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| Obscure Taxa; For interesting or obscure organisms you'd like to share. | |
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| Topic Started: Dec 14 2016, 09:46 PM (48,910 Views) | |
| Sayornis | Mar 8 2018, 11:35 PM Post #796 |
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Neotenous
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Fascinating post, Scrub! In a similar vein, Audubon's Birds of America features several enigmatic small passerines including one called the Carbonated Swamp-Warbler. (Carbonated is a word which here means "marked with charcoal color"; nothing to do with fizzy drinks.) It supposedly is, or at least was in 1811, found in Kentucky. His illustration of the alleged warbler can't be matched to any known species, and furthermore it has some unrealistic features such as feathers overlapping in abnormal ways. This level of sloppiness is uncharacteristic of Audubon, and implies that he was not using an actual bird specimen for reference as he normally did. He might have redone a painting from memory to replace an original that was torn up by rats. If this species is real, it is obscure indeed. ![]() Audubon's mysterious Carbonated Swamp-Warbler (image source) The warbler may have been a hybrid, or a specialized and geographically restricted species (like the Kirtland's Warbler) that is now extinct. Another possibility is an unusual Blackpoll Warbler. Similarly, Audubon's other mystery birds may or may not be identifiable as aberrant members (or hybrids) of known species; the Carbonated Swamp-Warbler seems to be the hardest to explain of the flock. ![]() Cuvier's Kinglet, another of the mystery birds; this one is probably just a Golden-Crowned Kinglet with unusually dark and reddish crown. Perhaps worth noting, Audubon did fabricate some imaginary species as pranks. |
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| Yiqi15 | Mar 10 2018, 03:28 PM Post #797 |
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Prime Specimen
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Speaking of mystery animals, there is the Chilihueque or hueque of central and south-central Chile as well as Isla Mocha off the coast. It was recorded in the dutch Joris van Spilbergen's visit to the island, being described as "sheep of a very wonderful shape, having a very long neck and a hump like a camel, a hare lip and very long legs". Its exact mystery is unknown, some suggesting its a breed of llama or alpaca, or a secondary domesticated guanacos. It went extinct in 16th and 17th century being replaced by European livestock, namely sheep.![]() There is also the Syrian camel (Camelus moreli), a 4-meter long ancestor of the dromedary native to the early Holocene. The holotype was found killed by early humans. ![]()
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Current/Completed Projects - After the Holocene: Your run-of-the-mill future evolution project. - A History of the Odessa Rhinoceros: What happens when you ship 28 southern white rhinoceri to Texas and try and farm them? Quite a lot, actually. Future Projects - XenoSphere: The greatest zoo in the galaxy. - The Curious Case of the Woolly Giraffe: A case study of an eocene relic. - Untittled Asylum Studios-Based Project: The truth behind all the CGI schlock - Riggslandia V.II: A World 150 million years in the making Potential Projects - Klowns: The biology and culture of a creepy-yet-fascinating being My Zoochat and Fadom Accounts - Zoochat - Fandom | |
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| The Dodo | Mar 11 2018, 02:28 AM Post #798 |
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Prime Specimen
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Today, I would like to introduce the Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala), a close relative of the Bell Miner which I brought up in a previous post. It’s not as obscure as a lot of species here and if you live in south-eastern Australia chances are you’ve seen it. But, few people seem to recognise some of their more unusual aspects and I don’t think they’re well known over-seas. I’ve never seen them mentioned on the forum either, which is a shame because I think there’s quite a bit of potential in the little monsters. So, Noisy Miners are a species of honeyeater and are part of the Manorina genus which also includes the Yellow-Throated Miner, Black-Eared Miner and Bell Miner. Noisy miners grow to around 24-28cm in length and occur along south-east and east Australia from Tasmania to northern Queensland. They prefer to inhabit dry, open eucalypt forests with little understorey. Noisy Miners are omnivorous and have a varied diet which includes insects, nectar, sap, lerp, fruits, seeds and occasionally small amphibians and reptiles. Feeding takes place by both in trees and on the ground, which is unusual for a honeyeater. The most noteworthy aspect of Noisy Miner biology would be their complex social structure and, due to being a common bird often found near people, it has been well studied. Noisy Miners are highly gregarious forming large colonies which can number in the hundreds. Within the colony, each male bird has an ‘activity space’ which overlaps with those of other males. Males with overlapping activity spaces are called ‘coteries’ which consist of 10 to 25 birds. Temporary flocks called ‘coalitions’ are also formed when birds temporarily engage in the same activity. Females are very intolerant of each other and will only use activity spaces which overlap with those of males and almost never form coalitions with other females. This leads to a strong male-biased sex ratio within colonies. As their name suggests, these birds are very vocal and have a variety of calls which they use to communicate, at least 16 calls have been currently identified but it is likely there are more. Calls include mobbing calls, ground and aerial predator alarms and socialisation calls. Body postures are another important part of communication and include displays such as tall (aggressive) and low (submissive) postures, pointing (threat display), open bill and wing waving. Flight displays combined with calling are also used to communicate and may be used to advertise territory. Breeding is also cooperative, though only the females is responsible for constructing the nest and incubating the