Goblin Shark

I saw a brown recluse in the attic and I managed to let it outside. Posts are going to be kind of irregular I'm moving.

Art

I'm not sure.

Animal

Photo by Peter Halasz

The goblin shark is a pinkish deep sea shark with a protrusible jaw that has been found in many places around the world. The large snout contains electro-sensitive organs which it uses to find prey. It was called a "tenguzame" by Japanese fishermen as their long snout resembled the long noses of certain tengu. They have no swim bladder like a basking shark. So far, they have not done well in captivity the longest one has survived in captive conditions being only a week.

Video of a goblin shark and its odd bite.

Blue Tongued Skink

packing

Art

I'm not sure still need to raku fire stuff and coat the sphinx

Animal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8007281@N08/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

The blue tongued skink (Tiliqua scinoides) is a 2ft skink from Australia. As their name implies they have a bright blue tongue which they use for threat displays. When threatened they will puff up their body to appear larger and stick out their alarming blue tongue. It is thought that their display may also mimic a death adder's as they are similar in coloration and share the same range. Blue tongued skinks are omnivores some have a particular fondness for snails. They give birth to live young after the eggs have developed inside their body, some give birth to more then 10 offspring at a time. They are very common in the pet trade and commonly captive bred. Most of the ones I've met tend to have good natures and they tend to be reasonably hardy.

Video of a blue tongued skink eating peas

Bar Tailed Godwit

Lots of stress. Packing.

Art

Now that I have a nice protective layer on the sphinx divide the pieces of the mold off and put a coat on one piece

glaze rabbit and fly

raku fire rabbit and fly

Animal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmrfsc/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The bar tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica baueri) breeds in Alaska and then winters in Australia. They complete this migration in one non-stop flight of over 6400 miles it can take them 175 hours. This is the longest non-stop flight known in any bird and they do this without feeding. Before they leave they double their body weight yet despite all the physical activity they do not arrive in Australia completely emaciated. Around the time of the flight their internal food processing organs shrink greatly in size and it is thought that this helps to balance out the new fat reserves they have just put on. The other subspecies have similarly long migrations ssp.lapponica goes from Scandinavia to southern Africa and ssp.menzbieri goes from Northern Asia to New Zealand.

Greater Glider

Lost my connection yesterday. We went to goth night and were vaguely social. Rick got a giant antique scythe that he is planning to hang on his wall.

Art

put a coat of silicone on the sphinx

glaze rabbit and soldier fly parts

raku fire rabbit and soldier fly parts

Animal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

The greater glider (Petauroides volans) is a gliding possum from Australia, and it's coloration and markings show a great deal of variety. It has been observed to be able to glide up to 120 feet. They are competitors of the Koala as they too feed almost exculsively on Eucalyptus leaves.

Pig Footed Bandicoot

I tested the welder last night and it still works that is good.

Art

put another coat of silicone on the sphinx

Animal

The pig footed bandicoot (Chaeropus ecaudatus) is in my opinion the most under appreciated of the recently extinct mammals. It was a small herbivorous marsupial with a long snout, a bulky body and extremely tiny fragile legs with hooves. It was about the size of a kitten. Recently they seem to have gotten their first cryptozoologist when someone thought they heard their mating call in an AC/DC video.

photo of stuffed specimen's odd feet

Knobbed Argonaut

I tested some of the silicone last night. I found that the kicker had done something odd and I was concerned about it still curing. To test it I ended up making a mold of some turkey vertebrae I had sitting around. I'm sure I can find a use for copies of those.

Art

add a coat of silicone to the sphinx

Animal

The knobbed argonaut (Argonauta nodosa) is not a type of nautilus but a type of octopus that also has a shell that the female swims around in. The paper thin shell is actually an egg case that only females of this species create. They display extreme sexual dimorphism males are under 1 inch long, while females can exceed 4 inches. They live in the open ocean in the southern hemisphere and occur most frequently around Australia. There shells are highly prized by collectors as they are rare and fragile.

A much better picture of one

Spotted Garden Eel

I finally found that silicone.

Art

add a coat of silicone to the sphinx

Animal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/goyaboy/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The Spotted garden eel (Heteroconger hassi) forms impressive colonies with hundreds of individuals in the western Pacific. They were not discovered until scuba diving became popular in 1959, they tend to be easily spooked and pull themselves back into their burrows when disturbed.

