve speeds of over 1 mm a second, but that's still pretty weird.

When the yellow blob has consumed all the food in the area it transforms. At this point the slime mould will form reproductive bodies which shoot out spores in order to colonise areas with more food. It is in this stage that the dog vomit slime mould is normally noticed as a bright yellow or greyish slimy blob. There are some really interesting fruiting bodies, some of which are mobile but we will talk about these in later posts. Dog vomit slime moulds are believed to use beetles to spread their spores.

Like animals and unlike fungi slime moulds lack chitin in their cell walls making the shape of their cells less rigidly defined.

Distribution:

Dog vomit slime mould is found throughout the world and are particularly common in garden compost.

Classification:

The slime moulds used to be considered to be a group of fungi, mostly because the fungi used to be classified by the absence of characteristics which is always a bad way to classify organisms. They are considered to be more closely related to Animals than fungi and are a member of the Amebozoa Kingdom.

Kingdom: Amoebozoa

Phylum: Mycetozoa

Class: Myxomycetes

Order: Physarales

Family: Physaraceae

Genus: Fuligo

Species: Fuligo septica

Image Links:
http://moremoth.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/yellow-slime-mould.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuligo_septica#mediaviewer/File:Fuligo_septica_bl2.JPG

Creature 76: Ornithorhynchus anatinus

This Creature is so weird experts thought it was a hoax

Description: 

Ornithorhynchus anatinus is commonly called the platypus, meaning flatfoot because of its webbed feet. The first thing you notice when you look at this strange semi-aquatic mammal is not the webbed feet but the massive bill that looks like it belongs on some kind of duck. 

In fact the first specimen of a platypus captured by a European was stuffed and sent back to the British Museum where a biologist named George Shaw immediately presumed it was a hoax and proceeded to try to remove the bill.  I guess it is not all that surprising as it looks like a beaver with a water birds beak and feet while it's skeleton is 'reptilian' in the way the legs join to the body.

It doesn't help that the Platypus is a metronome, a rare group of mammals which lays eggs. To add to the overall weirdness male Platypuses (let's assume that's how you pleuralise platypus) have a poison bard at the base of their leg which they can inflate and use as a defensive weapon. Humans who have been stung by a Platypus describe it as incredibly painful and while it cannot kill humans as far as we know it can temporarily immobilize limbs. Their enormous bill is fairly densely covered in electroreceptors which they use for foraging for food among the river bed stones. Its diet consists mostly of snails and other marine invertebrates and it is actually quite limited in what it can eat as it lacks a stomach.

Distribution:
The platypus is only found in eastern Australia including Tasmania. Its range is almost exclusively East of the Great dividing range and it does not extend to Cape York in the North.

Classification:
There are a few extinct members of the genus Ornithorhynchus which are also called platypus, but O. anatinus is the only extant species. Their closest living relative are the Echidnas, and together they are the only remaining members of the Monotreme order.

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Monotremata

Family: Ornithorhynchidae

Genus: Ornithorhynchus

Species: Ornithorhynchus anatinus

Image Links:
http://www.factzoo.com/mammals/platypus-duck-bill.html
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Platypus_skeleton_Pengo.jpg
http://biologybiozine.com/the-curious-case-of-the-platypus/96

Creature 75: Hydra

This animal is immortal

Today I am looking at a genus called Hydra, which may sound like a mythical creature, particularly when we start throwing words like immortal around, but I assure you they are 100% real.

Description:

Hydra are in the jellyfish group Cnidaria and like other members of the group they sting with cells called Cnidocytes.  They can usually expand in size to about 1 cm long. They have a tubular body small tentacles at one end and an adhesive foot at the other. They use their foot to attach themselves to substrates on which they remain sessile most of the time. They detach themselves and swim around when hunting. Their tentacles are densely covered in neurotoxin loaded cnidocytes. When hunting they grab their prey with their tentacles and deliver the neurotoxin which usually kills their prey quite quickly. While the neurotoxins are fairly potent they do not deliver enough to have an effect on humans. These are used to deadly effect when When conditions are good Hydra reproduce asexually by budding clones off their body. When conditions are unfavorable they grow gonads and begin reproducing sexually.

