Nature is wild

The Corinthian

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Venus and Jupiter Conjunction: Planets to almost touch in night sky


Look up in the sky at the right moment this weekend and you could see two of the solar system's brightest planets almost touching.
Venus and Jupiter will be millions of miles apart, but from Earth they will appear close to colliding.
This planetary conjunction happens annually but this year they will appear much closer than usual.
The same spectacle won't occur again like this until 2039.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61259569.amp
 

The Corinthian

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Was reading about Krakatoa and stumbled across this vid

 

Cheimoon

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This is apparently the 'first known case of a mammal copying an insect to deter hostile species" (there are plenty of other kinds of imitiations, of course). Although I read elsewhere that more research is required to really understand what's happening here, because the relevant owls (who fly by night) would never meet those hornets (who fly by day); so why would they care so much?
Nature Briefing said:
Bats buzz like hornets to scare off owls

Some bats can imitate the sound of buzzing hornets to scare off owls — the first documented case of a mammal mimicking an insect to deter predators. Researchers compared the sound structure of buzzing by the European hornet (Vespa crabro) to that of the distress call of greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis). At most frequencies, the two sounds were not dramatically similar, but they were when the bat’s call was stripped down to include only frequencies that owls can hear. “It makes total sense to me that bats, with their remarkable vocal abilities, would resort to acoustic means to fool predators,” says animal-behaviour ecologist Mirjam Knörnschild.
Click to expand...
Nature news article: Bats buzz like hornets to scare off owl predators (nature.com)
Scientific article from Current Biology: Bats mimic hymenopteran insect sounds to deter predators - ScienceDirect
 
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Cheimoon

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The Corinthian said:
Really interesting article -


The Surprisingly Sophisticated Mind Of An Insect
Insects appear to be more intelligent and emotionally complex than we give them credit for. Perhaps, new research suggests, they are even conscious.


https://www.noemamag.com/the-surprisingly-sophisticated-mind-of-an-insect/
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Oops - do I have to feel bad now about the few dozen mosquitos I have squashed so far this spring? ;)

Other than that, yeah, interesting issue - although I guess mostly philosophically.
 

Cheimoon

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These frogs are totally amazing.
Nature Briefing said:
Let me introduce you to the pumpkin toadlet (Brachycephalus spp.), a group of frogs so tiny that when they jump, they never make the landing. Their teeny-tiny inner ears just don’t have room for a functioning vestibular system to keep them oriented — resulting in comical, but totally harmless, flailing. “Oh my God, the derpiness,” says biologist Martha Muñoz.
Click to expand...
Article: A Frog So Small, It Could Not Frog - The Atlantic

Here is what its jumps can look like:

Caption: "Brachycephalus coloratus (left) and Brachycephalus pernix (right), two species of pumpkin toadlets, trying and failing to land their jumps. To compel the frogs to leap, researchers tapped behind them or directly nudged them with a straw. (Richard Essner / Southern Illinois University Edwardsville)"

Unsurprisingly, these frogs aren't big on jumping. From the article:
The frogs don’t seem to like to jump—looking “kind of grumpy,” Essner said, when they do—and deploy the tactic only as a last-ditch escape. It does work: The toadlets’ clumsy cavorts, coupled with their peewee size and yen for hiding among dead leaves, can make them infuriatingly difficult to snare. “Two people looking all day might just catch one frog,” Pie told me. The toadlets, though, prefer to simply walk to get around, and do so painfully slowly, “almost chameleon-like,” Essner said. It may be the only way they can avoid overtaxing their puny inner ears.
Click to expand...
Evolution leads to strange stuff!
 
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The Corinthian

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Cheimoon said:
These frogs are totally amazing.

Article: A Frog So Small, It Could Not Frog - The Atlantic

Here is what its jumps can look like:

Caption: "Brachycephalus coloratus (left) and Brachycephalus pernix (right), two species of pumpkin toadlets, trying and failing to land their jumps. To compel the frogs to leap, researchers tapped behind them or directly nudged them with a straw. (Richard Essner / Southern Illinois University Edwardsville)"

Unsurprisingly, these frogs aren't big on jumping. From the article:

Evolution leads to strange stuff!
Click to expand...
:lol:
 

FireballXL5

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When my parents lived in East Africa they knew a guy who had half his arse bitten off by a hippo. They reckon hippos kill about 3000 people every year!
 

Cheimoon

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RedTiger said:
This is going to sound very out of place in this thread, but I've always wanted a weapon made from hippo thigh bone.
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Uhm!!! :lol: (Why the thigh though, why not their giant teeth?)

Also, to bring the cuteness back:
 

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Here's something vaguely creepy:
Nature Briefing said:
Largest bacterium ever discovered

A newly discovered bacterium, Thiomargarita magnifica, challenges the definition of a microorganism: its filament-like single cell is up to a centimetre long. T. magnifica achieves its unprecedented size by having unique cellular features: two membrane sacs. One is filled with its genetic material; the other, which is much larger, helps to keep its cellular contents pressed up against its outer cell wall so that essential molecules can diffuse in and out. Researchers have dubbed these sacs ‘pepins’ — inspired by the pips in fruit — and note that they blur the line between single-celled prokaryotes and the eukaryotes (the group that includes humans), which pack their DNA into a nucleus.
Click to expand...
Nature news article: Largest bacterium ever found is surprisingly complex (nature.com)
Scientific article: A centimeter-long bacterium with DNA contained in metabolically active, membrane-bound organelles (science.org)

And two photos:

Caption: The filamentous Thiomargarita magnifica cells have more complex internal organization than do typical bacteria.


Caption: Thiomargarita magnifica filaments next to a US 10-cent coin.
 
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