Texas Threadsnake

Art

waiting on the kiln

Animal

Photo by LA Dawson

The Texas threadsnake (Leptotyphlops dulcis) is a small burrowing snake from the southwest United States and Mexico. They are well adapted to life underground and only surface when their habitat floods. Their eyes have been reduced to vestigial eyespots. Eastern screech owls will catch these snake alive and release the in their nests. The snake prey on larva and nest debris in the nest that might be detrimental to the baby owls. Owls with a threadsnake in their nests grew faster and had a lower mortality rate.

Crested Auklet

Art

Still carving the rabbit

Animal

The crested auklet (Aethia cristatella) nests in giant colonies numbering sometimes over 1 million birds in the Bering Sea. They are said to smell strongly like tangerines, so strongly in fact that humans can smell crested auklet colonies for miles. It is thought that the birds use the scent to find their colonies. Crested auklets eat mostly very small invertebrates such as krill and copepods.

Sun Bear

It's a shame more apartment listings don't add the feature "grimy unfinished basement" (even better "with floor drain") in their list of features. I've been kind of spoiled in terms of studio space.

Art

still carving the rabbit

Animal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44603071@N00/ / CC BY 2.0

The sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) is one of the smallest bears and is native to southeast Asia. They have an unusually long tongues that they use to extract honey from bee hives and termites. Among bears they are the most adept at climbing trees their back legs are specialized for climbing with well developed muscle around their tibia. They are not doing terrible well in the wild due to habitat destruction and over hunting. It does not help that their bile is prized as a traditional treatment for liver ailments.

Video of a sun bear cub

Sloan's Urania

We have a lot of packing to do. I'm also going to probably have to give up a lot of the found objects I've gathered in the studio. Hopefully I will find some people that could use boxes of high quality garbage.

Art

still carving the rabbit

Hopefully bisque firing the rabbit and soldier fly

Animal

Sloan's Urania (Urania sloanus) was a day flying moth with interference based colors similar in appearance to the Lolonandriana I mentioned a while ago. It was native to Jamaica and has not been seen since 1895. It is thought that it was wiped out as the Jamaican low land forests were cleared for farm land. Currently only one preserved specimen of the moth exists in the Peale collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. It was named after the Muse Urania that specialized in astronomy and astrology.

Fire Beetle

Art

carve rabbit

Animal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ctam/ / CC BY 2.0

The fire beetle (Pyrophorus noctilucus) has the brightest bioluminescence of any insect. It is bright enough to read by at 45 millilamberts. Unlike a firefly it can not turn off it's bioluminescence but it can brighten and dim. The bioluminescent spots are on it's thorax and resemble LED's. It is native to Central and South America as well as the Caribbean.

Atlantic Croaker

Big life changes this weekend.

Art

carve rabbit

Animal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/88158121@N00/ / CC BY 2.0

The Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) is a member of the drum family that occurs along the east coast of the United States. They are the loudest of the drums and produce sound by vibrating their swim bladders with special sonic muscles. They create sounds for a number of reasons most often to attract mates or when they are distressed, they have also been observed to make a knocking sound in the presence of juveniles. They are an important food fish and as far as saltwater food fish go are doing reasonably well (declining but in a less rapid way then many) and not caught in a hideously destructive manner. On the downside they are full of PCBs. They breed quickly and grow to breeding age at around 2 years, though they can live for 6 to 8 years.

Sound of an Atlantic croaker croaking

Sorry forgot to mention I won't be posting until Monday or so as I will not have access.

Malagasy Rainbow Frog

I may be posted in a not very regular manner for the next month and a half. We are doing a long distance move soon and I will likely have a few periods where I have no internet connection. (It is also going to cut into the Art quite a bit). Things should get back to normal after that.

