Our own is doing right well.
And they think there might be alien life on other planets…
by CJ | May 17, 2013 | Journal | 35 comments
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The Parktown Prawn looks somewhat like our (smaller) Jerusalem Cricket. Glug! I had rather pick up a grasshopper any day. The Crickets have sharp leg spurs.
Jane has a ‘thing’ about cricket sounds…they have to be tracked down. When we fed crickets to our skinks, and a cricket would escape, it would be a hunt…for sure.
I also grew up during a) a major drought b) a bloom of grasshoppers that ate every bush in town and tore up grass c) a bloom of rats, big ones, one of which did in our cat d) a bloom of rattlesnakes…They were probably interconnected events, but down in Lawton, it was bad. I recall opening the back door of our house and having 30-40 rats duck for cover in the hedges and bushes. The snakes were the scariest, because they were quiet, but the rats were yucky, and the grasshoppers ate the bushes so badly they looked like skeletons.
Weird critters: comb jellies.
I was just reading about them in the hardcopy version of Science News (for 18 May). The online story is here. They’re rearranging the evolutionary tree; the DNA evidence puts them on a lower branch than sponges, but physically they’re advanced in some interesting ways: muscles, nervous system, light-sensing cells.
The mention of the Thranx reminded me about a species of rodent that has insect-like behavior – the ‘naked mole rat’ of East Africa. In many ways they are more like insects than mammals.
* Naked mole rats live in underground colonies
* Each colony has a queen, who is the only female to reproduce
* There is division of labor into queen and specialized workers
* Their outer skin has no pain receptors
* They are mammals, but can’t maintain a constant body temperature
* They are known to use simple tools – small pieces of wood to prevent dust getting in their mouths
* They can live up 28 years
* They are highly resistant to poisons and cancer
* They can function without breathing for several minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yRzFZRiTjg
That’s scary.