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