Art

work on ceramic parts of rabbit and not flower but soldier fly

Animal

Photo by Franco Andreone

The Malagasy rainbow frog (Scaphiophryne gottlebei) lives in narrow sandy canyons in the Isalo Massif area of Madagascar. They burrow in the sandy substrate much of the time and will climb the vertical rocky walls of the canyons they live in for several meters. Tadpoles of this species have a psammonektonic feeding behavior durning the day the sit along the bottom at a 45 degree angle and filter feed on the substrate then at night they swim freely feeding as well. They are critically endangered for a variety of reasons habitat destruction logging, fire, and overgrazing being the big one. There is also a great deal of concern about sapphire mining activities in their range. It has also been determined that a significant cap needs to be put on the number of individuals collected for the pet trade the Edge suggests no more then 1000 individuals per year. While they recover very well from individual predation their range is too small to sustain the level of collection that currently occurs, so it is currently very damaging. While they have not yet successfully bred and fully reared in captivity it is thought that there is reasonably good potential that they can be bred in captive conditions, it is the hoped that extremely limited collection will allow a breeding captive population to be established.

Link to the Edge amphibian and weird mammal conservation charity

sociable weaver

Art

begin sculpting the ceramic parts of the rabbit and flower fly

Animal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thunderstar/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The sociable weaver (Philetairus socius) is native to Southern Africa. They build enormous communal nests that may house up to 500 birds. The nests can represent 1000's of hours of labor and can last for up to 100 years. Some examples have been recorded to be up to 13 feet tall and 24 feet across split up in to individual apartments. On occasion other birds such as the pygmy falcon (Polihierax semitorquatus) will also take up residence in the nests.

Asian Small Clawed Otter

finished the cricket

Art

start the rabbit and flower fly

Animal

Photo by guppiecat

The Asian small clawed otter (Aonyx cinerea) is the smallest of the the otters. It is native to southern Asia and tend to live in small groups of about 12 individuals. They climb well, I once saw several of them at a zoo scale the chain link side of their enclosure. Their claws are very short and fingernail-like this is said to give them greater manual dexterity then most otters. It has been recorded that they have 12 different vocalizations they communicate with.

Video with baby Asian small clawed otters

Dunkleosteus

Sadly the catfish does not seem to have turned out.

Art

paint the cricket

Animal

Drawing by Frederik Spindler

When I worked at Taylor Studios the company that made museum exhibits, they kind of had a prehistoric totem animal, it was on everything. That animal was the Dunkleosteus, a giant Devonian fish about the size of a school bus. It is notable for having the strongest jaw strength of any animal and eating funny looking sharks. There was a large mural of it in the hall, and a picture of one they had sculpted on the truck. It was in the brochure and on the website. They had a skull in the office and molds in back. I have personally cleaned lugged and organized on a shelf their silicone dunkleosteus love. I'm not sure why the obsession but Taylor studios really likes the Dunkleosteus I really think more companies need an inexplicable prehistoric totem animal.

Curved Spiny Spider

Art

paint the cricket

Animal

photo by Malaysian Spiders

The curved spiny spider (Gasteracantha arcuata) is a small orb weaver with a spiny abdomen from southeast Asia. They are sexually dimorphic, the males are much smaller and lack the giant horns. It is thought that the horns make them less palatable to predators. They have a tendency to build their webs in places where they might be disturbed by flying birds so they will actually build visible tuffs of silk into the web, it is theorized that these help the birds avoid their webs.

long-tailed sea moth

I think the cricket is working but the catfish less so (maybe a better pose would help). I may continue this experiment where I grab a couple of random things in the studio and make a small piece based on them.

Art

assemble cricket and catfish

Animal

photo by wildsingapore

The long-tailed sea moth (pegasus volitans) is a 3 inch relative of the sea horses. Like a chameleon they can change their coloration, also like a chameleon they can move their eyes independently. They use their enlarged pectoral fins to pull themselves along the bottom.

McGregor's Tree Viper

I've had a really bad internet connection the last couple of days. I passed the Network + it was awful.

Art

assemble cricket and cory cat

Animal

Photo by Alumroot

The McGregor's Tree Viper (Trimeresurus mcgregori) is a lovely colorful snake with variable marking from two islands of the Philippines. There was some debate as to whether it is a full species or a subspecies of Trimeresurus flavomaculatus. It is a venomous snake with a very painful bite, but it is not deadly. It was discovered by a bird specialist Richard C.Mcgregor in 1907, and upon discovery the snake bit him, so he also learned about the potency of it's venom. Unlike many snakes, these snakes are actually very dependent on sight most snakes get most of their sensory input through smell and heat.

sword-billed hummingbird

Art

Probably not much today studying for the Comptia Network +

Animal

Photo by Michael Woodruff

The sword-billed hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) is a South American hummingbird with the longest bill to body proportion among birds. It specializes in flowers with long corollas such as Datura, passionflowers and fuchsias. These hummingbirds are a very extreme example of coevolution between pollinators and the plants they pollinate. It's bill is so large that it can not be used in groom so the bird grooms with it's feet. It must hold it's bill at a certain angle to fly and perch. They are also among the largest hummingbirds at 12 grams.