Like the Hydra of Greek mythology from which its name derives, the Hydra can regrow damaged body parts. They never age and their stem cells can go on renewing themselves indefinitely. These characteristics make the Hydra theoretically immortal. They can still be killed by damage like an elf in the Lord of the Rings, and they can be killed by disease or starvation but assuming favorable conditions a Hydra will go on living forever.

Distribution:

Hydra are one of the few freshwater Cnidarian groups. They live in freshwater ecosystems all over the world.

Classification:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Cnidaria

Class: Hydrozoa

Order: Anthomedusa

Family: Hydridae

Genus: Hydra

Image Links:

http://scienceforkids.kidipede.com/biology/animals/sponges/hydra.htm

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hydras_(8).JPG

Creature 74: Limulidae

A creature with bacteria detecting blood

Description:
Limulidae is the last remaining family in the Arthropod class Merostomata, which used to be a lot more diverse. The four species which are the living remnants of this group are commonly known as horseshoe crabs.

Horseshoe crabs have 3 pairs of eyes and one endoparietal eye. Their entire dorsal surface is covered in a hard chitinous carapace.  They have book gills which are somewhat similar in structure to the book lungs in spiders. Like spiders thy lack a head and thorax and have a cephalothorax instead. Their mouth is located between their legs their front two pair of appendages are homologous with the chelicerae and pedipalps in the other chelicerata. They also posses an abdomen and a tail. The tail is possible homologous to a scorpions tail but it is used for turning itself upright, not for stinging.

Their blood is used as the most efficient method we have of testing for bacterial contamination on medical equipment. It does not contain hemoglobin but another substance known as haemocyanin The chitin in their shell is also used to coat suturing equipment. Mulched up horseshoe crabs also make very effective fertilizer. They also make very good bait. Horseshoe crabs live in shallow waters of continental shelf. They occasionally crawl onto land to breed.

Distribution:
Horseshoe crabs are found off the East coast of North America, and coastal regions of East and South East Asia.

Classification:
Horseshoe crabs are not crabs as is obvious from even a superficial inspection. They are in fact not even crustaceans. They belong to the Arthropod subphylum Chelicerata, the group that includes Scorpions, Spiders, mites and ticks among other things which will be discussed in later posts.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Merostomata
Order: Xiphosura
Family: Limulidae

Image Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangrove_horseshoe_crab#mediaviewer/File:Carcinoscorpius_rotundicauda_(mangrove_horseshoe_crab).jpg

http://www.tamilnetonline.com/space-crab-greatest-survivors-all-time/upsidedown-horseshoe-crab/

Creature 73: Dracunculus medinensis

Enormous African parasite

I had written another creature up for today but I decided to change it to a more topical creature in the last minute as I saw one of the species on my list in the newspaper.

Description:
Dracunculus medinensis is a nematode parasite commonly known as Guinea worm which is specialized for infecting humans. Infections of these parasite are called dracuncunliasis. The males grow up to 4 cm long, but if you think that's a pretty big parasite, you should see the females which can grow up to 80 cm long.

They enter the human body by infecting Copepods or Cladocerans, much like Daphnia which we looked at in an earlier post. When you drink the water with these microscopic crustaceans the Guinea worms will make their way to your intestines. They will soon burrow out of your intestines into your gat and muscle where they will mature into adults. Once they are mature they will breed and the males will die off. The females then make their way down to your feet where they blister the foot. They then excrete a chemical which creates a burning sensation in your foot, enticing you to submerge your foot in water for relief. Once you do that they puncture a hole in the blister and release their fertilized eggs into the water so that their juveniles can infect the planctonic crustaceans and so they cycle continues.

The big news was that a man in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia) was found to have been infected by these worms and had them removed. It is almost certain that he picked them up from the Sudan where he was living up until four years ago.  It is remotely possible that they have found their way into bodies of water in the Melbourne area.....

Distribution:
The Guinea worm used to exist among human populations throughout the tropical regions of Africa and Asia, however fairly successful eradication programs have restricted their distribution to the horn of Africa and some areas of the Sahel. It was always most common around these areas, probably because they have been co evolving with humans for a very long time and those areas are most likely the original distribution of our species. But there I go speculating again.

