Eyes on Ears and Mouth on Toes

Despite the clever if misleading title, we will not be talking about mouths on toes today (although many creatures such as butterflies can taste with their feet).  I just said that to make it sound like the line from the classic song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" by Bob Dylan.  Instead, we are going to be talking about eyes on ears: eyespots, at least!

A picture of one of the Amur tigers at the Denver Zoo.  See those white bars surrounded by dark fur on the ears of the cat?  Those are the topic of today's discussion.

On the cover of the August/September issue of the National Wildlife magazine, there was a picture of a drinking bobcat, its ears folded back in the posture that some refer to as "airplane ears."  On both of its ears were two white bars that made the ears look a lot like eyes.  I never really paid attention to this pattern on the coat, but once my friend Aidan Cook pointed it out, it got the proverbial gears going.  I remembered that servals also had the eyespot-like patterns as well, but did other cats?  Turns out a lot of them do, with just a few shared throughout the post.  Notice how defined the eyespot is in both the bobcat (top) and the serval, below.

To learn more, I consulted my "Wild Cats of the World" book by Mel and Fiona Sunquist.  The authors state that many cats have this pattern on their ears, "almost as many species" have the ear eyespots that are "poorly defined or absent."  One of the many examples that they include is the lion.  As you can see in the pictures below, lions do have this pattern to a certain degree, but nowhere near as derived as in the serval or the bobcat.  Below we have pictures of a young adult male lion, two of females, and one of a cub, and you can see that none of them have a very well defined eyespot.

Mountain lions also generally don't have it as well defined.  It seems like some mountain lions really don't have that much black on their ears at all, and some have a higher degree of black and white.  Presumably, whatever the function the eyespot serves in other species, it is not as important for the mountain lion, and natural selection therefore does not favor it highly one way or another.

It's a little tough to tell in the picture below, but the sand cat is another one of those cats that has a poorly defined eyespot.

Cheetahs also don't have terribly well defined eyespots.

Yet another cat that does not have very well defined eyespots, the ever fantastic Pallas cat!

I thought I had read somewhere that the eyespots served to help communicate between individuals when they were hunting.  This doesn't make that much sense, though, because most cats are solitary individuals, with the main exception being lions, and we already noted that their eyespots are not quite as specialized.  The Sunquists state in their book that the exact function of the eyespots is unknown, although some scientists believe that they serve as a "follow me" signal to their young, which "may be especially important in low-light conditions."  I assumed that this might mean that the young cats wouldn't have the eyespots, but this is clearly not true, as you can see the photograph of Sochi, the new male Amur leopard cub at the Denver Zoo.  There, you can see that Sochi (named after the Russian city that is holding this years Olympics) also has the ear spots.  So while this doesn't necessarily support the idea of a "follow me" signal to the young, it doesn't really not support it either: it's just something interesting that I wanted to point out.

We already talked about how tigers have a pretty well developed eyespot, but here are two more pictures of tigers to drive the point home.

I can't remember for certain if the picture below was a bobcat or a lynx, but I am pretty certain it is a bobcat, looking at the size of the feet.  (Lynx spend a lot more time in the snow, and therefore have larger feet, a snowshoe-like adaptation to keep them from sinking in.)  This cat, one of many at the Wild Animal Sanctuary, seems to have much smaller feet in proportion to the rest of the body.  Regardless, you can see the well defined eyespots.

The snow leopard, one of my favorite cats, has well defined eyespots as well, which you can kind of see in both of these pictures.

Photo Credit: Masaki Kleinkopf 

The fishing cat is another cat that has these well defined eyespots.

And finally, the Canadian lynx, much like its bobcat relative, also has pretty well defined eyespots!

