Itchy Red Bumps On Thighs And Pemis

The megafauna that no longer exists


There's a reason why people think of when they think of dinosaurs extinct animals, and that reason is that dinosaurs are, beyond any reasonable doubt, the coolest and badass group of chordates never existed. However, Mother Nature has been generous in distributing the figaggine his children, living or extinct, and the world of those who no longer belong to other strange and amazing creatures, who lived in ages so primitive and remote as to be unthinkable, or so familiar and close to having lived with us. Inspired by Article National Geographic this month dedicated to Australia's extinct megafauna, I dedicate this post to the second of two groups, which included a vast and bizarre assortment of mammals, reptiles and birds but also mammoth, scattered in all corners of the world. In a fatal conjunction of climate change and unexpected appearance of a, ahem , highly efficient new species of primate in the hunt (not yet known to what extent they affected one or the other, even if the monkeys are strongly bipedal seen by many people) these things are gone forever, leaving only bones and fossils. Here are my favorites, divided by nationality:

1) North America: ...

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... you know what? The North American megafauna extinct too abused. Everyone knows about mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, smilodonti (saber-toothed tigers) and megaloceri (giant deer). Move on.

2) South America: The South American giants' bones were studied by Darwin during the Beagle voyage, making him think about the similarity between the extinct giants and their modern cousins. Roamed the pampas, among others, a kind of South American Smilodonte, a giant predatory bird could not fly (Phorusrhacus), a series of mega-round-shelled armadillos and the code elements (Glyptodon, Doedicurus), a large camelid with a short proboscis (Macrauchenia) and my favorite, a giant terrestrial AIS (Megatherium), a ball of fur and claws-uproots trees as big as an elephant. There was no lack creatures such as marsupial predator Thylacosmilus fangs like a saber.

3) Australia: read the National Geographic, is not it? Among marsupial lions and giant kangaroos, the mega-wombat known as Diprotodon, the largest known marsupial, stands as a shining, hairy star the size of a rhinoceros. A giant lizard predator, formerly known as Varanus priscus Megalania but now called because closely related with modern lizards, sowing terror with its more than six meters in length.

4) New Zealand: here the birds are the masters. The Moa (Dinornis) with its almost 4 meters high, was the largest known bird, a kind of hyper-necked ostrich feathers and long stringy. Even with its size, the peaceful Moa was not safe from the largest eagle ever existed, Haast's eagle (3-meter wingspan and 15 kg, for a bird Flying is not much).

Hair Thinning On On Front

Visit the American Museum of Natural History


very late, I decided (why not?) To write my impressions on my (double) visit the American Museum of Natural History, which I had occasion to do during a pleasant holiday in New York at the end of July. I am studying at the University of Bologna, I often to go to the Museum of Zoology of this city two or three floors, relatively little ones, which are arranged in glass cases containing stuffed animals and dusty worm-riddled, often stuffed badly and probably died around 1300, piled up with very little criteria and without a shred of written explanation. The place is always deserted and dark, and vaguely disturbing. Being accustomed to such a lugubrious staging, it is natural that my head is practically exploded entering the temple of science which is the AMNH, 4 floors chissaddio how many square feet of modern and spectacular exhibitions including millions of artefacts. Here is a list of things that impressed me most and why:

1) North American Mammals: after the museum of Bologna, everything I expected except enthusiasm for stuffed animals, stuffed animals and especially not from the countries where nowadays is the most spectacular megafauna - Africa and Asia. Surprisingly, however, perhaps because the animals of these two continents are used too often in nature documentaries, I was much more passionate display of North American mammals: the specimens are old but perfectly preserved, so they seem alive, and incorporated in dramatic and artistic dioramas.

