Creature 127: Lysichiton americanus

You can eat it, but why would you?

Description:

Today's bizarre creature is a swamp plant named Lysichiton americanus by the scientific community, but called skunk cabbage by everyone else.

You would probably guess that skunk cabbage doesn't smell too good given the name and you would be correct. The smell of the skunk cabbage is meant to attract pollinators such as flies and beetles.

Despite its foul odor parts of the skunk cabbage are quite edible. If you make a mistake and eat the wrong paet you run the risk of getting a mouthful of Calcium oxalate. This toxic substance has a horrible taste and will cause a severe burning sensation in your mouth and throat. These effects can last for weeks. Severe poisoning can wreck havoc on your internal organs and can cause kidney or liver failure (i.e. it can kill you.). So I guess the question is, who would eat it? There's nothing wrong with real cabbage.

Distribution:
Skunl cabbage is Native to Western Nort America, from Alaska to Southern California. It has been introduced into the U.K. as a garden plant and has gone wild. I don't understand why you would want a foul smelling, toxic, swamp plant in your garden either.

Classification:
There are several other plants which are referred to as skunk cabbages, that's why we don't use common names in scientific publications.
Kingdom:Plantae
Phylum:Angiosperms

Class: Monocotyledon
Order: Alismatales
Family: Araceae
Genus:Lysichiton
Species: Lysichiton americanus

Image Links:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yellow-skunk-cabbage.jpg
http://mistyfjordsair.com/gallery2.html

Creature 126: Calanoida

What is plankton from Spongebob Squarepants?

Description: 
Calanoida,  commonly referred to as calanoid copepods are a very common crustacean in the (hopefully monophyletic) order Maxillopoda. You probably have seen a representation of one of them in a cartoon. Don't believe me? Observe:

Don't pretend you have never watched Sponge Bob Squarepants. No one will believe you. These microscopic crustaceans are everywhere in fresh or saltwater ecosystems. Their species diversity is quite low with only around 1800 described species. This may seem like a lot but if you compare them with some of the insect orders such as Coleoptera (over 250, 000 species described) or Lepidoptera (over 150, 000 species described), they pale into insignificance.  However despite their unimpressive diversity they are incredibly abundant. These things are very hard to measure, but they are probably the most common animal in the world! They are probably the biggest link between algae and the rest of the food chain and as algae are the number one photosynthesis in the world this makes them pretty important for the food chain. Without these guys whales wouldn't last very long.

Some species of Calanoida can grow up to 18 mm long, which is more than enough to be visible to the naked eye.  Most however are microscopic.  Calanoida use their 1st pair of antennae to swim and are known to migrate vertically in the water column in a 12 hour migration pattern. Many species only have one eye. I can hear some people saying that being the most common animal in the world means that they don't qualify as bizarre, but I think it is kind of weird that the most common animals in the world as things which most people haven't even heard of. I have also been asked several times to identify plankton from Spongebob Squarepants,  and I'm pretty sure he is a calanoid copepod. Also they do look sort of cool, and on this blog I get to define the meaning of the word bizarre so shut up.

Distribution:

I may have mentioned that Copepods are everywhere.  There is no escaping them. The truth is they have already taken over the world.

Classification:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Maxillopoda
Order: Calanoida

Image Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copepod#mediaviewer/File:Copepodkils.jpg
http://spongebob.wikia.com/wiki/File:Plankton-from-spongebob.jpg
http://www.theseashore.org.uk/theseashore/SpeciesPages/Plankton/Copepod.JPG.html
http://m.fark.com/comments/8279414/To-understand-President-Obama-is-to-understand-Chauncey-Gardiner

Creature 125: Balbaroo fangaroo

What do you call a kangaroo with fangs?

Description:

Balbaroo fangaroo is exactly what its specific epithet suggests; a kangaroo with fangs. This extinct species commonly referred to simply as the Fangaroo.

Given the diversity of unique animals on the Australian continent the distinct lack of large terrestrial predators is curious. Wild dogs have become part of the ecosystem since the introduction of dingoes by indigenous Australians but carnivorous native Australian species are all snake sized or less with the exception of crocodiles in the northern rivers. The thylacines survived in Tasmania until the 1930s, but we will talk more about they in a later post. The Fangaroo is believed to be one of the prehistoric carnivores which has gone extinct in the last few 100, 000 years or so. The Fangaroo is known only from incomplete skull fragments. The skull of the animal seems to be about the size of a dog. It is basically a medium sized Kangaroo, with fangs. There were other larger carnivorous kangaroos, but this one has the coolest name by far.

Distribution:
Fangaroo has only been found at Riversleigh in North West Queensland.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: Macropodidae
Genus: Balbaroo
Species: Balbaroo fangaroo

Image Links:

http://jpaleontol.geoscienceworld.org/content/74/2/317/F3.expansion.html 

Journal article: Cook, B.N. 2000: Cranial Remailns of a new species of Balbarine Kangaroo (Marsupialia: Maropodoidea) from the Oligo-Miocene Freshwater Limestone deposits of Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Northern Australia. Journal of Paleontology 74: 317-326

http://www.wakaleo.net/?p=1050

Top 10 activity update

(In)sanity has been restored to my top 10 with the cuddly Koala's charge stopping short of the top 4. That will knock that cute smirk off his face.
 There has been another surge by Phengaris arion, started by a tweet I put out advertising it as one of the coolest coevolution stories ever, which is true. It has surged from just outside the top ten to overtake the Koala and occupy 5th position. The best part about it is that it is an insect, even though it is Lepidopteran (Definitely the worst king of insects). There was only 1 insect in the top ten for a while, a situation which was distressing me greatly.
 Poor old Psychrolutes marcidus, the blobfish, officially the ugliest animal in the world has lost his position in the top 10.

