One of the most unusual creatures evah

I need to start paying more attention. How did such an incredible creature avoid my notice? How did I not see this reported over on DSN? You have to see this to believe it.

"Not so cool for the robin"

Sometimes, timing is everything. Earlier this week, I was driving with Emma to go pick up Jack at his pre-school when Emma notices a large bird in the neighbor's yard as we drove past. "Dad, I think I just saw a hawk." I took a quick look over my shoulder, and sure enough, Em had spotted a magnificent Cooper's Hawk (note: I'm pretty sure it was a Cooper's and not a Sharp-shinned, but not 100%). Not only that, but Em had caught the raptor in the middle of a meal. We're not sure, but Em thinks the hawk was feasting on a robin. Feathers were flying everywhere. I slowly backed the car up and Em and I watched the hawk take apart the smaller bird - a natural spectacle in its rawest form.

After a few minutes we needed to get going so as not to be late picking up Jack. We were hoping that the hawk would still be there when we returned, but I knew that in the 15 or so minutes we would be gone, some dog/person/car would spook the hawk away. Unbelievably though, when we drove by on our way home, the hawk was still there, and the three of us sat and watched the hawk devour its dinner. When I commented on how cool it was to be seeing this, the kids agreed, but then Jack added, "But not so cool for the robin though." Poor robin. But I like to think that witnessing these sorts of real-life events helps the kids gain a better understanding and appreciation of the natural world. And that is really cool, robin's opinion notwithstanding.

One smart seal

What a great little story. A young harbor seal managed to find its way into a trout farm on Cape Cod and was rewarded with some easy-to-catch dinner before she was caught. The most amazing part of the story is how the seal needed to walk waddle 2 miles inland to get to the hatchery. I wonder if she'll find her way back again.

Tenacious

I found this little snake in my backyard this afternoon. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but at only about 8 inches long, it must have been literally 1,000s of times smaller than me. Did it care? Did it quickly slither away upon being discovered? Uh, no. Gotta respect that.

That's a lot of gorillas!

In some exciting conservation news that almost slipped me by (a hearty thanks to "the Naner" for pointing it out to me), researchers have discovered a new population of critically-endangered western lowland gorillas in the Republic of Congo. The estimate of 125,000 individuals (!), based on the number of "nests" observed in the 47,000 km² area, is more than double the previous estimate for the number of these gorillas in the wild.

At first I thought the 125,000 number must be a mistake - I would have thought finding 30 gorillas was a big deal. But then I read that these gorillas were found in the swamps of equatorial Africa in a remote part of the Congo, so I can understand why they hadn't been found before. Just thinking about their location gives me malarial chills...

Read more here...

Watch a video of the gorilla discovery here...

Weird animal, not-so-weird genome

(After reading PZ Myers's post on the matter, I've decided to stop using "weird" to describe the platypus's genome. However, I still think the animal itself can aptly be described as weird.)

Nature reports today that the platypus genome has been sequenced by a large international team (note: subscription needed for full article). Fittingly, it seems that the genome is just as delightfully weird interesting as the platypus itself - a mixture of mammal genes interspersed with ancestral reptilian and avian sequences, with a bit of novelty thrown in, all of which tells us a great deal about mammalian evolutionary history.

Some highlights:

The sequenced genome, with all of its peculiarities details, corroborates the idea that the platypus lineage is the earliest diverging mammalian lineage - diverging from the rest of the mammals over 160 million years ago. Side note: the marsupial-placental split occurred ~150 mya, and all modern placentals orders appeared by ~75 mya.

The genes for caseins, the proteins found in milk, align well with the casein gene families found in other mammals. This suggests, as expected, that milk production evolved before mammals evolved live birthing (or nipples - platypus secrete milk through pores in the skin).

Speaking of birthing, the platypus genome contains sequences that match mammalian genes for the zona pellucida, but also has copies of zona pellucida genes previously only found in amphibians, birds and fish. There is also a gene for the yolk-stored proteins, vitellogenins, that are also found in amphibians, reptiles, and birds, but that have been lost in non-monotreme mammals.

Genes for the proteins found in the platypus' reptilian-like toxins turn out to be novel sequences, independently evolved and are not homologous with reptile toxin genes. Toxin production in reptiles and platypus seems to be a case of convergent evolution. Interestingly though, the same defensin genes were co-opted in each case.

(Note: I was going to strike the word weird from this item, but I've decided that this is indeed weird.) Weirdest of all might be the sex chromosomes. Platypus sex chromosomes are known to be strange structures cytologically speaking, but it turns out that none of their X chromosomes match the X chromosomes of other mammals - they're more like the Z chromosome found in birds. A "normal" autosomal chromosome however matches the mouse X chromosome.

microRNA sequences are all over the place - platypus have both microRNA sequences that are found in birds, but not mammals, as well as microRNA sequences that are found in mammals, but not birds.

Further study of the genome will certainly add to the uniqueness of the platypus and will be helpful in understanding early mammal evolution. I think it's rather poetic that such an odd cool creature has such an odd cool genome. Wouldn't it have been disappointing if it didn't?

best excuse evah

Kevin Z. of Deep Sea News and the Other 95% (or is it the Other 95% and Deep Sea News?) was supposed to be part of the Earth Day Earthcast 2008. Howevah, he ran into a small problem on the way...