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Nature

Female Python Gives Birth Without Male Contact in At Least 15 Years

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Python - Pixabay

Snake #361003 at the Saint Louis Zoo has laid a clutch of eggs despite not being near a male snake in decades. The ball python, at least 62-years-old, surely deserves a name after pulling off the remarkable feat. The snake has been at the zoo since 1961 and hasn’t even seen a male snake in more than 15 years. “We’re saying 15 plus years, but I mean, it’s probably easily closer to 30 years since she’s been physically with a male,” Mark Wanner, the Zoological Manager of Herpetology told CNN. Full Story at LGBTQ Nation

U=(N/T)M*G: Venom

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Three bees tending to a honeycomb section.

Despite the fact this year has been cursed, and yes I really believe that, we’re lucky a few rays of blissful sunlight have shown through. We, as a society, are figuring out new and exciting ways to connect to each other. Many are taking the lock-downs as a great opportunity to create or hone things they’ve wanted more time on. And yet more are taking that staycation they’ve needed for years. It’s been difficult, stressful, even heart-wrenching at times this year, but we’re managing. Here’s one of those little rays of sunshine to get your writing brain thinking. Bees. Yes, … Read more

NATURE: This Vampire Parasite Eats Tongues

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tongue-eating louse

When scientists recently X-rayed a fish’s head, they found a gruesome stowaway: A “vampire” crustacean had devoured, then replaced, its host’s tongue. The buglike isopod, also called a tongue biter or tongue-eating louse, keeps sucking its blood meals from a fish’s tongue until the entire structure withers away. Then the true horror begins, as the parasite assumes the organ’s place in the still-living fish’s mouth. Biologist Kory Evans, an assistant professor in the Department of BioSciences at Rice University in Houston, Texas, discovered the tongue biter while digitizing X-rays of fish skeletons. He shared images of the surprising and horrifying … Read more

Newly Discovered “Joker” Spider Named for Joaquin Phoenix

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Joker Spider

A newfound spider species wears a striking red-and-white pattern on its back that resembles the grin worn by Batman’s long-standing nemesis, the Joker. The resemblance is so uncanny that the researchers who described the arachnid named the species after actor Joaquin Phoenix, who portrayed the tormented, smiling villain in the 2019 film, “Joker.” Ironically, the colorful spider belongs to a genus that was named for the late punk rock icon Lou Reed, who famously wore black and rarely smiled. Scientists discovered Loureedia phoenixi in Iran; it’s the first Loureedia spider to be identified outside the Mediterranean region, they reported in … Read more

SCIENCE: Naked Mole Rats, CO2, and Seizures

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naked mole rat - deposit photos

Naked mole rats are supremely weird creatures — they don’t need much oxygen, and instead have seizures if they don’t get enough carbon dioxide, the chemical humans exhale when we breathe, researchers just found.The scientists found that the wrinkled rodents will even seek out areas that have been infused with the gas. But why? Turns out, due to a genetic mutation, naked mole rats lack an important switch in their brains that helps to tamp down electrical activity in the organ, and thus, prevent seizures, according to a new study published today (April 30) in the journal Current Biology. This … Read more

Ancient “Crazy Beast” With Teeth from “Outer Space”

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Adalatherium hui

The oldest complete mammal fossil from the Southern Hemisphere is puzzling scientists with its mismatched body, strange skull holes and teeth that look like they’re “from outer space.” The new fossil, reported today (April 29) in the journal Nature, is the oldest (and only) nearly complete skeleton from an extinct group of mammals known as Gondwanatherians. This mysterious bunch lived alongside the dinosaurs on the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. They’re known from a smattering of teeth and bone fragments, a single skull and the new, remarkable skeleton of an animal whose discoverers have dubbed the “crazy beast.” The fossil is … Read more

Plot Bunnies: Animal Super Powers

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In this episode of Life’s Little Mysteries, we’ll take a closer look at mysterious animal abilities that are so incredible they might as well be superpowers. How do animals breathe underwater? Why can microscopic tardigrades survive being frozen for decades? And what’s the biggest animal that a snake can swallow? Listen to Life’s Little Mysteries 18: Mysterious Animal Superpowers, to find out!  We’ll also hear about how monkeys can outperform humans at problem-solving, and we’ll explore the grossest, stickiest animal superpower — making slime. Full Story From Live Science 

U=(N/T)M*G: Decade

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Cool cats, we’ve entered a new decade and I’m on the edge of my seat about it. The 2010’s were a circus for me, personally and publicly and politically, a roller coaster of wildness I’m hoping won’t be repeated. It wasn’t all bad. I started my writing career and had a son, got married and got divorced, made friends and lost friends and rekindled my zest for life. The last decade was something to behold, a time to look back and shake my head in wonder that I manage to knuckle under, survive it mostly on nothing by spite. The … Read more

The Penis Fish Are Invading California!

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Penis Fish - Twitter

Thousands of the 10-inch-long “penis fish” washed up after a recent storm, and reportedly the sight of them stretches for miles. While their scientific name is Urechis caupo and they are also known as fat innkeeper worms, the wriggling pink invertebrates are most commonly referred to as “penis fish” – for obvious reasons. According to a nature magazine local to San Francisco, Bay Nature, penis fish usually live in U-shaped burrows under the sand, but recent storms caused strong waves that swept the sand away, leaving the phallic organisms exposed. Full Story From Pink News 

When Plants Scream

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plant scream - pixabay

In times of intense stress, people sometimes let out their angst with a squeal ⁠— and a new study suggests that plants might do the same. Unlike human screams, however, plant sounds are too high-frequency for us to hear them, according to the research, which was posted Dec. 2 on the bioRxiv database. But when researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel placed microphones near stressed tomato and tobacco plants, the instruments picked up the crops’ ultrasonic squeals from about 4 inches (10 centimeters) away. The noises fell within a range of 20 to 100 kilohertz, a volume that could … Read more