Migrating Fish: Anadromous or Catadromous?

According to Merriam-Webster's online edition, the word "anadromous" means "ascending rivers from the sea for breeding."  This word is almost always used in conjunction with fish, as they are the main type of animal that do this.  There are a number of fish that are defined as anadromous, but of particular import for us are several types of salmon, including the Coho, steelhead, Chinook, and sockeye salmons.

You don't have to be in a school (of fish) to hypothesize that there might be a group of fish that behave in an opposite manner from the anadromous fish.  "I'll take the bait," you're saying.  "What's the opposite of an anadromous fish?"  Let's break the word apart.  First, we can break off the root "ana," a Greek root which means "up."  For you chemistry buffs out there, you might have felt an electric current running up your spine, as you've probably thought of the word "anion," a term used to describe an ion that contains more electrons than it does protons, giving the atom an overall negative charge.  If you follow the flow of my logic*, you might be thinking of the opposite of an anion: a "cation," or an ion that contains fewer electrons than it does protons, giving the atom an overall positive charge.  So judging from this chemistry example, you can either conclude that, A) The opposite of anadromous is likely something along the lines of "catadromous," or, B) I give really long and tangential comparisons that are neither helpful or correct.  Fortunately for you guys, option A is the correct one.  The opposite of an anadromous fish is, indeed, a catadromous fish.  To learn more about the life cycle of a catadromous fish, let's travel to the eastern coast of North America, and meet Anguilla rostrata, the North American eel.  (And yes, eels are a type of fish.)

To learn more about the life cycle of the North American eel, I consulted the website of the Penobscot River Restoration Trust.  According to the Trust, mature Anguilla rostrata leave their brackish or freshwater homes and migrate to the Sargasso Sea in the fall.  The Sargasso Sea is not actually a distinct sea, but instead a large region of the Atlantic Ocean where a holopelagic species of seaweed called Sargassum reproduces.  The term "holopelagic" simply refers to the fact that, unlike other seaweeds, Sargassum does not require the presence of the ocean floor to reproduce, and can instead reproduce while just floating around in the ocean, or in the pelagic zone.  In turn, the pelagic zone is simply defined as an area of a body of water that is neither close to shore nor close to the bottom.  I remember when my family and I went on the Tybee Island Ecology Tour with Dr. Joe Richardson several years ago in Georgia, Dr. Joe commented on the large amount of Sargassum that was on the beach that day.  I've recently talked with Dr. Joe about the Sargassum, as well as the North American eel, and this interview will be the subject of our next post.

As winter rolls around, the adult eel spawns....then dies.  Sad day for the grown up eels.  Their eggs, however, hatch after a few days, and the young develop into a larval stage (which are then called leptocephali) that simply drift around for a few months.  Their days of floating casually around the ocean end as they enter the Gulf Stream, and are carried north towards North America.  Once the larvae find themselves near the continental shelf, they transform into what are called "glass eels," miniature little eels that, as you could probably guess from the name, are transparent!

It's not over for these eels yet, though!  Next, the young reach the estuaries, transitional areas along the coast where the rivers meet the sea.  Once the summer rolls around, it is in the estuaries that the eels enter the next stage of their life.  In this phase, the young eels are called "elvers," a name for a juvenile fish that is specific to eels.  After making their way into their adult habitat, they finally develop into their adult morph, where some eels stay for 8-25 years before migrating back to spawn in the sea!  

So there's a perfect example of a fish with a catadromous lifestyle.  Or, rather, nearly perfect.  In more recent years, scientists have begun to discover that while some adult North American eels fit well under the catadromy heading, other members of the exact same species simply stay in the estuaries to mature, while still more travel back and forth between the estuaries and the fresh water habitats further upstream!  This has caused many scientists to reconsider the stance of a purely catadromous lifestyle for these eels, and revise their description to "facultative catadromy," which essentially means that these eels seem to be able to choose whether or not they want to commit to a fully catadromous lifestyle.  But what about an anadromous fish, like the Chinook and Coho salmon that we mentioned earlier?  Don't worry, I'm not going to flounder: I know that if you're still reading this, then you're probably hooked, and want to hear more.

Speaking of hooked: my fishing contact Larry Quilling with a spring Chinook salmon in the Trask River in Oregon.  Check back soon to see an interview with Larry about his experiences fishing salmon!  Photo Credit: Larry Quilling

When it comes to the lives of several of the species of Pacific salmon, the saying "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" really applies quite nicely.  One of the keystone species in the American northwest, the annual "salmon run" is incredibly important to the functioning of the ecosystem.  During the salmon run, millions upon millions of these fish travel upstream to their breeding grounds.  Some travel up to 900 miles, as is the case for many Chinook and steelhead salmon who make their home in Idaho, as seen below.  The Chinook females also build an enormous nest, called a redd, that can be one to four feet deep and around six feet in diameter!  

Here we have another one of my fishing contacts, Wallace Westfeldt, with a steelhead in Idaho.  Wallace was also kind enough to help me out a lot, and we will also be seeing an interview post with him soon!  Photo Credit: Wallace Westfeldt

Another fascinating thing to note is the incredible transformation of these salmon, especially the males, as they travel upstream.  My personal favorite is the transformation of the sockeye salmon, whose changes can be seen in the picture below.  

With their fisshin accomplished, most salmon species die once they reach their spawning areas, just like the North American eel.  However, unlike the Pacific salmon, some individual Salmo salar, or Atlantic salmon, live to tell their gilling tale to future generations of salmon.  Not all Atlantic salmon die from their ordeal, as the bodies of these fish don't deteriorate post-spawning.  For the Pacific salmon, their method of reproduction is sometimes referred to as "semelparity," a situation in which the organism is physiologically incapable of spawning more than once prior to kicking the chum bucket.  The opposite of semelparity is iteroparity, where the animal can reproduce multiple times prior to death.  Almost all extant vertebrates (and, indeed, a large portion of extant organisms) are iteroparous, including us humans.  Notable examples of this semelparous lifestyle include some types of spiders, the genus of marsupial mice Antechinus, some types of bamboo, the aptly named century plant (or agave), and of course, several types of salmon.  

