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Obscure Taxa; For interesting or obscure organisms you'd like to share.
Topic Started: Dec 14 2016, 09:46 PM (48,961 Views)
lamna
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Insects are really cool, but they are hard to do spec with since it seems like they've done it all.

I wanted to do a mantis-like insect in Kanaloa. So I thought maybe grasshoppers would be a good place to start. But then I remembered that always happened during the Triassic with the Titanopterans.
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http://www.deviantart.com/art/Titanopteran-616794078

So I was shopping around and found out about mantis-flies, which were already around in the Jurassic.
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When I was doing my Hawker Moths I also found something really neat, there are living moths with "normal" mandibles, rather than a proboscis. Micropterigidae, neat!
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Living Fossils

Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural


34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur.
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Are nipples or genitals necessary, lamna?
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Archeoraptor
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"A living paradox"
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JohnFaa
Dec 19 2016, 06:32 PM


Eogruiidae

Flightless, ostrich-mimic cranes that lived from the Eocene to Pliocene in Eurasia.

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I have those in Astarte, so then is sure to say that they are gruiforms?
Astarte an alt eocene world,now on long hiatus but you never know
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coming soon......a world that was seeded with earth´s weridest
and who knows what is coming next...........

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Carlos
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Yes, a recent phylogenetic study confirmed them to be closely related to cranes and trumpeters
Lemuria:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/

Terra Alternativa:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/

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HangingThief
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ghoulish
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lamna
Dec 22 2016, 06:08 PM
Insects are really cool, but they are hard to do spec with since it seems like they've done it all.

So true. I once thought I was being all original in making insects that inflate hollow mouthparts with fluid to shoot them ike a chameleon's tongue, but it turns out there's already a beetle that does that.

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Hey.


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Dromaeosaurus
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Haemothermic orthostatic matrotrophic lexiphanic deuterostome
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Pandoravirus is a giant virus with a genome of 2.5 million base pairs and a length of a micrometer, much larger than other giant viruses such as Mimivirus or Megavirus, and even some bacteria. Like the other giant viruses - and cellular organisms - its genetic material is double-strand DNA. Living inside amoebas, it lacks capsid proteins and it's covered by a three-layered structure open at one end. Like its morphology, 93% of its genome is unrelated to anything known, though its gene for DNA polymerase resembles that of other giant viruses.
It has been called a "missing link" between viruses and cellular life: is it a virus that has evolved in a new direction? Is it a degenerate parasitic prokaryote that has lost most of its molecular apparatus, effectively turning into a virus? Is it something completely new and unrelated to anything else?

http://www.sci-news.com/biology/science-pandoravirus-giant-01253.html
http://www.virology.ws/2013/08/01/pandoravirus-bigger-and-unlike-anything-seen-before/

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Limnognathia maerski is one of the smallest known animals, measuring only a tenth of a millimeter, but that doesn't prevent it from having a jaw made out of fifteen parts, some smaller than most cells, connected by muscle and ligaments. It uses this microscopic jaw to chew individual bacteria and diatoms, and to spit out the indigestible remains. It even has a nerve cluster in the front that extends into two ventral cords. It seems to be a sequential hermaphrodite, hatching as a male and maturing into a female. Discovered only in 1994, it gets a whole phylum for itself - Micrognathozoa (literally "animal with a tiny jaw").

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DINOCARID
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Dang, I wasn't aware of either of those guys... ...For some reason, the pandoravirus is creeping me out. I really don't know why.
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

HangingThief
Dec 23 2016, 11:59 AM
So true. I once thought I was being all original in making insects that inflate hollow mouthparts with fluid to shoot them ike a chameleon's tongue, but it turns out there's already a beetle that does that.
This genus also features the ability to shoot a surfactant compound out of their anus that lowers the surface tension of water, so if they're standing in a puddle or some such they can let loose and the beetle slides away at some speed in the opposite direction.

In general rove beetles seem excellent at producing all sorts of odd compounds. The genus Pella, which live in ant nests, mimic the alarm pheromones of the ant species hosting them to avoid being attacked. Truly bizarre.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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HangingThief
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Holben
Dec 23 2016, 03:48 PM


In general rove beetles seem excellent at producing all sorts of odd compounds. The genus Pella, which live in ant nests, mimic the alarm pheromones of the ant species hosting them to avoid being attacked. Truly bizarre.
Mimicking pheromones to avoid being attacked by ants isn't a particularly unique ability though. There are hundreds of species (called "myrmecophiles" or "ant guests") that do this, from more than ten families of beetles to crickets, cockroaches, caterpillars, wasps, flies, spiders, silverfish, and possibly even snails that do everything from soliciting a little food from workers to devouring large quantities of larvae. Possibly the strangest is a mite that attaches itself to tip of an army ant's foot, its own enlarged hind legs replacing the ant's claws.
Hey.


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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

I was under the impression that actually producing the pheromones yourself was very rare- but many arthropods have found other ways around it, like zodariid spiders carrying around a paralysed ant in front of them that supplies the necessary pheromonal and tactile cues to pass. I've read about the silverfish but I only recall them using different molecules in their exoskeleton (specifically, cuticular hydrocarbons, which are responsible for preventing dessication in insects) to evade detection, and then deliberately pushing against ants to provide the tactile signals, without producing any actual pheromones.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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HangingThief
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Holben
Dec 23 2016, 04:53 PM
I was under the impression that actually producing the pheromones yourself was very rare- but many arthropods have found other ways around it, like zodariid spiders carrying around a paralysed ant in front of them that supplies the necessary pheromonal and tactile cues to pass. I've read about the silverfish but I only recall them using different molecules in their exoskeleton (specifically, cuticular hydrocarbons, which are responsible for preventing dessication in insects) to evade detection, and then deliberately pushing against ants to provide the tactile signals, without producing any actual pheromones.
Yeah I think you're right. Many of them just mask their own odor and absorb that of the colony. Considering that the pheromones mimicked by the staphylinid beetle you mentioned are alarm pheromones, I wouldn't be surprised if it also employs this tactic, just using the pheromones it produces to avoid being attacked before it gets a chance absorb the colony odor.


