Category: Uncategorized

This 11 July 2019 video says about itself:

The fossilised remains of a bizarre ancient bird that had middle toes longer than its lower legs have been found in a lump of amber from Myanmar. The elongated toe resembles those seen on lemurs and tree-climbing lizards, and illustrates the unusual lifestyle of some of the earliest birds that lived alongside the dinosaurs, researchers said.

From ScienceDaily:

Bird with unusually long toes found fossilized in amber

July 11, 2019

Meet the ancient bird that had toes longer than its lower legs. Researchers have discovered a bird foot from 99 million years ago preserved in amber that had a hyper-elongated third toe. The study, published in the journal Current Biology on July 11, suggests that this bird might have used its toes to hook food out of tree trunks. This is the first time such a foot structure has…

By Jamie Seidel | news.com.au

https://www.foxnews.com/science/supervolcano-fears-big-one-is-coming

This video is about red-eyed vireos.

These birds live in North America.

This 12 June 2019 video is about a marsh wren singing in Canada.

Green Iguana, Belize, native

Last week in Part 1 of this series we looked at lizards’ antipredator adaptations, camouflage, and size. Today we look at their skin, and various ways they move, sense, and communicate.

For starters, they are gloriously prehistoric. When you watch a lizard, especially the way it moves, it’s almost as if you are watching a dinosaur. The evolution of reptiles dates back 310-320 million years; more info here. 

Marine Iguana, Galapagos Islands

Blue-tongued Lizard pair, entwined, Sydney, Australia

Spiny-tailed Lizard, Ambergris Caye, Belize

Skin. Lizard skin is covered with overlapping scales made of keratin, providing protection from the environment. Scales also help prevent water loss, especially important in hot, dry deserts.

This photo shows the textured scales.

Western Fence Lizard, California

Tough and leathery, lizard skin is shed as the animal grows; they usually eat it for the minerals.

Locomotion.  Lizards live on the ground, in…

This June 2018 video says about itself:

White-faced capuchin (Cebus capucinus imitator) stone tool use in Coiba National Park, Panama

Higher Quality Supplemental Video from the paper “Habitual stone-tool aided extractive foraging in white-faced capuchins, Cebus capucinus.” Currently up on BioRxiV as a preprint and in peer review.

Preprint available here.

By Bruce Bower, 11:00am, June 24, 2019:

Capuchin monkeys’ stone-tool use has evolved over 3,000 years

A Brazilian site shows the animals’ long history of selecting various types of pounding devices

Excavations in Brazil have pounded out new insights into the handiness of ancient monkeys.

South American capuchin monkeys have not only hammered and dug with carefully chosen stones for the last 3,000 years, but also have selected pounding tools of varying sizes and weights along the way.

Capuchin stone implements recovered at a site in northeastern Brazil display signs of shifts during the last three millennia…

This 22 June 2019 video says about itself:

Two beluga whales make epic journey from China to Iceland sanctuary

Two beluga whales from an aquarium in Shanghai have arrived in Iceland on June 19 to live out their days in a unique marine sanctuary that conservationists hope will become a model for rehoming some 3,000 of the creatures currently in captivity.

This video is about birds on and around Mälaren lake in Sweden.

Featuring grey lag geese, oystercatcher, yellowhammer and more.

This 2 March 2019 video shows a peach-fronted parakeet feeding in Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil.