tagged as lion. lions. Panthera. leo. big cats. Felidae.

via myratter

Ⓐ 10327

the king

the king

(Source: chrisfabian)

tagged as Panthera. leo. lion. lions. big cats. Felidae.

via oldisleworth

Ⓐ 15790

(Source: indigenousnudity)

iseesigils: malformalady: Lionel Crissman of Ohio, discovered the skeleton of a deer whose plume sported almost 1000 points. The region of northern Ohio is known for harboring deer to atypical plumes. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

iseesigils:

malformalady:

Lionel Crissman of Ohio, discovered the skeleton of a deer whose plume sported almost 1000 points. The region of northern Ohio is known for harboring deer to atypical plumes.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

via iseesigils

Ⓐ 3340


ruineshumaines:

The job takes about 3 years to make an engraved tatoo for an individual camels. First 2 years, there is just growing the hair and starts trimming. Inhabitant of desert does not use the iron engraved for the camels. They just cut and dye the camel hair. I have never seen such a beautiful works in the world.

Photographs by Osakabe Yasuo and Steve Hoge.

tagged as camel. camels.

via fullfrontaljewdity

Ⓐ 8167

via oldisleworth

Ⓐ 21076


cryptovolans:

so I did my scientific illustration final on whale evolution. This painting’s 3 feet long!
I did my best to illustrate every species as accurately as possible to the best of my ability. The sizes are vaguely correct but if they were actually to scale, the smaller species would be even smaller and the larger species would be even larger (basilosaurus is slightly bigger than a blue whale… and pakicetus is the size of a medium sized dog) 
YEAH evolution! 

zooblogogy: The World’s Cutest Extinct Species? The world’s smallest mammoth species, Mammuthus creticus, has recently been reported to have stood around 1 metre tall, around the size of a baby African elephant (Loxodonta africana). The fossils were found on the island of Crete in 1904, but only last year the discovery of a forelimb bone revealed the fossils to belong to the world’s smallest known mammoth species. The mimi mammoth is an example of the Island Rule, where large species get smaller and small species get larger on islands. Other examples of nanism or dwarfism include Homo floresiensis, a human species which stood less than 1 metre tall. In the other direction as examples of gigantism, a 12kg species of rabbit (Nuralagus rex) once inhabited Minorca, and the most famous case is the well known giant tortoise of the Galapagos islands. Reasons for these dramatic size changes are not fully understood, but it’s thought that the removal of predation risk on islands enables large species to evolve to be smaller, and the lack of larger competitors like mammalian browsers enables small species to become larger. Whatever the reason, move over micro pigs - I want a micro mammoth. Illustration by Victor Leshyk

zooblogogy:

The World’s Cutest Extinct Species?

The world’s smallest mammoth species, Mammuthus creticus, has recently been reported to have stood around 1 metre tall, around the size of a baby African elephant (Loxodonta africana). The fossils were found on the island of Crete in 1904, but only last year the discovery of a forelimb bone revealed the fossils to belong to the world’s smallest known mammoth species.

The mimi mammoth is an example of the Island Rule, where large species get smaller and small species get larger on islands. Other examples of nanism or dwarfism include Homo floresiensis, a human species which stood less than 1 metre tall. In the other direction as examples of gigantism, a 12kg species of rabbit (Nuralagus rex) once inhabited Minorca, and the most famous case is the well known giant tortoise of the Galapagos islands.

Reasons for these dramatic size changes are not fully understood, but it’s thought that the removal of predation risk on islands enables large species to evolve to be smaller, and the lack of larger competitors like mammalian browsers enables small species to become larger. Whatever the reason, move over micro pigs - I want a micro mammoth.

Illustration by Victor Leshyk

llbwwb: the little adventurer_0198crops (by AngiNelson2011) I miss my pet RETF :(

llbwwb:

the little adventurer_0198crops (by AngiNelson2011)

I miss my pet RETF :(

scinerds: Ankylosaur ReefArticle content from smithsonianmag.com (by Brian Switek).A full-size restoration of what Aletopelta might have looked like, at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Photo by Brian Switek. “Dinosaurs created temporary reefs. At least, the ones whose bodies floated out to sea did.” “Even though there were no aquatic dinosaurs, dead dinosaurs sometimes washed down rivers to the coast. When their bodies settled on the ocean bottom, scavengers of various sorts and sizes glommed onto the dinosaurs and formed short-lived communities with their own ecological tempo—perhaps similar to what happens to the carcasses of modern whales. The Cretaceous dinosaur bones found in my home state of New Jersey are the result of this kind of transport and marine breakdown, and other examples have been found at sites around the world.” “Even bodies of the heavily armored ankylosaurs were sometimes swept out to sea. They must have been quite a sight—a bloated, belly-up ankylosaur, drifting for as long as the gases inside its body could keep it afloat. One of these dinosaurs, found miles from the closest land at that time, was recently discovered in the oilsands of Alberta, Canada, but this wandering ankylosaur isn’t the only one we know of. When I visited the San Diego Natural History Museum last month, I saw another.” “Hung on the wall, the creature was less than half the dinosaur it used to be. Even though additional parts of the dinosaur were recovered when it was excavated during the construction of the Palomar-McClellan Airport in 1987, the articulated hindlimbs and adjoining hip material is what museum visitors are greeted with. (The rest sits in the collections.) At first glance, the specimen doesn’t look like much. But what makes this fossil so strange is the group of associated creatures. Embedded on and around the dinosaur bones were shells from marine bivalves and at least one shark’s tooth. This ankylosaur had settled and been buried in the sea off the coast of Cretaceous California.” “Tracy Ford and James Kirkland described the ankylosaur in a 2001 paper included in The Armored Dinosaurs. Previously, the specimen didn’t have a proper scientific name. The dinosaur was simply referred to as the Carlsbad ankylosaur. And the details of the dinosaur’s armor, especially over the hips, seemed to be quite similar to that of another dinosaur called Stegopelta. This would make the Carlsbad ankylosaur anodosaurid, a group of ankylosaurs that typically have large shoulder spikes but lack a tail club.” “After reexamining the specimen, though, Ford and Kirkland came to a different conclusion. The dinosaur’s armor identified it as an ankylosaurid, the armored dinosaur subgroup that carried hefty, bony tail clubs. The club itself was not discovered, but the rest of the dinosaur’s anatomy fit the ankylosaurid profile. And the dinosaur was different enough from others to warrant a new name. Ford and Kirkland called the ankylosaur Aletopelta coombsi. The genus name, meaning “wandering shield,” is a tribute to the fact that the movements of geologic plates had carried the dinosaur’s skeleton northward over the past 75 million years.” “We may never know exactly what happened to this Aletopelta. Detailed geological context is essential for figuring out how a skeleton came to rest in a particular spot, and that information was destroyed with the excavation of the skeleton. Still, paleontologists have put together a general outline of what happened to this dinosaur. The unfortunate ankylosaurid died somewhere along the coast, and its carcass was washed out to the sea by a river, local flood, or similar watery mode of transport. Aletopelta settled belly-up and was exposed for long enough to become a food source and even home for various organisms. Sharks and other larger scavengers tore at the carcass, but various encrusting invertebrates also settled on the skeleton. Fortunately for paleontologists, the skeleton was sturdy enough to survive all this and eventually be buried. Even though dinosaurs never lived in the marine realm, their deaths certainly enriched the sea.” References: Ford, T., Kirkland, J. 2001. Carlsbad ankylosaur (Ornithischia: Ankylosauria): An ankylosaurid and not a nodosaurid. pp. 239-260 in Carpenter, K., ed. The Armored Dinosaurs. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Hilton, R.P. 2003. Dinosaurs and Other Mesozoic Reptiles of California. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp.39-40

scinerds:

Ankylosaur Reef
Article content from smithsonianmag.com (by Brian Switek).
A full-size restoration of what Aletopelta might have looked like, at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Photo by Brian Switek.

“Dinosaurs created temporary reefs. At least, the ones whose bodies floated out to sea did.”

“Even though there were no aquatic dinosaurs, dead dinosaurs sometimes washed down rivers to the coast. When their bodies settled on the ocean bottom, scavengers of various sorts and sizes glommed onto the dinosaurs and formed short-lived communities with their own ecological tempo—perhaps similar to what happens to the carcasses of modern whales. The Cretaceous dinosaur bones found in my home state of New Jersey are the result of this kind of transport and marine breakdown, and other examples have been found at sites around the world.”

“Even bodies of the heavily armored ankylosaurs were sometimes swept out to sea. They must have been quite a sight—a bloated, belly-up ankylosaur, drifting for as long as the gases inside its body could keep it afloat. One of these dinosaurs, found miles from the closest land at that time, was recently discovered in the oilsands of Alberta, Canada, but this wandering ankylosaur isn’t the only one we know of. When I visited the San Diego Natural History Museum last month, I saw another.”

“Hung on the wall, the creature was less than half the dinosaur it used to be. Even though additional parts of the dinosaur were recovered when it was excavated during the construction of the Palomar-McClellan Airport in 1987, the articulated hindlimbs and adjoining hip material is what museum visitors are greeted with. (The rest sits in the collections.) At first glance, the specimen doesn’t look like much. But what makes this fossil so strange is the group of associated creatures. Embedded on and around the dinosaur bones were shells from marine bivalves and at least one shark’s tooth. This ankylosaur had settled and been buried in the sea off the coast of Cretaceous California.”

“Tracy Ford and James Kirkland described the ankylosaur in a 2001 paper included in The Armored Dinosaurs. Previously, the specimen didn’t have a proper scientific name. The dinosaur was simply referred to as the Carlsbad ankylosaur. And the details of the dinosaur’s armor, especially over the hips, seemed to be quite similar to that of another dinosaur called Stegopelta. This would make the Carlsbad ankylosaur anodosaurid, a group of ankylosaurs that typically have large shoulder spikes but lack a tail club.”

“After reexamining the specimen, though, Ford and Kirkland came to a different conclusion. The dinosaur’s armor identified it as an ankylosaurid, the armored dinosaur subgroup that carried hefty, bony tail clubs. The club itself was not discovered, but the rest of the dinosaur’s anatomy fit the ankylosaurid profile. And the dinosaur was different enough from others to warrant a new name. Ford and Kirkland called the ankylosaur Aletopelta coombsi. The genus name, meaning “wandering shield,” is a tribute to the fact that the movements of geologic plates had carried the dinosaur’s skeleton northward over the past 75 million years.”

“We may never know exactly what happened to this Aletopelta. Detailed geological context is essential for figuring out how a skeleton came to rest in a particular spot, and that information was destroyed with the excavation of the skeleton. Still, paleontologists have put together a general outline of what happened to this dinosaur. The unfortunate ankylosaurid died somewhere along the coast, and its carcass was washed out to the sea by a river, local flood, or similar watery mode of transport. Aletopelta settled belly-up and was exposed for long enough to become a food source and even home for various organisms. Sharks and other larger scavengers tore at the carcass, but various encrusting invertebrates also settled on the skeleton. Fortunately for paleontologists, the skeleton was sturdy enough to survive all this and eventually be buried. Even though dinosaurs never lived in the marine realm, their deaths certainly enriched the sea.”

References: Ford, T., Kirkland, J. 2001. Carlsbad ankylosaur (Ornithischia: Ankylosauria): An ankylosaurid and not a nodosaurid. pp. 239-260 in Carpenter, K., ed. The Armored Dinosaurs. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Hilton, R.P. 2003. Dinosaurs and Other Mesozoic Reptiles of California. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp.39-40

elegantbuffalo: Fly Geyser, Nevada The Geyser is not an entirely natural phenomenon, and was accidentally created in 1916 during the drilling of a well. The well functioned normally for several decades, but then in the 1960s, geothermally heated water found a weak spot in the wall and began escaping to the surface. Dissolved minerals started rising and piling up, creating the mount on which the geyser sits, which is still growing to date.

elegantbuffalo:

Fly Geyser, Nevada

The Geyser is not an entirely natural phenomenon, and was accidentally created in 1916 during the drilling of a well. The well functioned normally for several decades, but then in the 1960s, geothermally heated water found a weak spot in the wall and began escaping to the surface.

Dissolved minerals started rising and piling up, creating the mount on which the geyser sits, which is still growing to date.


isalou:

Born 8th May, 1926.

Happy Birthday to the man who inspired me to study zoology and pursue a career to protect wildlife. 

Long may he continue inspiring people to care for the natural world <3

via brandneway

Ⓐ 174

discoverynews: Rarest Gorilla Revealed in Camera Trap Video An extraordinary new video reveals the first camera trap footage of the Cross River gorilla, the world’s rarest gorilla. Although the video, shot by Wildlife Conservation Society conservationists in Cameroon’s Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary, is only a few minutes long, it presents a vivid microcosm of these primates’ lives — their suffering at the hands of humans, their struggle, but also their pride. As the footage (see it below) begins, you can see one gorilla stopping briefly to rest under a tree, but then compelled to move forward by the troop. When another spots the camera trap, it briefly charges, Tarzan style, toward the screen, beating its chest. keep reading

discoverynews:

Rarest Gorilla Revealed in Camera Trap Video

An extraordinary new video reveals the first camera trap footage of the Cross River gorilla, the world’s rarest gorilla.

Although the video, shot by Wildlife Conservation Society conservationists in Cameroon’s Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary, is only a few minutes long, it presents a vivid microcosm of these primates’ lives — their suffering at the hands of humans, their struggle, but also their pride.

As the footage (see it below) begins, you can see one gorilla stopping briefly to rest under a tree, but then compelled to move forward by the troop. When another spots the camera trap, it briefly charges, Tarzan style, toward the screen, beating its chest.

keep reading


theylooklikebigstronghands:

The larval and moth stages of the jewel caterpillar (Acraga coa).

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