Grey bicher

Art

Goal for the week 17.5 hrs

Today work on sphinx

Animal

Photo by ictheostega

I ran into these guys for the first time while picking up crickets at a Petsmart labeled as "Dinosaur eels" and thought they were very oddly built fish with all of the spikey little fins in back. The grey bicher (Polypterus senegalus) is an African fish that is from an ancient group of fishes that are mostly cartilaginous but have some bone.  They also have rudimentary lungs and so breathe a little bit from the air as well as the water. One of their lungs stretches almost the entire length of their body. Here is an animation (towards the bottom of the page) that shows that.  The grey bicher also has very well armored scales that may be inspiring future military armor. 

Red spotted newt

In the network + 2009 book I've been reading they go a bit overboard with the security section. They start out perfectly reasonably with firewalls, various network set ups, and encryption and then they moved to mantraps, 8ft fences with razor wire, and guard dogs. I suppose hackers would not be expecting a guard dog in the MDF. They open the dog suddenly an angry German Shepard flies out at them. The night crew and I at work then talked about other animals what could guard and MDF. We went through the usual big cats, poisonous snakes, and crocodiles. We eventually decided that the Cassowary might be the best choice as they would first confuse and then eviscerate the intruder.  

Art

Goal for the week 17hrs

work on the sphinx.

Animal

Photo by Janet.powell

The red spotted newt (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens) is a mildly toxic newt that has an interesting life cycle. They start out aquatic like other amphibians, then they go through a very cute terrestrial stage where they are tiny bright red newts that disperse to other ponds, and once they find a pond they return to a fully aquatic stage as adults and loose most of their bright coloration. The red spotted newt's range some how just misses us, but they can be found in northern and southern illinois.

Horned screamer

Art

goal for the week 18hrs

Work on sphinx

Animal

Photo by gennaropascale.com

The horned screamer (Anhima cornuta) is a relative of waterfowl that lives in tropical South America. It has a horn-like corneous that projects from the center of it's forehead and it has sharp spurs on its wings. The wing spurs are used in territorial disputes the spur break off frequently during these fights but will re-grow later. They are said to form monogamous pairs. Typically, they are not eaten by humans because their flesh is full of air sacs and considered unpalatable. 

Sounds of their calls 

Fishing cat

Stuart and I got a couple of foam swords yesterday to practice with and probably confused our neighbors.

Art

work on the sphinx

Animal 

Photo by Muzina_shanghai

The fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) is an endangered lynx-sized cat from that ranges from Pakistan to southern Asia. They are said to be extremely ferocious for their size it was reported by (Edward?) Blyth that one he had captured had broken out of its cage into the leopard enclosure next to it and killed the leopard at least twice its size. They eat mostly fish and aquatic animals, tend to live in marshes, and are having a hard time due to habitat destruction. Their claws are very long and can not be fully retracted in the front and their feet are somewhat webbed. They are said to be able to pull their ears so closely to their heads in an effort to keep water out of them that they resemble otters.

video of fishing cats fishing

The Golden Toad

Art

Goal for the week-not happening 

Today 

Work on the sphinx

Animal

The coming climate change is likely to be causing quite a few extinctions, the golden toad (Bufo periglenes) has the honor of being the first extinction definitely attributable to global warming. They bred in mass in small pools in the cloud forests of Costa Rica. The effects of an effects of El Niño-Southern Oscillation caused these pools to dry up for several years killing all of the toad's young. They have not been seen since 1989.

Lolonandriana

For the record My pancreas (like Rick's) has no medicinal benefits.

Art

goal for the week 18.5 hr

work on the sphinx

Animal

photo by Cody Hough 

The Lolonandriana (Chrysiridia rhiphearia) is a moth that is native to Madagascar and migrates to Asia it is often considered one of the most striking Lepidoptera. It does not have pigment, its color instead comes from interference on it's wing scales so it is a bit difficult to get a true impression of the moth from photographs but if you have seen much dichroic glass you can probably get the idea. The moth's bright colors are a warning of its toxicity. Some of the Native Malagasy believe that this moth is a form that their dead ancestors souls would take to inhabit the earth, so to destroy the moth would be an attack on their ancestors. I would guess that they were just thrilled to death by all of the vast interest by butterfly collectors, can't find any real information on how that went.

Hairyfish

feeling kind of depressed lately, Stuart too.

Art

goal for the week 19hrs

today

maybe paint some boxes

Animal

The Hairyfish (Mirapinna esau) is a fish with hair-like projections covering it's body that was found near the Azores islands in 1956. The species is known from only one collected female specimen that was a little over 2 inches long . They are thought to live in open water at about 13,000 feet below the surface. It was grouped with the tapetail whalefish and is thought to eat mostly copepods. The species was named after the biblical character Esau whose defining characteristics seem to be that he was hairy and had sort of a lentil fixation. There is currently debate as to whether this fish is a separate species from Procetichthys kreffti (another whalefish which is also known from only one specimen) or if it is the post-larva form of P.kreffti. They are occasionally mentioned when people are discussing legendary fur bearing trout as an actual "fur" bearing fish.