So in the course of this blog post, I've thrown a whole lot of new words at you.  Let's stop to reconsider them real fast, in the order that they were introduced in the post.

• Anadromous: Refers to a type of animal that goes from the sea into rivers to breed.  Many types of salmon fit this ticket.
• Catadromous: This term refers to a type of animal (typically fish) that goes from rivers into the sea to breed.  An example would be the North American eel (Anguilla rostrata).
• Holopelagic: An organism that remains in a pelagic area for its entire life.  An example would be the Sargassum seaweed.
• Pelagic: An area of a body of water that is neither close to shore nor close to the bottom.
• Leptocephali: A name given to the larval stage of eels.
• Glass Eel: The next stage in the life cycle of an eel, following leptocephali, but preceding the elver stage.  
• Estuary: The transition zone between the ocean and a river.  The portion of a river that is saltier than the rest of the river, but not quite salty enough to be the ocean, and is influenced by the tides.  Essentially, the last portion of a river prior to its arrival in the ocean.  
• Elver: A name referring to an eel in its postlarval stage following the leptocephali and glass eel stages.  
• Facultative Catadromy: A term used to refer to an animal that can choose (facultative) whether or not they want to commit to a fully catadromous lifestyle.  A good example is the North American eel (Anguilla rostrata).  
• Keystone Species: A species of animal that is integral for the functioning of a healthy ecosystem. 
• Redd: A nest made by a fish, such as that of the female Chinook salmon pictured above.
• Semelparity: A term which refers to organisms that can only reproduce a single time prior to their death.  Examples include some spiders, several types of Australian marsupials and salmon.
• Iteroparity: A term which refers to organisms that can reproduce many times prior to their death.  Examples include humans, pigs, and the Atlantic salmon.

That's a lot of new vocab for just one post!  While I'm not sure if we will be returning to the life cycles of eels again in the future, make sure you hold on to the terms "anadromous" and "catadromous" (as that was the whole meaning of this post), as well as "keystone species."  We will hopefully be taking a broad look at several keystone species sometime in the near future!  And make sure to check back in during the next several days so you can hear from Larry Quilling, Wallace Westfeldt, and Dr. Joe Richardson!

*I'm sorry, I am really proud of that pun.  Not ONLY does it work in the context of fish in streams, but it also works in the context of electric current and chemistry.  Dang I'm good.

References:

Boulder Submerged: Not So Strange 70 Million Years Ago!

Where I live in Boulder, Colorado, we aren't used to having a whole lot of moisture.  For the last few days, however, we have been experiencing record breaking levels of rain: as a matter of fact, the sheer amount of rain that we are being inundated with has resulted in enormous levels of flooding, complete with evacuations, destroyed homes and roads, and unfortunately several deaths.  I am actually writing this Thursday evening after having my very first flood day, and we have a flood day tomorrow, too!  (And now I am finishing the post on Sunday and we are STILL getting rain!)  Despite the fact that all of this water in Boulder is quite unusual, if you were to travel back 70 to 100 million years ago right here in Boulder, water wouldn't be the exception: it would be the norm!

You see, 70 million years ago, there were no Rocky Mountains.  In fact, Colorado was nowhere near a mile high above sea level: it was about three hundred feet below!  Due to the fact that what would one day be Colorado was still located on continental crust, the Western Interior Seaway couldn't be super deep: nevertheless, three hundred feet deep was deep enough to contain an enormous assortment of fun creatures!  We've already met a large number of these creatures throughout different posts in the blog, but let's take another look at these guys, as well as other fun filled creatures of this ancient seaway!

Let's start on the shore: multiple dinosaur trackways throughout the nation (including two that I've been to, Dinosaur Ridge near Morrison and the Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country) show that many different dinosaurs roamed the shore of the Western Interior, including large ornithopods and large theropods.  Some of these dinosaurs actually died and were swept out to shore, such as the ankylosaur Niobrarasaurus!

Pyg chilling inside of a cast of one of the large ornithopod footprints from Dinosaur Ridge at the Morrison Natural History Museum

They weren't the only dinosaurs that lived on the shore, though: meet the flightless, cormorant-like bird Hesperornis!  Originally discovered by famous paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, Hesperornis grew to around six feet in length, and looks very similar to the Galápagos flightless cormorant via the process of convergent evolution!

Hesperornis probably ate a wide variety of fish, squid, and an interesting group of extinct marine vertebrates called ammonites.  Some ammonites could grow to simply ENORMOUS proportions, such as the one in the top left of the picture below, one from the Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country that I mentioned above.  Found all over the country (and, as a matter of fact, the world), one particular ammonite site looks like it might be a nesting site!  To learn more about this ammonite nesting site, click HERE to check out a guest post by paleontologist and physicist Wayne Itano!

Ammonites were by no means the largest creature in the Western Interior, however, and neither was Hesperornis.  As a matter of fact, neither of them were all that close at all!  Hesperornis was relatively close to the bottom of the food chain, a fact that we know conclusively due to the discovery of one particular specimen of an interesting animal called Tylosaurus in South Dakota.  Tylosaurus was a type of animal called a mosasaur, whose closest living relatives today are the monitor lizards (like the Komodo dragon and the Nile monitor).   Contained within the stomach cavity of this particular Tylosaurus specimen were the remains of a fish, a smaller related species of mosasaur, and a Hesperornis!  Platecarpus remains, one of those smaller mosasaurs, are sometimes found within the belly of the Tylosaurus, the belly of the beast!