Russian Desman

I got into a long pointless (though civil) political argument at work last night and did not get home until it was late, so this is yesterday's entry. There was a relatively intense storm last night and we had most of one of the trees fall down into the driveway. Only the tree was damaged I think it will survive the damage though. Today and tomorrow I will be mostly studying for the Net +.

art

assemble cricket and cory catfish

Animal

The Russian Desman (Desmana moschata) is an odd looking aquatic insectivore that is related to moles from southwest Russia It is mostly found along the Don, Ural, and Volga. It uses its long flexible nose as a snorkel while swimming and It's nose also contains an Elmer's organ a sensory organ found in moles. It was once hunted for it's musk glands and fur, but is currently endangered. It is the only animal that has the word Russian in it's name and was adopted by the Russian Party of Life as their mascot for a time before they merged with other parties it is also featured on a coin. One of the names of the Russian Desman in Russian is vykhukhol which might be or sound like something profane but I'm not sure what. Perhaps I can ask Greg my friend who is fluent in Russian if I think about it later.

Short subtitled documentary about Russian desman

Devil Toad

Studying for the Network +

Art

glaze the rest of the cory cat

begin assembly on the cricket

Animal

The devil toad (Beelzebufo ampinga) was a giant toad that existed durning the Cretaceous Period in what is now Madagascar. It was about 16 inches long and was thought to have weighed over 10lbs and is thought to have been the largest frog that has existed. It's closest living relatives are the horned frogs such as the Pacman frog (Ceratophry cranwelli). It is speculated that they were terrestrial and like their living relatives quite aggressive.

Giant Isopod

Art

glaze and fire the ceramic cricket bits

Animal

Photo by Coda

The Giant Isopod (Bathynomus giganteus) is a bit like a thing from a horror movie, it is part of the order of crustaceans that contains rolly pollies (pill bugs (Armadillidium vulgare)), but grown out of control. They are about as related to rolly pollies as weasels are to walruses but they look a good deal like them in a giant version. They are the largest know isopod and come from the benthic zone of the ocean where they have been for the last 160 million years functioning as scavengers. They are eaten in Taiwan and described to taste like crab.

Picture for scale

Sarcastic Fringehead

feet

Art

finish carving cricket and cory and fire the pieces

study for the net +

Animal

Photo by Magnus Kjaergaard

The sarcastic fringehead (Neoclinus blanchardi) is a relative of blennies from the southwestern coast of North America. They spend most of their time hiding in crevices and eat small fish and invertebrates. Their mouthes are larger then you would expect. It has been reported that they are fairly aggressive and will occasionally charge scuba divers. 

A video of two sarcastic fringeheads fighting.

Giant Frog-eyed Gecko

I dropped the figure with the Anubis mask and fairly throughly destroyed it. I will recreate it but I don't think I will be able to finish it before the move so I will probably have to wait until after. I started some small pieces that might turn into something.

Art

carve cory cat and cricket

Animal

Photo by Lydiat

The Giant Frog-eyed Gecko (Teratoscincus scincus) is an adorable burrowing desert gecko from the Middle East. It would be a poor idea to cuddle them as they have exceptionally fragile skin that can be torn quite easily and they are very nervous geckos. It's possible rough handling could partially flay them. They have some of the thinnest skin of the geckos that do not use skin loss as a defense mechanism.

Secretary Bird

I'm starting to get worried about this silicone I ordered it hasn't come in yet. 

Art

goal for the week 5 hrs

make clay

work on the figure with the Anubis mask

Animal

Photo by Bob and Jane

The secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius) is a terrestrial raptor from sub-saharan Africa with long stork-like legs. As its scientific name implies it does often eat snakes and other small creatures. It hunts by grasping the small creature and beating it against the ground. It is the national emblem of Sudan and the name secretary bird came from the Europeans who felt that it looked like the bird was wearing a coat and tails with quills behind it's ears.