eggs. Though, once hatched, the young are fed by males who are mostly from previous broods or siblings of the parents. Some males will only attend a single nest while other will spread themselves out among several. Up to twenty males help with feeding at one nest which is one of the largest group sizes of any communally nesting bird. Due to the previously mentioned intolerance of females to each other, there may be a high mortality rate for fledging females due to the difficulty in securing a place in the colony. Noisy Miner adult with begging chicks Noisy Miners are well known for their aggression, both between their own species and against other species. Within the colony, males will show increased aggression towards birds from different parts of the colony. This aggression is seen between individuals, between individuals and a group and between groups. Aggression is also shown towards fledglings once they reach 11 weeks of age and infanticide has been recorded. Nestling will also fight amongst each other which can result in death. However, they are most well-known for their aggression towards other species. Like with Bell Miners, their aggression extends from mobbing potential predators to attacking potential competitors, mostly small insectivorous and nectarivorous birds. Though, unlike bell miners, their preferred open woodland habitat means they can effectively exclude almost any other small insectivorous and nectarivorous bird from an area of woodland. Noisy Miner attacks also extend to bird species of seemingly no predatory or competitor significance including seed-eating pigeons and waterbirds such as ducks and grebes. Other non-predatory animals will sometimes also be attacked such as large marsupials, bats, livestock and humans, though these attacks are less intense. Larger animals are mobbed until they leave the territory or sit still. Small birds, however, can be killed if caught by repeatedly pecking them on the back of the skull. The nests and young of small birds may also be destroyed. ![]() Noisy Miners attacking a spotted dove (source: http://www.besgroup.org/2008/05/28/noisy-miners-harassing-a-spotted-dove/) Noisy Miners have done well with European settlement of Australia mostly due to the creation of suitable habitat. Miners prefer open forests and woodlands with little to no understorey shrubs so that they can spot any intruders in their territory. This habitat structure is also desired by people for their parks and gardens with many parks and gardens in the suburbans and urban areas of eastern Australia now being colonised by miner colonies. Degraded fragments of forest and woodland left after agricultural clearing are also good miner habitat as the sharp boundaries between wooded and cleared areas prove to be easily defendable. Due to these new conditions, Noisy Miner populations are now denser than they were previously and continue to increase in number. However, the success of noisy miners has had a deleterious impact on small woodland birds. As mentioned before, miners aggressively exclude other small birds and as they expand their colonies they push other birds out. Parks, gardens and agricultural properties which use to have a variety of small birds are now instead occupied by large noisy miner colonies that can stretch for kilometres in areas of suitable habitat. Noisy Miner colonies work to increase the negative effects of land clearance by rendering fragments left over from clearing uninhabitable to small birds. Attempts to revegetate areas can also have negative effects as the fast-growing Eucalypt species usually used for revegetation work provide the open forest structure that miners love allowing them to occupy the area. Species which are currently threatened by noisy miner activity include threatened species such as the Scarlet Robin and the critically endangered Regent Honeyeater. Other than a decrease in bird diversity, noisy miners may also negatively impact the health of trees by excluding insectivorous birds that help reduce insect defoliation. Though, this does not lead to mass die-backs as with Bell Miners. There is also some worry that they may reduce the capacity of eucalypts to adapt to climate change as eucalypts have relatively immobile seeds and may rely more on cross-breeding from different climate zones rather than moving distribution to cope with climate change. Noisy miners are sedentary pollinators with home ranges of less than 200 metres and may drive more mobile pollinators away. The negative effects of noisy miners has been recognised in scientific and conservation communities for some time now. Some have labelled them as ‘reverse keystone’ species due to their ability to decrease the biodiversity of an area. Over-abundant noisy miner populations are included as a Key Threatening Process to biodiversity by the Australian federal government alongside land clearance and invasive species such as foxes, cats and cane toads. There are also some people who consider them to be a bigger threat to bird diversity than the Common or Indian Myna, a similar looking but unrelated bird introduced from Asia who violently eject animals from their nesting hollows. However, unlike the Common Myna, Noisy Miners are a native bird and are protected by law making the formation of control programs difficult. Translocation is an unlikely solution due to the large amount of effort it would take, translocated birds may also return to their original territory. Culls have been performed in the past and often resulted in an increased abundance and diversity of small woodland birds. Revegetation plantings which utilise a dense shrub layer and have a wide diameter may also help by creating unsuitable habitat for miners. |
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| Octoaster | Mar 11 2018, 04:26 AM Post #799 |
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Meanwhile at Customer Support
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When my mother was a child a noisy mynah stuck its head into her canary's cage and snapped its neck for no reason. |
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"The only thing that would scar me for life would be pics and videos of hetero sex." - Flisch "Die" - Arachnus "though critising misseppls is hypcocresi on my part" - Archeoraptor "You deserve to be abandoned!" - Arachnus Open at own risk.