Paleontologists are always very excited when they think they've found the fossilized remains of a predator with the remains of its prey still inside.  This can help establish a predator/prey relationship between the two creatures, a relationship that might otherwise have simply been theorized.  Fortunately for us paleontologists, multiple critters in the Western Interior Seaway have been discovered with other little critters within their stomach cavity!  One of these, which I have nicknamed "The Inception Fossil," we actually did a whole post about a few months back!  Entitled "Xiphactinus: The Inception Fossil," this post was all about a fish called Xiphactinus and why I called it "The Inception Fossil."  As you might have already guessed from the context, the nickname stems from the "fish within a fish" idea: Xiphactinus is often found with other fish inside of its stomach!  Below, you can see one of these Inception Fossils, where a Xiphactinus died shortly after swallowing a fish called Gillicus.

Xiphactinus and Gillicus were by no means the only fish in the sea!  The other day, my friend Sam Lippincott and I visited the Denver Gem and Mineral Show.  We both purchased several fossils there, and one of my purchases was a small tooth of another Western Interior Cretaceous Seaway (WIKS) fish called Enchodus.  The name of this fish roughly translates to "spear fish," and from the picture below, you can probably see why: this fish was definitely made to catch some other fish!  Fossils attributed to Enchodus have been found on either side of the K/T boundary, meaning that this fish seems to have survived the extinction that killed off the non avian dinosaurs, and many of the marine creatures as well!

It looks to me like this tooth may be one of the large protruding teeth on the upper part of the jaw.

Pyg checks out her new Enchodus tooth from the Denver Gem and Mineral Show!

I got another tooth from another fish that would have inhabited the Western Interior: this tooth belongs to the shark Squalicorax!  When fully grown, Squalicorax was around the size of the living great white shark, and would have prowled the oceans much like sharks do today.  As a matter of fact, sharks have survived relatively unchanged for hundreds of millions of years!

Pyg checks out the other tooth she purchased at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show, a Squalicorax tooth!

Next, we have a funky looking group of reptiles that look like nothing that we have on Earth today!  These are the plesiosaurs, and some of them could grow pretty large!  Remember before how we mentioned that Hesperornis was discovered by a guy named Marsh?  Well, Marsh had a paleontology rival named Cope.  This rivalry got kind of out of hand, and resulted in something that today we call "The Bone Wars."  (To learn more about the Bone Wars from the ridiculously funny "The Oatmeal," make sure to click the link HERE!)  One of the particularly famous instances in this paleontological skirmish was when Marsh's rival, Edward Drinker Cope, reconstructed one of these plesiosaurs.  Called Elasmosaurus, Cope accidentally placed the head of the animal on the tip of the tail instead of in its proper place at the end of the neck.  As you can imagine, Marsh took the opportunity to mock his rival.  This also sets up the perfect joke for The Oatmeal, but I won't spoil it for you: you have to check it out for yourself!

Although there were other plesiosaurs that swam through the ancient North American seas, my favorite is the funky looking Dolichorhynchops!  This type of short-necked plesiosaur has also been found in the stomach of the enormous Tylosaurus!

Dolichorhynchops is most definitely not a familiar face to your average Joe, but what about Archelon?  This massive sea turtle also inhabited the seaway, and is actually the largest sea turtle known to science!  This guy is about 13 feet long, which is about twice as long as the leatherback sea turtle, who are the largest living sea turtles!  And although Archelon looks similar to sea turtles today, it definitely doesn't look like the turtles we have in Boulder!

Just as the floodwaters are subsiding, so too did the Western Interior Seaway drain from the center of the North American continent.  As the Rocky Mountain started getting pushed up and the elevation got higher and higher, the shallow sea got shallower and shallower, until there was nothing left.  Nothing left, that is, except for the fossils that we find today!  And who knows, maybe the floodwaters from the recent storms have eroded away some overburden, revealing some prehistoric marine fossils beneath!

The Truth Behind the "Truth" Behind Megalodon

Today, the great white shark rules the seas and haunts our imaginations.  After the release of the 1975 movie "Jaws," the great white shark and other sharks were feared and loathed more than they already were, although much of this fear was unbiased.  Ever since Jaws, hundreds of books, movies, television programs, and more have all capitalized on the shark craze, producing everything from the fantastic Steve Irwin Crocodile Hunter specials to the recent TV movie Sharknado.  One of the most popular shark-related features in the media is Discovery Channels "Shark Week," an annual event that features a week of shark-related programs.  Although many of these programs, as is to be expected for television programs nowadays, push the limits of reality, I think that the premiere of this year's Shark Week went too far, and I'm not the only one who thinks that, either.

First off, let's meet the star of this program: megalodon.  Estimates of the size of megalodon have varied widely and wildly, with some older estimates as high as about 100 feet long.  Today, however, most scientists agree that the largest megalodon could grow to around 60 feet long.  Which is still pretty massive, given that most great white sharks don't exceed lengths of around 20 feet, and look at how much people are afraid of them!  megalodon would have easily been able to swallow the average human in one bite: just take a look at those reconstructed jaws, below!  Also, below that picture, make sure to check out the size of just one megalodon tooth.  Suffice it to say, this shark was one massive bruiser.  This shark WAS one massive bruiser.  Notice how I emphasized the "was?"  Well, that's because megalodon went extinct about two million years ago.

Pyg encounters a mid-sized megalodon tooth, graciously donated to my collection of fossils and things that I take to local schools by local paleontologist Wayne Itano

Megalodon sounds pretty awesome, right?  I mean, to be honest, it's one of those extinct animals that just doesn't need to be "sci-fied up," because it's already cool enough as is, on par with other animals such as Tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus, and Utahraptor.  Well, just because it didn't NEED to be sci-fied up doesn't mean that television networks didn't do it anyways.  And this years Shark Week premiere was the culprit.  Discovery Channel aired a two hour "documentary" showing "biologists" on the hunt for a megalodon.  Today.  In the present.