There are also predatory rove beetles that mimic sex pheromones to attract victims.
Edited by HangingThief, Dec 23 2016, 06:22 PM.
Hey.


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Dragonthunders
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The ethereal archosaur in blue

The fairyflies (Mymaridae) are a family of wasps found in temperate and tropical regions throughout the world, both in terrestrial as some aquatic environments, are characterized by being the smallest insects ever, some species as small as amoebas or other protozoa.

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Vorsa
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How do they even function!?
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Birbs

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Troll Man
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pretend this says something funny

Today is the day some of you will learn about some crustaceans that you may or may not have heard of (and I think are pretty interesting)!

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Branchiura is a group of crustaceans related to coepods and barnacles (among others), which contains two subgroups, one of which is extinct.

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The living group is (Argulidae) are commonly known as fish lice, which you've probably heard of if you've ever kept fish before. As their name implies they are ectoparasites of fish and other aquatic animals; they can grow more than an inch long and are therefore usually easily visible on a host.

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They attach themselves with little suction cups behind the spiky antennae and proboscis, which are used to pierce the skin to feed on blood and mucus. However they are able to detach themselves and swim freely with feathery appendages to find a mate, lay eggs or find a new host. They can last several weeks between feedings.

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quite a few interesting shapes

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They'd look pretty cute with their little beady eyes and blotchy carapaces (which is why they interested me), but they're also nasty parasites that should never ever be seen in an aquarium.

Oh yeah, also, they're venomous.

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What's the other extinct group you may ask? They're known as cycloids (of the group Cyclida), and they lasted from the Carboniferous all the way to the end of the Cretaceous. Along with the euthycarcinoids and thylacocephalans, they were one of the three groups of archaic Paleozoic arthropods that survived into the Mesozoic.

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Before they were classified as crustaceans they were sometimes considered trilobites (Mesozoic trilobites, imagine that...) or were sometimes confused with trilobites. They were very similar to crabs and are (at least in part) believed to have become extinct as true crabs became more diverse and widespread during the Cretaceous.

The largest known species reached about seven centimetres across in carapace length.

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The last group (which may or may not even be crustaceans), are the tongue worms (of the group Pentastomida). They definitely top my personal opinion of weirdest arthropods, because they don't look so much like arthropods as they do look like segmented worms (particularly tapeworms). All known species are obligate endoparasites of the respiratory systems of vertebrate animals (including humans), and can reach up to thirteen centimetres in length.

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do these look like arthropods to you? (female top, male bottom)


They are extremely derived and also extremely old (with fossils dating back from the Early Cambrian), and so they outwardly do not resemble arthropods and lack many organ systems. However, they have a chitinous exoskeleton and their larvae have two pairs of jointed appendages (which help them to burrow through the flesh of their host). Several molecular studies suggest at a classification as maxillopod crustaceans and a possible sister taxon relationship with Branchiura.

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"A, Pentastoma tamoides, female, of the natural size; C, Male of the same, of the natural size ; B, Larva of the same, greatly enlarged, showing the two pairs of articulated limbs."


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Armillifer armillatus in the lung of a young ball python.
Isla del Mundo Perdido! Diyu! R'lyeh!

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lamna
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Great, now I find out about them after I've already had land isopods rather than land crabs. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find something to do with cycloids.

Quick contribution, cool and strange rodents. Friendly leaf-eared mouse, Bunny rat, Pearson's long-clawed akodont, Long-clawed mole mouse, Painted big-eared mouse and Intelligent grass mouse.

That's just the best from Chile. There are a lot of rodents out there, many of whom have basically no information on them on wikipedia beyond taxonomy and "this is a mouse, it eats seeds and lives in Chile and Peru"
Edited by lamna, Dec 23 2016, 09:17 PM.
Living Fossils

Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural


34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur.
T.Neo
 
Are nipples or genitals necessary, lamna?
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Sayornis
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I've heard of those micro-wasps! They have a very rudimentary nervous system, to save space:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/11/30/how-fairy-wasps-cope-with-being-smaller-than-amoebas/#.WF3jVn2H61s

Now, for a taxon I actually have encountered firsthand:

Caudina/Molpadia arenicola, also known as the Sweet Potato Sea Cucumber, is a sea cucumber found off the Pacific coast of North America. Unusual for a sea cucumber, it has no tube feet. They normally dwell in deep water, burrowing in the substrate, but sometimes wash up on the shore.

Here is a photo I took myself of a beached juvenile one I found one high-surf morning:
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There were hundreds of these, variable in size and shape, and some wriggling. I thought they were octopus eggs. The local gulls, who don't care about taxonomic distinctions, were eating the translucent creatures. No one on iNaturalist or the Wikipedia reference desk could identify them, so I had to send my photos to a marine biologist at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (who sent me the first of the articles below).

There doesn't seem to be much coverage of these creatures online, but here are a couple links:
http://www.sdnews.com/view/full_story/12667891/article-Tidelines---I-yam-what-I-yam--said-the-sea-cucumber?instance=update1
Another sighting of juveniles:
http://www.deepseanews.com/2016/11/what-are-these-strange-round-blobs-on-a-southern-california-beach/
Edited by Sayornis, Dec 23 2016, 10:06 PM.
The Library is open. (Now under new management!)
Dr Nitwhite
Aug 19 2016, 07:42 PM
As I said before, the Library is like spec crack.
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