Video of a secretary bird playing with a toy snake

Video of a secretary bird grabbing food from a zoo keepers hand

Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo

not feeling well today

Art

goal for the week 6.5 hours

sick

Animal

Photo by Erik K Veland

Goodfellow's tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus goodfellowi) is an endangered tree dwelling macropod from New Guinea and Indonesia. They eat mainly silkwood leaves and have a stomach with a fermentation vat similar to that of a cow. They are one of the largest Dendrolagus tree kangaroos at about 15-22lbs. A combination of habitat destruction and overhunting are wiping them out in the wild, fortunately they are breeding well in captivity.

Video of a baby tree kangaroo

Synthetoceras tricornatus

It looks like I will be taking my network + on 6/22. 

After the exotic feline rescue center we went to Mammoth Cave and Crystal Onyx cave. I felt very rushed through Mammoth cave, did see a cute grey bat though. Crystal Onyx cave while smaller was very impressive and had a lot of formations. It also was a prehistoric burial ground though the bodies were not in an accessible area. The tour guide was pleasantly snarky and seemed to very interested in geology (and was somewhat put out that we were not particularly knowledgeable on the subject).

Art

goal for the week 7hrs

make clay

work on the figure with the anubis mask

Animal

drawing by Arthur Weasley

Synthetoceras tricornatus was an artiodactyl (relative of camels) that inhabited North America during the Miocene. The males had a large "Y"shaped horn as well as enlarged canines. These were probably used in territorial disputes. It is thought that the horns may have been covered in tough skin.

Ebony jewelwing

The vacation is over now. I had a good time we stopped several places and saw a lot neat things. We stopped first at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Indiana. I got several good pictures of large cats. If you have never been to it and like to visit large cats I highly recommend it the cats there seem reasonably happy and active. I don't recommend bringing very small children as they seem to kind of excite the predatory side of quite a few of them. I'll get into some of the other stuff later in the week. 

Here is an upside-down puma

Art 

goal for the week 9hrs

fire tiles

make clay

work on Anubis masked figure

net +

Animal

The ebony jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata) is a damselfly from northeastern North America. I happened to see a lot of them this weekend at a wildlife refuge we stopped at on the way back.  I had been previously unaware there were black winged damselflies and thought I would share. They are sexually dimorphic the females have a white spot on their wings and the males have solid black wings. They eat small arthropods and tend to live near small creeks.

Here is a better photo of a male

photo by HenryMcLin

Amazon Molly

Stuart and I are going out of town for the weekend. I probably won't be updating this weekend as I don't think I will have net access.

Art

We are going out town so the goal won't really apply this week

work on floor tiles for piece

Animal
The Amazon Molly (Poecilla formosa) is a small live bearing fish from northeastern Mexico and the southern United States. All Amazon mollies are female and nearly genetically identical. They reproduce via gynogenesis and though they must mate with the male of a different species of molly to reproduce they do not include any of the male's genetic material in their offspring.

Common snakeneck turtle

Art

goal for the week 16hrs

today

work on floor tiles

make clay

Animal

Photo by Joachim S Muller

The common snakeneck turtle (Chelodina longicollis) is an Australian turtle with a neck as long as the rest of it's body. It also has potent musk glands which give it another common name "the stinker" which they can spray up to 3 feet when threatened. They for some reason not uncommon as pets in Australia, perhaps they are difficult to frighten badly enough to spray.

Here is a link to a picture that better illustrates the unusually long neck

Southern white faced Scops Owl

I discovered that I was out of silicone so I ordered some today.

Art

Goal for the week 18.5 hrs

make clay

make the floor tiles for the figure

Animal

Photo by Ennor

The Southern white faced Scops Owl (Ptilopsis granti) comes from southern Africa. They will occasionally drive raptors out of their nests and take them over as their own. When nesting they will work cooperatively as a pair for the first two weeks the chicks are fed only by the male as the female incubates. After the first two weeks they will alternate hunting. They have also been known to fly long distances to find grass fires and then take advantage of the fact that the fire will drive small mammals into the open.