One of those extinct animals that just doesn't need to be "Hollywoodized!"  Meet Stan, the resident Tyrannosaurus rex at the Morrison Natural History Museum!  You can see Pig seated in the bottom jaw for scale!  Yeah, this guy was huge.

We have no evidence to indicate that megalodon is alive and with us today, and the "evidence" included in the "documentary" was very clearly doctored.  For example, below is a picture of a whale that has supposedly been bitten in half by a megalodon:

And here is a photo "uncovered from Nazi archives" of a giant shark fin surfacing behind a pair of U-Boats:

The first picture just screams CG.  And the second one....really?  Nazi's? Very Indiana Jones-esque.  OK then, Discovery.

The "documentary" starts off with "found footage" of a "boat capsizing off the coast of South Africa and several people being eaten, but whose bodies were never recovered."  Already, this reeks of a typical television plot.  Especially given the fact that a quick Google search of this supposed incident, as well as any of the "biologists" in the "documentary," yields diddly-squat.  Apparently the prospect of a giant shark brutally attacking and destroying a fishing boat just wasn't exciting enough to make it to the news, despite the fact that every news story relating to sharks and shark attacks spreads like wildfire.  Perhaps the South African press was just busy that day?

People refute our naysaying by pointing out that "we know more about the surface of the moon than the ocean," and "the coelacanth (which you can learn more about by clicking HERE) and the giant squid were only discovered recently!"  Yeah, that's true.  But megalodon is very different from a giant cephalopod or a five or six foot long fish.  We are talking about an active, 60 foot long predator that's feeding on much, much bigger prey than the giant squid or coelacanth would.  The giant squid and coelacanth eat a lot of fish, and are considered to be primarily piscivorous.  The giant squid, although very large, is by no means at the top of its food chain, and is fed upon by the largest of the toothed whales, the 60 to 70 foot long sperm whale.  And two million years ago, megalodon would have made up the final link in this food chain, feeding on the 60 to 70 foot long sperm whale.

Am I saying that there is no possibility that more giant animals exist in the deepest depths of the ocean, just waiting to be discovered?  No, I most definitely am not.  I do, however, encourage you to consider the ecological resources that would be needed by such a massive animal.  With no evidence of mutilated whale carcasses that could be attributed to such a massive animal, and an equal amount of evidence from first-hand accounts....I think that the conclusion should speak for itself.

The biggest issue that I have with all of this is not that a television program was made that packages myths, untruths, and exaggerations: it was with the fact that they packaged it as a documentary, no quotations this time.  Discovery tried to balance out the fact that they blatantly made stuff up to appease some of their viewers by pointing out that they included disclaimers in the show.  Yeah, true, there were disclaimers: but click HERE to see how short and hazy these disclaimers really were.  The disclaimers read:

None of the institutions or agencies that appear in the film are affiliated with it in any way, nor have approved its contents. Though certain events and characters in this film have been dramatized, sightings of "Submarine" continue to this day. Megalodon was a real shark. Legends of giant sharks persist all over the world. There is still debate about what they might be.

Notice how they never really say that none of it was true.  When he gave a press release, the executive producer of Shark Week, Michael Sorensen, said that “With a whole week of Shark Week programming ahead of us, we wanted to explore the possibilities of megalodon.  It’s one of the most debated shark discussions of all time, can megalodon exist today? It’s Ultimate Shark Week fantasy. The stories have been out there for years and with 95 percent of the ocean unexplored, who really knows?”  The part that bugs me the very, very most about that statement is the line "It's one of the most debated shark discussions of all time."  It isn't, I promise you.  It really, really isn't.  I have never heard of any paleontologist who seriously believes that megalodon swims the oceans today.  There might be some paleontologists who won't discount the possibility, which is fine.  Science changes all the time.  But with a complete and total lack of evidence, no serious scientist will really debate that sort of thing.

There's many more issues that people have had with this presentation, varying from thousands of people on social media voicing their complaints, all the way to actor Wil Wheaton, who wrote about the megalodon fiasco on his blog, which you can read HERE.  Others, such as popular paleo writer Brian Switek, went to Twitter:

I do hope that this backlash will cause the people at Discovery, as well as at other television stations, to reconsider what they make into a television program, and consider the possibility that, just maybe, there's a significant chunk of people out there who don't want to be fed this garbage.  I do hope that this causes some changes in any future programming, and if we are all really lucky, this event might spawn a South Park episode.  You have to admit, it'd be pretty perfect.  Let's just cross our fingers, shall we?

The Salton Sea

The Salton Sea in southern California has a very interesting history.  Today, it is California's largest lake, is 200 feet below sea level, and is more than 25% saltier than the Pacific Ocean.  But it wasn't always like this: it used to be as dry as the surrounding desert!

Around 2,000 year ago, the Salton Sink and the Imperial Valley (the vast basing that today holds the Salton Sea) was home to Lake Cahuilla, a much larger body of water than the present Salton Sea.  Over time, it was naturally drained, and the area then turned into a hot, dry desert.  This process has happened numerous times over the years, as the Salton Sea is, according to a brochure that I got from there, a "landlocked extension" of the Gulf of California to the south.  The last time the Salton Sink was dry was around the early 1900s.  But it wouldn't stay that way for long.