Classification:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Nematoda
Class: Secernentea
Order: Camallanida
Family: Dracunculidae
Genus: Dracunculus
Species: Dracunculus medinensis

Image Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculus_medinensis#mediaviewer/File:Dracunculus_medinensis_larvae.jpg
http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/SWILLIAM/fgn/pnb/dracmed.html

Creature 72: Pinus longaeva

This tree is older than the Egyptian Pyramids

Pinus longaeva is commonly known as the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine. It introduces a new category label for this blog as its reason for being here comes from the fact that it is so long lived.

Description: 

Pinus longaeva is not a particularly large tree growing 5 to 15m tall. This is fairly large for a mountain tree, but it doesn't compare in size to some of the largest trees.

Young trees look much different to old trees with young trees covered in smooth grey bark while older trees are a reddish brown colour and the bark is often mostly stripped off the trunk by the centuries of harsh mountain winds. Parts of the trunk often die off as the tree ages and in fact sometimes there can be only a thin strip of living tissue joining the roots to a few living branches. So how old do they get?

The oldest living specimen was measured to be 5,062 years old in 2012 by a man named Tom Harland. This makes it the oldest individual tree in the world (yes, wait for the sequel). Average life exppectancy is hard to measure in such long lived species but it probably greatley depends on their position. On some mountain slopes the average age of living specimens is up to 2000 years old. The exact location of this tree was not revealed out of fear that tourism would endanger the tree.

Distribution:
Pinus longaeva is found at high altitudes. It has a patchy distribution and is restricted to the Southwest American states of California, Nevada and Utah.

Classification:
The genus Pinus encompasses the true pine trees.
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Pinophyta
Class: Pinopsida
Order: Pinales
Family: Pinaceae
Genus: Pinus
Species: Pinus longaeva

Image Credit:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langlebige_Kiefer#mediaviewer/File:Pinus_longaeva_6.jpg

http://www.conifers.org/pi/Pinus_longaeva.php

Creature 71: Termataphididae

This insect is invisible (if you're a termite)

Description:
These are highly modified true bugs (Heteroptera). Their body is lined on the edges with a gently sloping hard but very flexible laminate fringe and the only body part which ever protruded from underneath is the antennae, which can be retracted underneath the body. Many of their body parts are greatly reduced and their wings, eyes and ovipositor are entirely absent. They are almost like a heteropteran family stripped down to the bare essentials.

They make look pretty much like an orange blob, and if you look carefully you can just make out which end the head is, but they have invaded one of the most hostile environments on Earth. Termite mounds. Termites are ferociously territorial and will enthusiastically rip into anything that invades their nest no matter how big it is. They excrete some nasty toxins and even have specialized casts for fighting off invaders. If you don't believe me, try putting your hand in there. These bugs have evolved the ability to pass through a termite mound undetected by the termites. Termites literally walk right over these guys without noticing, although the Termatiphidids well tuck their antennae under their body while this is happening. They even lay their eggs among the termite mound. When they are exposed to air they move surprisingly quickly, with one account stating that they move almost as quickly as the agitated termites themselves.

Little is known about these unusual bugs, including what they eat. They may prey on termites or scavenge off their food. Termatiphididae have never been seen outside termite mounds, but presumable they have some method of colonizing new mounds. Given their lack of eyes and the ability for most Pentatomomorpha to produce scent we assume that their lifestyle is very scent oriented and presumable they use pheromones as part of their trick to hide themselves from the termites. They also have some highly modified setae on their back which are probably useful for feeling their way around narrow termite tunnels.

Distribution:
Termatiphididae have a Pantropical distribution (they are found in all the tropical regions of the world).