Video showing two of the owl's defensive displays

necklace pipistrelle

Finally got the sphinx done and documented now I just need to make the rotational mold. We went to a drive-in located in Gibson City and saw "UP". We had arrived very early in Gibson City intending to explore the town. We talked to a person named Norm who ran and international grocery with three large dogs about his time flying burn victims to Airforce bases for medical help. We ended up not finding much so we went to Paxton. In Paxton we met a man running a novelty shop who had built a stone castle.  He rents out the castle for romantic getaways and requested that we mention it's availability especially during the week to the local SCA. He was also intrigued by the idea of vampire or changeling LARPers.

Art

clean the studio enough to access my silicone

put the first coat on the sphinx

make clay

work on the figure with the Anubis mask.

Animal

Photo by pseudolapiz

The necklace pipistrelle (Arielulus torquatus) is a microbat found only in Taiwan. It was recognized as a separate species in 1998 by Csorba & Lee. They are found at an altitude of 1500 meters and mostly eat small insects.

Close up of one bat

Twin head-tailed monster

Animal 

Photo by fossilmike

Dicranurus monstrosus or since Dicranurus translates to twin head-tail, the twin-head tailed monster was a lower Devonian trilobite with an unusual array of spines. It looks a bit like the shadow ships from Babylon 5 except with ram horns. It is thought that the spines may have been for defense against early jawed fish such as smaller relatives of the Dunkleosteus. The spines also may have been useful for holding the trilobite out of the mud. They were found between Euramerica and Gondwanaland. Most of the fossils of this species today are found in Morocco. They are very popular with trilobite collectors

Giant Palouse Earthworm

Art

goal for the week 15hrs

Animal

In the Palouse area of Idaho and Washington state there is a 3ft white earthworm that smells of lilies. The giant worm also will spit as a defense mechanism. The giant Palouse earthworm (Driloleirus americanus) was believed extinct but a specimen was recovered in 2005 along with several reliable sightings. Since it was rediscovered many conservation groups would like to list it as an endangered species as its habitat is disappearing and it was once described as abundant and is now is very rare. The U.S Fish and Wildlife service has rejected the request of these groups to list the worm citing lack of evidence. It has been implicated that the U.S Fish and Wildlife service's intentions were more politically motivated in rejecting the worm then based on lack of evidence.

Yellow Spotted Boxfish

We had another big brown bat get in today while I was at work it was in my room. Jenn ended up catching it in a blanket on the bed. It was apparently really cute.

Art

Goal for the week 15hrs

Animal

Photo by seotaro

The yellow spotted boxfish (Ostracion cubicus) is probably one of the truest examples of a boxfish being cubical. They are very geometric and they can grow to about the size of a football. They are less oddly shaped when fully mature. When frightened they can release a potent toxin that might explain their bright coloration. They are reasonably popular in the aquarium trade despite the fact they need over a 100 gallon tank, have never bred in captivity, and can kill all of your other fish if they are spooked. In 2006, Mercedes-Benz designed a car based on this fish call the bionic it too is very square and yellow.

feathered tree viper

Art

Goal for the week 17hrs

try to finish the sphinx

Animal

Photo by Al Coritz

The feathered tree viper (Atheris hispida) is a small strange viper from central Africa. They have these long scales that bristle off their body in a way that one usually only sees in drawing of dragons and not so much in actual reptiles.  Like the Amazonian snail eater I mentioned a few weeks ago these also seems to specialize in soft bodied invertebrates. They tend to hang out basking on the very tops of trees. They do very poorly in captivity with a very high mortality rate even among experienced keepers.

Close up of their dragon-like head

Video of someone fussing over several feathered tree vipers and the vipers doing threat displays

Southern Cassowary

I received a Zeraphine cd that I ordered from Russia today. One of the postal services along the way had actually punched a hole in the package to look at the contents.

Art

goal for the week 19hrs

still working on the sphinx

Animal 

Photo by Whirling Phoenix

I've had a few people ask me what a cassowary was since talking about having one guard an MDF. I'm kind of confused by this as I thought cassowaries were charismatic well known animals. So, I'll go with the Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) as it is the largest and most iconic cassowary of the three current species. They are the second heaviest bird and the largest Asian bird. While they are quite dangerous birds and there are many known attacks by captive cassowaries the bit about them disemboweling intruders was not very likely. It's possible that they could disembowel someone with a kick it has never been recorded happening. Despite this people have been keeping captive cassowaries for food and quills for a long time. Their call is very low being one of the lowest calls among birds. They can eat several fruits that are poisonous to other animals.  They also have quite a bit of mythology but that will probably be a separate entry at some point.