The year was 1901.  In order for water to reach the Salton Sink and Mexico, the Colorado River was diverted from Yuma, Arizona, through Mexico, and into the sink for agriculture.  Four years later, in 1905, a diversion structure failed, and caused the entire might of the Colorado River to flood into the Imperial Valley.  For two years, from 1905 to 1907, the massive outflow of the Colorado River slowly built up in that natural basin, resulting in what we today call the Salton Sea!  (It would suck to be the dudes who made THAT boo-boo).  Since the basin (and thus the sea) are both landlocked, as well as below sealevel, that means that the sole means of exit for the water in the basin is through evaporation.  And since minerals and salts don't evaporate....you can probably see where this is going.

The Salton Sea, as I have mentioned before, is 25% saltier than the Pacific Ocean with the level of salinity in excess of 40,000 parts per million.  Many of the native fish that were washed or swam into the newly created body of water were unable to cope with the continued increase of salinity, and have died out.  Some marine fish, such as Gulf croaker, orange-mouth corvina, and sargo have been introduced and established, as well as tilapia.  However, they too will most likely end up going extinct in the basin, unable to cope with the ever-increasing levels of salinity.

When we visited there, not only did it stink, but there were dead fish skeletons everywhere.  And when I say everywhere, I really mean everywhere.  Interspersed amongst the rotting fish carcasses were the remains of an enormous number of gulls and other sea birds that will visit the Salton Sea.

Now the picture I am painting you is a grim one: "Why would I ever want to visit this place?" you're probably wondering.  Well, according to the brochures, the Salton Sea is one of the world's "most important winter stops for birds traveling the Pacific flyway."  Some of the many birds that can be found on the shores of the Salton Sea include a personal favorite of mine, the black skimmer, white pelicans, yellow-footed gulls, Caspian terns, Canada geese, pintail ducks, marbled godwits, snow geese, osprey, American avocets, Yuma clapper rail, black-bellied plover, black-bellied, whistling duck, wood storks, roadrunners, great blue heron, and brown pelicans, along with many, many other birds!  We of course didn't see all of these birds when we were there, but we certainly saw a large number of birds!  I would definitely recommend checking this place out if ever you are in the area, the natural history of the place, combined with the bird watching, makes it well worth the trip!

Duna La Quinta on Dwellable

Big @$$ Eyes

I recently acquired a laptop for my graduation gift, and have been enjoying the crazy pictures that you can take on the Photo Booth!  I think my favorite way to mess with the pictures is by making our eyes ENORMOUS!  Incidentally, some of my favorite animals are those with gigantic eyes, and after coming to this realization, I sensed a post in the making!  Today, we're just going to take a look at a few of my favorites, but you can be sure that we'll be taking a look at other big-eyed creatures in the future!

The spookfish is an absolutely terrifying fish.  Do I need to say anything more?  I suppose I'll say a little more.  The spookfish is the only vertebrate animal known to ever have evolved mirrors instead of lenses in its eyes.  OK, that's enough, it's really starting to creep me out now.  Time we moved on.

Next we have another oceanic animal: the giant squid!  The record for the largest eyes in the animal kingdom is held by this animal, at around 10 inches in diameter: the size of a dinner plate!  WHAT THE HECK!  These animals live at extreme depths and, and where other animals would fail to see spectacularly, the giant squid is able to live and see quite comfortably!

The only extinct animal that I have included in this post, Opthalmosaurus was literally named after its enormous eyes: its name means "eye lizard" in Greek!  Although it looks a heck of a lot like a dolphin, Opthalmosaurus was a type of marine reptile called an ichthyosaur that swam the oceans during the Jurassic Period.  A bony ring called the scleral ring in the eye of the animal helped to keep the eye from collapsing under the intense pressure of the ocean!

Let's move out of the ocean now, and into the trees: meet the tarsier!  The tarsier is a terrifying little primate that is native to southeast Asia and HOLY CRAP.  I JUST LOOKED UP A PICTURE OF THE SIZE OF THE TARSIERS EYES AND LOOK.  AT THAT PICTURE.  BELOW.

OH MY GOD.  THAT IS INSANE.  AND NOW CHECK OUT HOW BIG ITS SKULL IS.

That is really, terribly creepy.  My goodness.  I....I don't even know what to say.  Let's move on now.

Another arboreal primate, the aye-aye is one of my favorite animals of all time!  Native to Madagascar, this lemur is nocturnal (of course, given the eyes), and as you can see in the picture below, definitely doesn't like having its picture taken with the flash!

Flying above the ocean and the trees are the birds, and the creepiest birds with the biggest eyes are the owls.  The owls and the tarsier both share something in common: their eyes are so big in comparison to their head that their eyes are unable to move in their sockets!  That's why both of these animals have such an enormous range of motion in their neck: to look to either side, they have to move their entire head around!

Craziest Animal Fathers

Today, in honor of Father's Day, we are going to be looking at a few animal fathers who go above and beyond to help raise their children, or do so in a surprising way!  Let's start with one of the most famous animal fathers: the seahorse!

One myth regarding the seahorse is that the male seahorse actually becomes pregnant with the babies.  This is not really true: it's more accurate to say that the male seahorse is the surrogate mother for his own babies!  The female seahorse deposits her eggs, up to 2,000 of them, into the male's special pouch, where he hangs onto them during the 10 - 25 day pregnancy.

The African namaqua sandgrouse father actually has its babies drink water from its belly!  Let me explain a little further: the belly feathers of the sandgrouse have evolved to retain water.  When its chicks are thirsty, the poppa sandgrouse finds a watering hole and dunks his belly into it.  Then, he goes back to his nest, summons his children, and lets them drink from his belly!

Marmoset fathers also are quite involved when it comes to their children, mostly due to the fact that the babies require so much energy from their mother.  Before their birth, the babies may compose up to around 25% of their mother's body weight.  To compare this to a human female, if the pregnant female weighed around 120 pounds, then the newborn baby would weigh around 30 pounds!!