Works Cited:

17 Truths Episode 1: The Cheetah

If you haven't seen the "True Facts" video series, then you are missing out.  Assuming, of course, that you have a good but slightly inappropriate and sarcastic sense of humor, and are not young enough that your parents will become angry with me if they find out where you found out about them.  That is why I am not providing a link to them here.  Anyways, I find them absolutely hysterical, and was quite eager to try my own hand at one!  One of my favorite animals is the cheetah (which is pretty obvious for people who are regular readers of my blog), a sentiment which is shared by people all across the world.  There are many interesting things about the cheetah, and many questions that people have about this fantastic and acrobatic feline.  So I thought that, for the first True Facts-esque video, I could make it about the cheetah!  It didn't hurt that I had a bunch of pictures of it, as well as a video!  However, I did use a few photos from some friends of mine, so I am going to give photo credit to Grace Albers and Shira Wood-Isenberg!  I would also like to give Joseph M. Roessler credit for the fantastic music that I used in the video!  It was both composed and performed by him!  HERE is a link to the song (called Dream Waltz), HERE is a link to some more of his music, and HERE is a link to his SoundCloud!  Enjoy!  And, of course, we have to have a link to the video!

And here we have some of the pictures featured in the video!  Enjoy!

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

There Be Dragons

I think when it comes to reptiles, easily the most interesting are the monitor lizards and their relatives.  The monitor lizards are scientifically known as the members of the genus Varanus within the family Varanidae (which, in turn, is a family within the superfamily Varanoidea), and are widely considered to be the lizards with the most intelligence.  The largest extant (still living, opposite of extinct) lizard today, the Komodo dragon, is a member of this family, as is Megalania (often referred to as Varanus prisca), the largest known lizard ever to have existed.  Let's learn a bit more about these interesting reptiles!

According to a paper by American biologist Eric Pianka (link included in References section), the monitor lizards as a group are thought to have evolved on the continent of Laurasia (see map below) earlier than 65 million years ago (MYA), before even the dinosaurs died out.  After evolving in Laurasia, they then dispersed into the continents of Africa and Australia.  As of the writing of his paper, 44 species of monitor lizard are around today, with around 27 of these native to Australia, where the highest species density of monitor lizards are.  In the tropics of northern Australia, up to ten species of Varanus can reside together!

There are numerous families related to the monitor lizards within the superfamily Varanoidea, both living and dead, such as the earless monitor lizard, the sole member of the family Lanthanotidae.  The other extant family within the superfamily Varanoidea is the family Helodermatidae, which includes the beaded lizards and the Gila monster from southwestern North America, Mexico, and Guatemala.  However, in my opinion, it is the extinct family Mosasauridae that is the most interesting of the monitor lizard relatives.

The mosasaurs were the dominant marine predators throughout the Late Cretaceous Period, and were wiped out by the traumatic K/T Extinction Event, just like the dinosaurs.  Some of these mosasaurs could grow to enormous lengths, such as Tylosaurus, the apex predator of the Western Interior Seaway of North America during the Cretaceous Period.  Tylosaurus could grow to an enormous 50 or so feet long, and fossil discoveries of the stomach of this creature indicate that it fed on pretty much everything that swam in the sea: the remains of sharks, the flightless diving bird Hesperornis, fish, plesiosaurs, and even smaller mosasaurs have been found in the stomachs of Tylosaurus fossils!

The mosasaurs share something else in common with the monitor lizards: they both have a third eye on top of their head.  It's not the same as the eyes we have on our head, or even the eyes that the mosasaurs and monitor lizards have on their heads, either. A good comparison is if you close your eyes and look at a light source, and then move your hand back and forth in front of your face.  You can see something moving , right?  Just a shadow, but you can still tell that something is there.  That's kind of what the third eye of the monitor lizards and the mosasaurs is like.  If you are a baby Tylosaurus swimming in the sea and you see something pass overhead, you are going to swim to safety as fast as you possibly can: there are a lot of things in this sea that would barely noticed they swallowed you.  However, if you are a 50-foot long adult Tylosaurus and you see a shadow swim above your head, you are almost certainly going to go investigate.  Whatever it is, it's probably edible!