A video of a Cassowary kicking a tree in some sort of defensive display

Call recording

Coquerel's Sifaka

Art

stuff

Animal

Photo by Michael Hogan

Coquerel's Sifaka (Propithecus coquereli) is one of nine known species of sifaka all of which are found on the island of Madagascar they are very genetically distinct from other lemurs as a group. Coquerel's Sifakas are very matriarchal and even sub-adult females are dominant over males. Females have preferential access to food sources and males will wait until the group of females have moved on from a tree before moving into feed. They also have an interesting way of getting around on the ground in that they jump forward like kangaroos. In some regions of Madagascar killing and eating these sifakas is considered a fady (taboo) but I can't seem to find the reason why which is too bad I have a feeling there is a story there.

cute video of a Coquerel's Sifaka

Leedsichthys problematicus

Art

Goal for the week 15hrs

Today

finish the sphinx

make clay

put first coat of silicone on the sphinx

work on figure with anubis mask

Animal

Drawing by Dmitry Bogdanov

Leedsichthys problematicus was a giant fish filter feeding fish from the middle Jurassic. They current estimate is that they could grow to around 72 feet in length. They seem to have been fairly capable of defending themselves as individuals have been found with healed Leopleurodon bites. Like the bicher I mentioned early this week, Leedsichthys too was most cartilaginous with some bone. It got the name problematicus due to the fact that it has so many small bones and large chunks of the structure tend not to be preserved due to their being made of cartilage making the skeleton difficult to assemble. In a recent dig in Peterborough where they recovered a large fairly complete skeleton they excavated over 2100 bones.

Acteon beetle

Still strangely depressed. Network + studying is coming along.

Art

goal for the week 17hrs

Today

work on and hopefully finish sphinx

Animal

Photo by photo.gustavomorejon.com

The Acteon beetle (Megasoma acteon) is one of the world's heaviest insects. It might well be the heaviest but that seems to be open to debate. For example gravid giant wetas (really, really big crickets) are heavier, but does it count if it is only heavier when gravid... stuff like that. They are about 4 inches long and quite bulky. Acteon beetles are native to northwestern South America, and I've not found anything that directly says they are found in the rain forest but they seem to thrive in a deep mulch with 90% humidity so I'm guessing. They are carpusluar and mainly found in the evenings between January and November. Vegitation and rotting wood seem to be their main food sources. Males and Females differ greatly as the males have three prominant horns one on their head and two off their thorax. The females have no horns. They are very strong beetles and can easily rip through screen mesh and their exoskeleton is described as thick almost crab-like. Apparently if placed on their back on a smooth surface they can not right themselves and can die if left in that position. The larva which are also quite large and can weigh as much as 1/12500th of a ton, also the larval stage is much longer then the adult stage. The adults tend to live 100-150 days while the larva take 3 years to reach maturity. Even their eggs are quite large often exceeding 2 inches in lenght beforh hatching. The eggs have a very long incubation period for an insect taking up to a month to hatch.

Megasoma Acteon was described by Linneaus in 1758, and retains its original name. This is significant as Linneaus was the one that developed the basis of the taxonomic system used today. Carl Linneaus is known as "the father of Taxonomy" he developed the concepts of hiearchical classification and binomial nomerclature still in use today. He also under went the giant task of trying to classify all known life. Most of his of his original classifications have been disputed, further examined, and changed. So the Acteon Beetle has one of the oldest scientific names that is still in use. This beetle's name probably references mythology, Linneaus seems to have used a lot of gods and mythological figures in the names he gave. For example another beetle with a vaguely canine-like head in the genus Megasoma, that was named by Linneaus is Megasoma anubis. Megasoma acteon probably came from the story of Actaeon the hunter (Acteon in french), who came upon Diana goddess of the hunt bathing in the forest. Diana was angered that Actaeon had seen her and turned him into a stag, which was dismembered by his own hounds. The beetle was probably named Megasoma acteon to refer to the stag-like horns of its thorax.