Just like the heavy energy investment required of the marmoset babies, so too do some birds invest a great deal of energy into their offspring.  One of these is the large flightless bird called the rhea, related to the ostrich and the emu.  Native to South America, the male rhea will make the nest, incubate the eggs (sometimes up to fifty of them), and will chase away any animals that approach the nest (including the females!)

Next, we have a fascinating fish called the arowana.  The arowana, like many other animals, is a mouthbrooder, which means that one of the parents incubates the babies in its mouth!  In the case of the arowana, the female layes the eggs on the ground, and the male scoops them up, where he incubates them for 4 - 6 weeks!

Our second to last animal father is the barking frog.  Native to Texas, the male barking frog will guard his offspring, urinating on them periodically to keep them wet.  Male frogs often invest a great deal of energy into their young, with some of them practicing mouth brooding like the arowana, and others carrying the babies around on their backs!

Finally, our last animal father is quite possibly the most famous of all time (other than humans), whose incredible feat of strength is known by millions of people world-wide: the emperor penguin!  For around four months, the male emperor penguin will sit on its egg in the coldest and most inhospitable place on the planet: the frigid desert of the Antarctic.  During this four month period, the males huddle together, slowly running through their limited food supply: they don't eat that entire time!  I have often wondered how such a complicated behavior could have evolved!

Happy Father's Day to my father, Mark Neher!  You have had to put up with a lot over the years!  Thanks again!

Top Ten Pokémon Inspired By Real Animals

Many of you are probably familiar with the popular video game and TV series "Pokémon."  While I myself never got into it, a few months ago, I did a post about the axolotl, a fascinating little salamander. While I was researching the post (which you can view by clicking HERE), I found that a Pokémon called Wooper was based off of the axolotl.  I thought this was pretty funny, as I thought that no one had ever really heard of the axolotl, much less based a video game character after it!  The more digging I did, the more I realized that this is a fairly common theme: a great many Pokémon are based off of real animals, both living and dead!  So I thought that for the birthday post of my good friend Masaki Kleinkopf, we could look at the Top Ten Pokémon Inspired By Real Animals!

1.  Farfetch'd - Duck

According to my Pokémon sources (AKA the Internet), the Farfetch'd is supposed to live in and around water, just like a real duck!  It's also supposed to taste pretty good: again, like a real duck!

2.  Lanturn - Anglerfish

Probably one of the freakiest animals in the animal kingdom, the deep-sea loving anglerfish bait other fish closer with the so-called "esca" on its head.  The little fish swim closer, attracted to the bioluminescence emanating from the esca, and then the anglerfish snaps them up.  The name of this Pokémon is clearly an homage to this glowing appendage.

3.  Shieldon - Ceratopsian

The ceratopsians are a large group of dinosaurs containing one of the most famous dinosaurs of all time: Triceratops.  Although most sources state that Shieldon is based off of Triceratops, the Pokémon differs in that it has no horns.  This makes a more likely candidate for the origin of Shieldon another, more primitive ceratopsian called Protoceratops.  If you click on the link to a post HERE and scroll down to the second picture, you can see a picture of the skull of Protoceratops.

4.  Sandslash - Pangolin

The Pokémon called Sandslash is clearly based off of a funny, but quite fascinating, animal called the pangolin.  Sandlash features the dermal armor of the pangolin (a fancy way of saying "armor formed from hardened skin, akin to the armadillo"), as well as the massive claws.  The claws, in both the pangolin and, apparently, Sandslash, can be used to attack potential threats, as well as burrowing.  The pangolin uses its claws to burrow into termite mounds, consuming them by the thousands.  Sandslash can also roll into a ball to defend itself from attack, just like the pangolin: however, I don't think that the pangolin can roll away from its attacker while in "ball mode."  For a song about dermal armor that features, amongst many other things, the pangolin, click HERE!

5.  Relicanth - Coelacanth

Relicanth is based off of a very unassuming, but entirely fascinating, fish called the coelacanth.  For many, many years, conventional wisdom had dictated that the coelacanth went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period, along with the non-avian dinosaurs, the pterosaurs, and the massive marine reptiles. This assumed extinction was backed up by the fact that no fossils had been discovered, at least none that had been positively attributed to the coelacanth.  It wasn't until 1938, when a live coelacanth was pulled up off the coast of Madagascar, that scientists realized that perhaps the coelacanth wasn't quite as dead as they thought it was.  Since then, other sites along the coast of Africa, as well as in Indonesia, have yielded live coelacanths, giving the prehistoric fish a title it very much deserves: a living fossil.  According to the Pokédex in the game (a sort of encyclopedia that talks all about the different Pokémon), the Relicanth was also recently discovered, and is also labeled as a "living fossil."

6.  Tirtouga - Archelon

So apparently, some Pokémon can evolve, which is another cool and clever way of adding science into video games without making the video games dumb and boring.  Apparently, the Pokémon Tirtouga isn't necessarily based off of the massive sea turtle Archelon, but Tirtouga actually evolved into another Pokémon called Carracosta that is based off of Archelon.  Tirtouga appears to be based off of either the extant (still living, opposite of extinct) leatherback sea turtle, or perhaps another extinct sea turtle called Protostega.  Either way, all three sea turtles look pretty much the same!

7.  Archen - Archaeopteryx

It's in the name: clearly, the name Archen is based off of the name Archaeopteryx, a fossil bird that is widely considered to be the missing link (at least the first in a long line of links) between dinosaurs and birds.  First discovered in the 1800s, the feathered fossil of Archaeopteryx helped famed naturalist Charles Darwin and his followers to promote his ideas about evolution and natural selection.  According to the Pokédex, Archen is not able to fly, leading people to speculate that Archen is also based partly off of other, non-flying feathered dinosaurs, such as Velociraptor or Deinonychus.