Another interesting thing that the mosasaurs most likely shared with the monitor lizards is their forked tongue, similar to that of snakes.  But what purpose does this forked tongue served?  Well, when the animal sticks the tongue out of its mouth, it is smelling the air.  As it draws the tongue back in, scent particles are pulled in as well.  The fork-tongued creature is able to determine which side of the forked-tongue has more scent particles on it.  If the animal was attempting to locate a dead animal or something like that, and its head was facing directly towards where the dead animal scent particles were floating from, the reptile would know that it was on the right track.  If, however, the fork-tonguer was facing due north, and the dead animal was due west of its position, when the tongue is drawn into the mouth, its owner can tell that there are more dead animal scent particles on the left side of the tongue, as opposed to the right, and now knows which way it must go to find its meal.  Pretty neat!

Can't get enough of the monitor lizards?  Well, below I have links to five videos featuring some monitor lizards (one spiny-tailed monitor, four Komodo dragon)!  Enjoy!

Spiny-Tailed Monitor Attempted Feeding

Komodo Dragon Moving Around at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Komodo Dragon Relaxin' to the Maxin'

Up Close and Personal With The Komodo Dragon at the Cheyenney Mountain Zoo

Komodo Dragon Close Up at the Denver Zoo


And now, for some pictures of various monitor lizards I have taken over the years! First off is Herkemer, the resident Dumeril's Monitor Lizard at the Morrison Natural History Museum!

Next, we have a few photos that I took of one of the Komodo dragons at the Denver Zoo.

After that, we have a few Komodo dragon pics that I took at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo!

Finally, we have a trio of pictures that I took of some tree monitors at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, as well!

And now, last but certainly not least, we have some pictures of some baby Komodo dragons at the Phoenix Zoo in Arizona!  They are pretty darn cute!
This was the birthday post of Gookhyun Jeong, happy birthday big guy!  And remember, if you have a birthday coming up, just email me the date at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com with the date and your favorite animal, and I will do my best to get a post in! 

References:

http://www.conservation.org/FMG/Articles/Pages/gila_monsters_human_health_mexico.aspx

http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~varanus/varanus.html

Some Like It Hot....Radioactive Hot

Today was quite an eventful day, for many reasons!  Went to the Zoo Lights at the Denver Zoo with some good friends of ours; learned that Ray Wise is not in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but is actually in X-Men: First Class; and learned that the building off the highway called "Quaker Steak and Lube" is actually a restaurant, and not a car repair place.  Also, on my way to the Morrison Museum this morning, I saw what I am pretty sure was a peregrine falcon, as well as a number of red-tailed hawks and kestrels, and the great-horned owl that I have seen a few times recently perched on the "speed limit" sign on the highway!  It was pretty awesome!  Oh, and did I mention that one of my fossils might be radioactive?

One of the Zoo Lights was this tiger, but I'm pretty sure he's supposed to go around something a little thicker....

I was talking to Dr. Bob today at the museum, and we were talking about fossil hunting in Texas, chiefly the fossils that I got down there when we went to visit my gramma last Christmas, as well as the fossil dig-site that he has down there.  As we were talking, I thought back to the fossilized wood (top picture, the thing with the penny on it and everything to the right and above that piece) that I had picked up in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, on one of the first nights of our trip.  I had never been able to figure out what formation or what geologic time period it came from, so I asked Dr. Bob.  He said that there are a lot of different aged rocks from throughout the Mesozoic Era (the time of the dinosaurs), from the Triassic to the Cretaceous.  Then, as a sidenote, he mentioned that some of the fossilized wood down there tends to be radioactive, sometimes dangerously so.  Well then!  I am currently sorting this out, but I feel like I don't really have enough to worry about.  Famous last words, right?

Zoo Babies: Lion Cubs at the Denver Zoo

On Saturday, my family and I went to the Denver Zoo.  We saw many awesome animals, but probably my favorite animals that we saw were the three new baby lion cubs!  Born in June of 2012, the cubs were sent to the zoo from Qatar, and will likely be shipped somewhere else once any long-term plans have been established regarding where they will stay.  For now, though, we get to enjoy the pleasure of these cubs, and now you can too!  Enjoy the pictures!

Hello there!

King of Pride Rock

The cubs look up as a HUGE flock of geese flies by overhead!  Nice timing, mother!  (That sounds like I'm being sarcastic but I actually am not.)

Ready to pounce!

Right before the goose flyover!

Master of all he surveys