Classification:
Termatiphididae are the sister-group to the Aradidae, the bark dwelling bugs which will be discussed on this blog later. Grimaldi and Engel 2008 proposed that they may be included in the Aradidae. The termatiphididae and the Aradidae together form the superfamily Aradoididae, which is the basal group in the Pentatomomorpha one of the major radiations of the true bugs. The idea that Piematidae may be in the Aradoididae (Grimaldi and Engel 2007) has been refuted by Cassis and Schuh 2009. The age of their relationship with the rest of the Pentatomorpha has not been studied, but I can from a few fossil Pentatomomorpha I know, I would be surprised if it did not go back into the early Cretaceous.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Family: Termataphididae

Image Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termitaphididae

Creature 70: Apteryx

Just a weird bird today

Description: 
Apteryx is a genus of ratite birds which are commonly known as Kiwis. There are five living species in the genus. The name Kiwi pre-dates the use of the word for both the kiwi fruit and the colloquial name for New Zealanders. Unlike other all living ratite birds the kiwi is a small bird ranging from 25 cm to 45 cm in size when fully grown, depending on species. Kiwis are the only birds to have nostrils at the end of their beak. 

Like all other ratitie birds they are flightless. Given their phylogenic position and the absence of a keel bone, which is used in other birds to attach wing muscles for flight, one does begin to wonder whether the ratites could ever fly or whether they branched off from the other birds before flight had evolved. Ornithologist assure me that it has been looked into and flightlessness is indeed derived in ratites, so I will defer to their expertise.

Back to Kiwis. Kiwis are monogamous birds and they share child rearing responsibilities. Female Kiwis lay eggs that are 15-20% of their own body mass, which is an impressive effort. Male Kiwis look after most of the incubating, which I suppose is fair given the female has just layed an egg that is 20% of her body weight. Kiwis are mostly nocturnal, which is a little unusual for birds. They have quite a long life for birds with la lifespan of 25-50 years depending on the species.

Distribution:
All five species of Kiwi are Endemic to New Zealand and currently have patchy distributions.

Classification: The Ratites are the basal group of birds, in other words all other birds form a natural group separate from the Ratites. Their most recent common ancestor with the rest of the birds probably dates back well into the Creataceous period and the genus Apteryx probably existed as a distinct group over 65 million years ago before the K-Pg (K-T if you prefer) mass extinction. This group adds a whole new meaning to the term 'living dinosaurs' because they are, like all other birds, quite literally dinosaurs. Ratites are a gondwana relict taxon, with extinct or living species in South America, India, Madagascar, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Apterygiformes
Family: Apterygidae
Genus: Apteryx

Image Links:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Apteryx#mediaviewer/File:TeTuatahianui.jpg
http://www.taxiimpact.com/2011/02/10/little-spotted-kiwi/

Creature 69: Phobaeticus chani

This insect is longer than your forearm

We've had the heaviest insect in the world, now we will take a look at the longest. Phobaeticus chani is commonly known as Chan's megastick. I know what some of you are thinking and that's not very original, every undergraduate who has ever heard of Chan's megastick thought the same thing. It is named after a Malaysian biologist Datuk Chan Chew Lun who recorded the first specimen which was given to him by a local villager.

Description: 

The largest specimen ever found measures 35.7 cm (legs are excluded). With the legs outstretched it measures 56.7 cm. Despite its size it wasn't collected until 1989. It was described in 2008 and only 6 specimens are known. This could be for a number of reasons: it has been speculated that they live in the rainforest canopy which is the great unknown in terrestrial insect diversity due to the difficulty of collecting at these locations. It is also possible that they are just very rare and there has not been much interest in collecting them for scientific purposes. Coincidence is not a ridiculous explanation, as the Island of Borneo is the third largest in the world and it possess enormous insect diversity of which we can't even say we know the tip of the iceberg.

The egg of Chan's megastick is a very unusual shape for any insect. It has a narrow laminate protrusion that could act as wings and in many ways it resembles a plants seed. This is believed to aid in the dispersal of the seed due to the habit of some stick insects to lay a single egg at a time and toss them. If they are indeed canopy insects they could potentially disperse their eggs very far. 

Distribution:
Chan's Megastick is known only from the jungles of Northern Borneo in Sabah province, Malaysia.

Classification:
If you haven't figured it out yet Chan's Megastick is a stick insect.

Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Arthropoda
Class:Insecta
Order:Phasmatodea
Family:Phasmatidae
Genus:Phobaeticus
Species: Phobaeticus chani

Image Links:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/megabugs-the-worlds-largest-insects-chans-megastick#slide-8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobaeticus_chani#mediaviewer/File:Phobaeticus_chani_Bragg,_2008;_Holotype_Female_dorsal_view.jpg