2) Reptiles and Amphibians: compared to other sections of the museum, friends crawling they peck a relatively small room, but extremely well made and fascinating. There are some really huge stuffed reptiles (Alligator American Alligator in Mississippi, the Aldabra tortoise, some leatherbacks and monitor lizards of Komodo and a reticulated python inserted in beautiful dioramas) and many other reptiles and amphibians housed in small shrines in the second 's argument (reproduction, growth, nutrition ...) always accompanied by detailed explanations and well done.

3) Biodiversity: apart from the bizarre decision to build a large diorama of the central rainforest and then soak in the shadows, the Hall of Biodiversity is really beautiful: half occupied by posters and information screens, the other by a impressive Tree of Life consists of examples or models of a vast number of species is to cover all or nearly all known phyla, arranged according to the evolutionary history and the ties of kinship.

4) Oceans: Two floors of beautiful dioramas depicting the vast variety of marine ecosystems and their inhabitants, with supplemental explanations on them and their importance to humans. In the middle, hanging from the ceiling, there is a 1:1 scale model of the blue whale. One can not have any idea how fucking big is a blue whale until he sees with his eyes.

5) Evolution of Man: Very interesting also the room in which the fossil record (including the legendary Lucy) and articulate explanations on the evolution of man and his brain. Less agree with the idea of \u200b\u200bdedicating other, vast halls of a science museum with exhibits of various human cultures anthropological later.

6) Fossil: The main attraction of the museum, and we can also understand why. 5 rooms (Origin and Evolution of Vertebrates, Saurischi Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs ornithischians, Origin and Evolution of Mammals, Prehistoric Mammals) filled with beautiful and extraordinarily preserved fossil of an incredible variety of giant and bizarre prehistoric creatures. I was pleased to know that as old friends a number of fossils on display, whose photographs are often found in publications on the subject, and now I could finally see them in person. In addition to generally unknown creatures, here are the superstars of the dinosaurs, those that every child with a little self-respect knows by heart the age of 2 years: T-Rex, the Apatosauro, the Stegosaurus, a Triceratops, Allosaurus and the countless others. The spectacular skeleton Barosauro defending her cub from an Allosaurus is not in the fossil record, but the lobby of the museum.

What to say? Wow. I visited the museum twice, and even if the temporary exhibitions (live reptiles, with the voice of global Woopy Goldberg, FURTHER planetarium with the voice of Leonardo di Caprio) were not particularly attractive, permanent exhibitions are more than enough to overcome also the highest expectations.

Wisdom Removal Weird Taste In Mouth

PARASITES! Spotlight


A post to remember a group of organisms usually (even justifiably) hated blood, not just united by ties of kinship (can be single-celled or multicellular plants and animals, vertebrates and invertebrates) from the way of life based on obtaining food and other resources to the detriment of other organizations: I'm talking about parasites. I always had a love-hate relationship towards this vast jumble: one is rotten hypochondriac, the mere sight of offal and diseases in photography gives me an effort, and the bites of mosquitoes and horseflies summer, plus a few assault ticks make me try to screw the common hatred of opportunistic nature, they are bloodsucking insects (bloodsucker) or nematode worms that burrow their way into the living bodies of victims. The other pests are one of the most shining examples of what you can do the evolution, and how far it is willing to push their lives to grab what little resources to enable it to continue to exist. After all, some of these beings have chosen the most extreme habitats of all, the place from which all other bodies are trying to stay away: the stomach of another animal. To survive according to their specialization (internal or external, or immovable property, bloodsucking, flesh-eating or food already digested) and their phylum (arthropods, nematodes, flatworms, strings ...) these things have also developed a set of tools and incredibly interesting life cycles. They also have a key role in the ecosystem, comprising of specific species or by acting as prey for others, and recently ecologists have begun to realize that a healthy ecosystem must be healthy populations of parasites.

Incidentally, the image captures a crustacean isopods that used to anchor the base of the tongue of the fish by blocking blood flow, the language dies in the short and detached, but the fish can always continue to use the isopods instead of it, in order to lead a normal life and long (as it will, therefore, that dell'isopode). Nature can sometimes be a psychopathic son of a bitch.