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| Archeoraptor | Mar 11 2018, 04:52 AM Post #800 |
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"A living paradox"
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can these birds nest in the ground? |
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Astarte an alt eocene world,now on long hiatus but you never know Fanauraa; The rebirth of Aotearoa future evo set in new zealand after a mass extinction coming soon......a world that was seeded with earth´s weridest and who knows what is coming next........... " I have to know what the world will be looking throw a future beyond us I have to know what could have been if fate acted in another way I have to know what lies on the unknown universe I have to know that the laws of thee universe can be broken throw The Spec I gain strength to the inner peace the is not good of evil only nature and change,the evolution of all livings beings" " Spoiler: click to toggle | |
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| HangingThief | Mar 11 2018, 01:13 PM Post #801 |
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ghoulish
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The Machaerotidae, sometimes referred to as tube spittlebugs, are a family of sap- drinking homopterans native to Asia and Australia. Closely related to spittlebugs (whose nymphs avoid predation by hiding in a mass of foam whipped from excreted sap), the nymphs of tube spittlebugs construct a significantly sturdier shelter- a solid tube cemented to their foodplant, constructed mostly of calcium carbonate.![]() ![]() So yeah... calcareous encrusting animals are a thing on land. Presumably they get the calcium by breaking down the cell walls or raphides of their foodplant. The adults are pretty normal planthopper- type things, usually with long thoracic spines. ![]()
Edited by HangingThief, Mar 11 2018, 01:14 PM.
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Hey. | |
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| Octoaster | Mar 11 2018, 08:59 PM Post #802 |
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Meanwhile at Customer Support
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Alright so I think I've discovered a new favourite reptile. I love snakes enough already, so when I found out there's a small amphibious snake that has mobile tentacles on the end of its snout I was pretty fuckin excited. Erpeton tentaculatum, the aptly named Tentacled Snake, is native to southeast asia. ![]() The purpose of the tentacles has been a subject of debate, but most are pretty sure they're used in predicting the movements of the fish on which it feeds. Despite these unique and potentially first-time adaptations and features the species shows, there's no denying that these stringbeans are the best thing in the history of south eastern asiatic waterways.
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"The only thing that would scar me for life would be pics and videos of hetero sex." - Flisch "Die" - Arachnus "though critising misseppls is hypcocresi on my part" - Archeoraptor "You deserve to be abandoned!" - Arachnus Open at own risk.
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| Flisch | Mar 16 2018, 07:39 AM Post #803 |
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Superhuman
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Does anyone of you remember Dendrogramma? You know, that mushroom-shaped thing from the deepsea that couldn't be affiliated with anything? Turns out that it's not some ediacaran leftover, but rather part of a larger yet unidentified siphonophore. It's still curious on the grounds that unlike its relatives it doesn't have stinging cells, but otherwise, it's not nearly as mysterious as before. |
| We have a discord. If you want to join, simply message me, Icthyander or Sphenodon. | |
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| HangingThief | Mar 16 2018, 08:40 AM Post #804 |
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ghoulish
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I wonder if the fact that several specimens were collected via bottom dredging indicates that the siphonophore lives buried in mud with the mushroom appendages protruding. |
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Hey. | |
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| LλmbdaExplosion | Mar 16 2018, 08:53 AM Post #805 |
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Vieja Argentea the oscar cichlid
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Basically we are looking at the future of cyprinidae.I mean that they will remain a few species from once a glorious clade of fish.Anyways They look like cute loaches and asian carps for a reason Edited by Zorcuspine, Mar 16 2018, 03:32 PM.
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When life give you lemons.............Don't make lemonade!Make life to take the lemons back!Get mad and than.........Yell,demand and burn down their homes. Prepare for unforeseen consequences,Mr. Freeman! | |
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| LλmbdaExplosion | Mar 16 2018, 12:50 PM Post #806 |
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Vieja Argentea the oscar cichlid
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If a mata mata had a baby with a viper. |
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When life give you lemons.............Don't make lemonade!Make life to take the lemons back!Get mad and than.........Yell,demand and burn down their homes. Prepare for unforeseen consequences,Mr. Freeman! | |
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| Flisch | Mar 16 2018, 01:18 PM Post #807 |
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Superhuman
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You really don't have to quote an entire post with 3+ pictures and paragraphs for one line of response. |
| We have a discord. If you want to join, simply message me, Icthyander or Sphenodon. | |
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| LλmbdaExplosion | Mar 16 2018, 01:24 PM Post #808 |
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Vieja Argentea the oscar cichlid
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I text on this site from my smartphone so i am a bit lazy with tapping .I know but how i could avoid that? |
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When life give you lemons.............Don't make lemonade!Make life to take the lemons back!Get mad and than.........Yell,demand and burn down their homes. Prepare for unforeseen consequences,Mr. Freeman! | |
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| Beetleboy | Mar 16 2018, 01:26 PM Post #809 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Don't be lazy? |
| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |
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| Zorcuspine | Mar 16 2018, 03:32 PM Post #810 |
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Enjoying our azure blue world
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Fixed your post, you can edit it to see how I did so. |
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