8.  Lileep - Crinoids

Up until last week, I'd never devoted a whole lot of thought to the evolutionary relationships of a fascinating group of creatures called crinoids.  In my mind, if they look like plants, they're probably plants!  Well, I was wrong: the crinoids are actually echinoderms, just like sea urchins and sea stars, and are actually animals!  I also didn't realize that crinoids were still around today: I knew that there were a ton of them in the past, but I didn't realize that some of them had survived to the present day!  Many people believe that Lileep is based off of these strange animals, and it's not too hard to see the resemblance!

9.  Cranidos - Pachycephalosaurus

Of all of the pachycephalosaurs, Pachycephalosaurus seems like the most likely candidate for the inspiration of the strange Pokémon called Cranidos.  The main means of attack of this Pokémon is by head-butting its opponents, a means of combat long attributed to the pachycephalosaurs.  This head-butting is currently under a lot of scrutiny, with some paleontologists saying that yes, of course pachycephalosaurs head-butted each other, in the same fashion that bighorn sheep do today.  On the other hand, some paleontologists say that there is no way these guys could head-butt each other, as their necks would simply snap after a few impacts.  Other paleontologists believe that they did use their heads for head-butting, but not in the way that the previous two groups were hypothesizing: instead of getting a running start and then cracking heads, bighorn sheep style, they would instead just lock heads without the running start, like many types of deer and elk that spar today.  Still others propose that maybe these dinosaurs were smacking each other in the side or in the flank.  Like many facets of paleontology, we may never know what, exactly, they did with their craniums. 

10.  Anorith - Anomalocaris

This is the Pokémon that really inspired me to do a post like this.  Anomalocaris is one of my favorite animals because it is just so weird looking!  Living in the Cambrian Period, about 500 million years ago (MYA), Anomalocaris is definitely one of those animals that does not get a lot of the limelight.  Often found amongst the various and assorted crazies from the Burgess Shale in Canada, Anomalocaris is definitely something that I never expected to be in a video game!  Nevertheless, here it is!

This was the birthday post of Masaki Kleinkopf! Happy birthday, Masaki! If you have a birthday coming up, just email me the date at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com with the date and your favorite animals, and I will do my best to get a post in! And if you like what you are reading, please feel free to follow us here or via Facebook!

Xiphactinus: The Inception Fossil

If you were to travel back 100 million years from where I live in Colorado, the face of a very, very different planet would emerge.  I suppose emerge isn't necessarily the best word in this context: submerged is more of an adequate description!  You see, unlike the mountains you would see in Colorado today, Late Cretaceous Colorado was even flatter than present-day Kansas....and a whole lot closer to sea level!  Between about 100 and 70 million years ago (MYA), an enormous seaway stretched northwards from the Gulf of Mexico, and southwards from the Arctic.  Within these waters, hundreds, perhaps thousands of animals flourished, many of which we have nothing like today.  Massive sea turtles like Archelon slowly swam through the waters, while the long-necked plesiosaurs cruised around, snapping up fish before they even knew they were there.  While sharks and mosasaurs were probably the most impressive denizens of the seaway, these massive carnivores fed on fish as well.  And the subject of today's post is one of those fish: a 17-foot long beastie called Xiphactinus.

Due to the numerous pictures uploaded to Pinterest by the Best Western Denver Southwest hotel (read more about it HERE), I'm going to be using a lot of pictures from this site!  Make sure you check it out by clicking HERE!  Unless otherwise noted, photo credit for all of the pictures in this post goes to that Pinterest page!

Why did I call Xiphactinus (pronounced zye-FACT-un-us) "The Inception Fossil?"  Well, that's a description that I came up with (don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise!) that has to do with one of the most interesting things about Xiphactinus: numerous specimens of the fish have been found with the remains of other fish in its stomach!  Just as the premise behind Inception is "a dream within a dream," so too are specimens of Xiphactinus sometimes "fish within a fish!"  The specimen below is a thirteen foot Xiphactinus that died with a fish known as Gillicus arcuatus in its stomach!

Unlike sharks, Xiphactinus would have been unable to bite off chunks of flesh from its prey, and instead would have had to swallow its prey whole, which is what makes the Inception Fossils so spectacular!  Some paleontologists propose that this lack of chewing may have been what killed some of these Xiphactinus specimens, and that they actually choked to death on their last meal!  I suppose it's possible, but I don't actually know enough about these specimens to be a very good authority on them!

The next three pictures below are pictures that I took of a specimen that I saw a week or so ago.  Long story short, my friends Isabel and Sam Lippincott and I had gone to a presentation given by paleontologist Dr. Ian Miller about the Snowmastodon Project a few months back, and he was impressed with Sam's paleo drawings when we showed him after the lecture.  He invited us to come on down to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science so that he could show us around behind the scenes, which he very kindly did a few weeks ago!  These are pictures I took of the 80 MY old Mancos Shale specimen of Xiphactinus, which was discovered in 1966 by some kids who had been hunting with their dad near Snowmass in Colorado.  They had stumbled across the rib cage of the animal, and had notified the Denver Museum.  The next summer, the museum excavated the remarkably complete, 13-foot specimen, taking it back to the museum, where it has been stored to this day!

Here are some more cool pictures from the Pinterest page!  This is a diorama of paleontologist Charles Sternberg caught in the act of discovering one of his "Inception fossils!"

And here are another pair of reconstructions of Xiphactinus!

Make sure to check out the Pinterest page of the Best Western Denver Southwest by clicking HERE!