Creature 124: Chlamydosaurus kingii

When do frills make you look tougher?

Description:

The name Chlamydosaurus kingii conjures the image of some kind of savage dinosaur with teeth the size of steak knives. Then you hear that its common name is the frill necked lizard,  and all of a sudden it doesn't seem so tough.

The large frill is supported by cartilage which is attached to the jaw. The frill necked lizard usually has its frill folded back over its body, but sometimes it decides that it needs to look really tough to scare off predators or competitors. 

What better way to do this that to display a large brightly colored frill? The frill makes it seem a lot larger than it actually is to some other animals and suddenly extending it may give the impression of an animal leaping forward to strike. Often this is only enough to buy the lizard time to effect a hasty retreat. I think this guy had a similar idea:

Frill neck lizards are mostly arboreal, however the sparsely forested regions of northern Australia often force them to cross fairly large distances on the ground. When they run, they only run on their hind legs. Many anthropologists believe that human bipedalism comes from a similar situation in Africa millions of years ago. The frill is also used in mating displays. Young frill neck lizards don't have the frill. If you think it looks funny when it gets aggressive,  you should see it run with appropriate comic music:

Distribution:
The frill necked lizard is found in Northern Australia and Southern New Guinea.

Classification:
The frill necked lizard is the only member of the genus Chlamydosaurus. They are member of the Family Agamidae, the dragon/iguana family.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordate
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Squamata
Family: Agamidae
Genus: Chlamydosaurus
Species: Chlamydosaurus kingii

Image Links:

https://daphneshadows.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/best-laid-plans/exif_jpeg_picture/

http://ckenney76.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/f-is-for-frilled-neck-lizard.html

http://www.wondersandmarvels.com/2012/04/ruff-ing-it-and-the-politics-of-fashion.html

Video Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-elqg3s97zc

Creature 123: Dimetrodon

The precursor to mammals from before the dinosaur era

Description:
Everyone had a favorite dinosaur when they were a kid, you can image how disappointed I was when I found out that mine was not a dinosaur at all.

Dimetrodon is a long extinct genus of terrestrial vertebrates. It is known for it unique giant sail like structure on its back. The purpose of the sail is the topic of much speculation. Some think it may have been used for thermoregulation. Others attribute it to an exaggerated mating display. Other compare it to modern species which use structures to exaggerate their size in order to make them more intimidating. I'm sure that is not an exhaustive list.

They ranged in length from 60 to 460 cm depending on species. Their skeleton contains many precursors to various features of modern mammals which are not found in other species from the same period. These flesh eating monsters are from the period before the dinosaurs, the Permian era, possibly having existed 300 million years ago.  By the Permian extinction around 250 million years ago they were probably extinct, and almost certainly did not survive into the first dinosaur period, the Triassic.

Distribution:
Most specimens have been found from south Western United States, but bear in mind that when these things were living the continents looked nothing like they do today.

Classification:
Dimetrodons are not dinosaurs at all, in fact they are more closely related to you than they are to a dinosaur.  They belong to a group called the synapsids. The only surviving members of the synapsid group are the mammals. There are several minor synapsid branches from various eras which have gone extinct since the Dimetrodons.
Dimetrodons were originally places in Class reptilia (a term which I don't approve of) order Pelycosauria. In the light of their relationship with mammals this Classification does not make sense. They are sometimes placed in class Synapsida, but as Mammals also belong to the Synapsid class this group would be paraphyletic unless we demoted mammals to a subclass. The order Pelycosauria is also probably paraphyletic,  or so I'm told and is based on temporal distribution rather than natural history. While we wait for the vertebrate Classifications to catch up with the 1980s we don't really have anywhere to put them.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: see text
Order: see text
Family: Sphenacodontidae
Genus: Dimetrodon

Image Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimetrodon#mediaviewer/File:Dimetrodon_skeleton.jpg

http://www.rareresource.com/pho_dimetrodon.htm

Creature 122: Welwitschia mirabilis

It only has 2 leaves, but can live 2000 years.

Welwitschia mirabilis is the only member of the genus Welwitschia and consequently is usually refterred to only by its generic name. It looks like a rolled up piece of plant debris:

The plant grows only two leaves before the tip of the stem (called the apical meristem) dies off. As the apical meristem is the part of a plant from which new leaves can sprout this causes the plant permanently lose the ability to grow new leaves. The two leaves can continue growing until they reach a length of around 2-4 meters, which is a very big leaf. While they are hard to age exactly botanists are confident that many living specimens are over 1000 years old, and some may be over 2000 years old. Often the leaves will be so tattered and damaged due to events over the last millennium that they appear to have several leaves.

 The plants are either male or female and require insect pollination onto another plant to reproduce. As they are not angiosperms, they do not produce flowers but they do produce a sort of nectarish substance to encourage pollination. Females produce cones like pines.

Distribution:
Welwitschia is endemic to the Namib desert in South Western Africa.

Classification:
Welwitschia mirabilis is not only the only member of its genus, but it is the only surviving species in its whole order, the Welwitschiales. They are in a group called the Gnaetpphta, which I don't think has been officially raised to a phylum yet. Members of this group used to be considered part of the Gymnosperm phylum, which moat botanist now agree is not monophyletic. 

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Gnetophyta
Class: Gnetopsida
Order: Welwitschiales
Family: Welwitschiaceae
Genus: Welwitschia
Species: Welwitschia mirabilis

Image Links:

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welwitschia#mediaviewer/File:Welwitchia.jpg

http://www.bihrmann.com/caudiciforms/subs/wel-mir-sub.asp

http://www.florafinder.com/Species/Welwitschia_mirabilis.php