Food Art

Below are several examples of "food art" taken from this gallery:

Newly Discovered Iron-breathing Microbes

Researchers have reported that a reservoir of briny liquid buried deep beneath an Antarctic glacier supports microbes that have lived in isolation for millions of years. It's a bit like finding a forest that nobody has seen for 1.5 million years.

The discovery of life was in a place where cold, darkness, and lack of oxygen would previously have led scientists to believe nothing could survive.

Despite their profound isolation, the microbes are remarkably similar to species found in modern marine environments, suggesting that the organisms now under the glacier are the remnants of a larger population that once occupied an open fjord or sea.

Chemical analysis from the inaccessible subglacial pool suggests that its inhabitants have lived by breathing iron leached from bedrock with the help of a sulfur catalyst. Lacking any light to support photosynthesis, the microbes have presumably survived by feeding on the organic matter trapped with them when the massive Taylor Glacier sealed off their habitat an estimated 1.5 to 2 million years ago.

The samples were taken at Antarctica's Blood Falls, a frozen waterfall-like feature at the edge of the Taylor Glacier whose striking red appearance first drew early explorers' attention in 1911. Scientists have determined that the coloration is due to rust, which the new research shows was likely liberated from subglacial bedrock by microorganisms.

Original article here.

Vast Black Coral Forest Found

The narrow stretch of water known as the Strait of Messina hides the world's largest forest of black coral, according to a new survey of the Mediterranean sea bed.

Using an underwater robot, marine biologists found almost 30,000 colonies of Antipathella subpinnata coral at a depth of between 180 and 328 feet.

The coral was found near the town of Scilla, off the coast Calabria in southern Italy.

Images taken by the robot showed a seascape completely dominated by spectacular tree-like colonies of black coral, some more than 3 feet high. This is the first time these rare species have been observed in their natural habitat.

A living organism that grows like a plant in deep sea waters, black coral derives its scientific name from the Greek words "anti," for against, and "pathos," for disease. Indeed, black coral amulets were once believed to protect against diseases and evil spirits.

The most highly sought after of all coral species for their use in jewelry, all black corals are listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which records species at risk of extinction if trade is not controlled.

Original article here.

Extinct Animals Photographed Alive

Below are several examples from this list of 11 extinct animals that have been photographed alive.

Tasmanian Tigers:



Quagga:



Bubal Hartebeest:



Baiji River Dolphin:



Original article here.

Crab Riding Jellyfish

Below is a video of a crab hitching a ride on a jellyfish. Small juveniles of this species -- called Graceful Rock Crabs -- are often seen riding jellyfish. The crabs steal food from the jellyfish and also clean off parasitic amphipods.

Clouded Leopard Cubs Survive the Odds

Despite the murderous tendencies of the species while in captivity, two newborn clouded leopard cubs were found alive and well at the National Zoo.

The cubs were taken immediately from their mother before she could do them harm. Zoos have found that when a female becomes pregnant, she often kills her young accidentally or intentionally.

Below are several pictures of the cubs and their parents. The cubs eyes are not yet open. See here for a full gallery of pictures.







The mother, Jao Chu:



The father, Hannibal. The mother and father reached puberty together, increasing the likelihood that the male would not kill the female:

Crabs may feel and remember pain

New research suggests that crabs not only suffer pain but that they retain a memory of it. The scientific study applied mild electric shocks to hermit crabs to determine if they could 'feel' pain.

Hermit crabs have no shell of their own so inhabit other structures, usually empty mollusc shells.

In the research, wires were attached to shells to deliver the small shocks to the abdomen of some of the crabs within the shells. The only crabs to get out of their shells were those which had received shocks, indicating that the experience is unpleasant for them.

The research suggests that this response is not just a reflex, but that central neuronal processing takes place.

Hermit crabs are known to prefer some species of shells to others and it was found that that they were more likely to come out of the shells they least preferred.

The main aim of the experiment was to deliver a shock just under the threshold that causes crabs to move out of the shell, to see what happened when a new shell was then offered.

Crabs that had been shocked but had remained in their shell appeared to remember the experience of the shock because they quickly moved towards the new shell, investigated it briefly and were more likely to change to the new shell compared to those that had not been shocked.

Original article here.

InvisiShrimp

Coin-Size Frog Found

The smallest known frog species in the world has been discovered in the second largest mountain range. Scientists searching the Andes mountains' upper Cosnipata Valley in southern Peru, near Cusco, spotted the coin-size creature in the leaf litter of a cloud forest at around 10,000 feet. Females grow to 0.49 inches at most. Males make it to only 0.44 inches.





Original article here.

Time-Lapse Videos of Nature at Work

From this list of "Time Lapse Videos of Nature at Work" come the following:

Painted Lady butterflies develop and emerge:



Corn roots and leaves growing:



Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms growing:



Rotting apple: