bizarre nature

[butters]

Born into an inky deep sea world, the males of certain anglerfish species exist solely to sniff out their mates. Upon locating his lady (who might be up to 60 times his size), the male will nip at her belly. His mouth then dissolves in a sludge of chemicals that physically fuse him to his bioluminescent bride, forever commingling his blood and tissues with hers.


With the help of modern genetic sequencing, Dr. Boehm and his colleagues may have solved this deep sea dilemma. Anglerfish have largely jettisoned a branch of the immune system that’s been a fixture of vertebrate bodies for the last 500 million years, they report in a study published Thursday in Science. The adaptation may help the clingiest of couples stick together.

It’s a substantial sacrifice to make, even for sex: Similar changes would be lethal for humans — and no other animals have yet been documented doing the same.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/...te=1&user_id=33e9b2b47b7f7761a48a8053d434359c

never heard of that one before!

 

[rae121452]

and here i thought seahorses were the kinkiest denizens of the ocean since the male incubates the babies in his mouth.

 

[butters]

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20160725-where-nature-plays-magic-tricks

It took a NASA scientist to crack the case. In 2006, Ralph Lorenz developed a kitchen table model using a small rock frozen in an inch of water in a Tupperware container to demonstrate ice shove, the phenomenon behind the mysterious sailing stones.

In winter, Racetrack Playa fills with water and the lakebed’s stones become encased in ice. Thanks to ice’s buoyancy, even a light breeze can send those frozen boulders sailing across the muddy bottom of the lakebed. Stones with rough bottoms leave straight tracks, while those with smooth bottoms drift and digress. Warmer months melt the ice and evaporate the water, leaving only the stones and their mysterious trails.

the pepto-bismol lake, non-toxic and super-saline

Pink Lake Hillier, Australia

Fly over Western Australia for a rare visual treat: nestled among dense emerald-green woodlands surrounded by the deep blue of the Southern Ocean are a series of lakes in a shocking shade of bubblegum pink.

 

[butters]

and here i thought seahorses were the kinkiest denizens of the ocean since the male incubates the babies in his mouth.

?

i knew they gave birth to them but do you mean afterwards, like cichlids? wouldn't have thought their mouth-shapes would allow that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_nEA3dtOZs

 

[butters]

http://www.shangralafamilyfun.com/bizarrenature.htmlcoconut crabs.. the largest hermit crabs, can crack the nuts by bashing them!