Drop It Like It's Hot (A Song About Spiky Animals)

The sixth song in our song series is entitled "Drop It Like It's Hot (A Song About Spiky Animals)," to the tune of the song "Drop It Like It's Hot" by Snoop Dogg!  Below is the link to the song:

Here are the lyrics to the song:


Spikkkkky
Spikkkkky

[Chorus]
When you pick up an echidna
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
When the hedgehog tries to get at ya
Park it like it's hot
Park it like it's hot
Park it like it's hot
Pufferfish won't give you latitude
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
When it comes to these guys it don't have to do with brawn
They got spikes all on their body and they got it going on

Uh! All these nice dudes, have a common theme
If they are pursued, probably make you scream
The little hedgehog, spied by a little stoat
But attacking this little mammal I simply can't promote
The echidna, though it still lays eggs
Is still a mammal, don't be misled
Although it seems like, a reptile instead
Milk is still how it's babies get fed
Put one on your seat, I know that's gonna bring the heat
Feel like steel stabbed into you like Chinchilla with deceit
But don't try to pick it up with your fingers, they will split
Probably hurts a bit
Do your best to contain the pain and don't throw a fit
You should think about it, take a second
Matter fact, you should take four, see
And maybe you should turn around and go now, flee

[Chorus]
When you pick up an echidna
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
When the hedgehog tries to get at ya
Park it like it's hot
Park it like it's hot
Park it like it's hot
Pufferfish won't give you latitude
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
When it comes to these guys it don't have to do with brawn
They got spikes all on their body and they got it going on

It's not a scratch like you get from a cat
It's like being bit by a vampire bat
When you're out on the beach and out goes the tide
Keep an eye out for the sea urchin, because if the two of you collide
Ain't no other way to say the way I feel, dismay
I got poked so very much that you probably thought today
That I'm a pincushion, I think we can agree
That with my luck next thing I grab will be a killer bee
I can't take it, just break it, and when I make it
To a safe place I will probably be invaded
I have to find a place where no poky things reside
Cause the way I'm going I'll be lucky to get out of this alive
Take me back in time it'll be just a little
I'm tired of always being the monkey in the middle
But no matter where I go, I'm followed by the spiny animizzles
Aetosaurs have found me and I break like peanut brittle

[Chorus]
When you pick up an echidna
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
When the hedgehog tries to get at ya
Park it like it's hot
Park it like it's hot
Park it like it's hot
Pufferfish won't give you latitude
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
When it comes to these guys it don't have to do with brawn
They got spikes all on their body and they got it going on

The thorny devil, really goes to show
That wherever you walk, you better watch your toes
The little guy's tough, one not to cross
Big thorny devil, yeah he's so sharp
On the TV screen and in the magazines
You see a creature which looks like something from a crazy dream
You got a time machine so you wanna pop back?
To the Burgess Shale, let's go check out that
Wacky critter that looks like a worm that moves
With a bunch of little legs, and will likely confuse
Anyone who takes a look at this dude
No matter what you think it don't look easy to chew
This little guy looks through and through
Like the last thing you want to find inside of your stew
Now before we leave make sure it's not inside your shoe
Or in your other clothes, you don't want to suppose!

[Chorus]
When you pick up an echidna
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
When the hedgehog tries to get at ya
Park it like it's hot
Park it like it's hot
Park it like it's hot
Pufferfish won't give you latitude
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
Drop it like it's hot
When it comes to these guys it don't have to do with brawn
They got spikes all on their body and they got it going on

Spikkkkkkkkkky
Spikkkkkkkkkky

Are you diggin' the songs?  Well, then check out our playlist below!

CLICK HERE TO BE DIRECTED TO A FUN-FILLED PLAYLIST OF AMAZING SONGS.

The Wild Reptiles of Epcot

One of the best parks at Walt Disney World in Florida was Epcot, it was super cool to see all of the different cultures and stuff like that!  Epcot also had lots of cool resident wildlife in and around the vast lake that much of the park is built around!

I just LOVE this picture!  An anole contemplates how small it really is as it gazes upon the Epcot ball!

We saw a TON of anoles!

 

 There were also a ton of cool turtles and fish just chilling in the waters at Epcot! 

 

 

Aquarium Spotlight: Georgia Aquarium

In 2006, my family and I visited what would soon become my most favorite aquarium I have ever been to: the Georgia Aquarium!  It was fantastic, and they had a ton of really cool animals that I had never seen before!  So join us for this Aquarium Spotlight on the Georgia Aquarium, with a bunch of pictures that my mother took while we were there!  Let's start off with the penguins.  The Georgia Aquarium has a colony of adorable African penguins there, sure to be a favorite on your trip!

Another animal that is sure to be a favorite is the whale shark.  The largest shark and, for that matter, largest fish, still alive today, the whale shark behaves more like a whale than a shark, being a filter-feeder, consuming copious quantities of krill.  (Like that alliteration back there?)

Now, the photo below I originally thought was a whale shark, but it looks like its tail might move up and down like that of a whale, dolphin, or porpoise as opposed to side-to-side like that of a whale shark, so I'm not really sure what the heck that is!

The four whale sharks are all in an enormous tank with a ton of other animals, such as large schools of fish, stingrays, and guitarfish, amongst others.  Something that seems to be pretty standard in aquariums these days is the circular walkway thing (pictured below), but, in my opinion, that never gets old!

 

 A stingray

A guitarfish (left) and a stingray (right)

Another fast-favorite will undoubtedly be the beluga, one of my favorite animals of all time!

 

Another smaller and more unassuming creature that is just as interesting as the African penguin, whale shark, or beluga is the leafy sea dragon, THE SUBJECT OF A PREVIOUS ANIMAL SPOTLIGHT. 

 

Another really cool animal was the giant Japanese spider crab!  Inhabiting the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean near Japan between 150 and 1000 feet below the surface of the ocean, the giant Japanese spider crab has evolved to be able to cope with the extreme cold and lack of light experienced so far down in the ocean.

A sea turtle swimming around.

 

 

Greatly interactive, the Georgia Aquarium also has a number of touch tanks for a hands-on experience!

 

Finally, some jellyfish!

Jasper on Dwellable