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wtf_nature
Fossilised Xmas Ornaments & Smart Camouflage
Seems to be one of those things - you discover something new and suddenly you keep running into unrelated mentions of it. Such as discovering that such a taxonomic clade as Marrellomorphs even exist ( I didn't know that the 'Lace Crabs' of the Burgess Shales even had relatives! ) and within a day finding an artist you follow has been drawing pictures of them. And Mimetaster hexagonalis is one spectacularly odd-looking arthropod. Photos of some of the fossils from the Hunsrück Slate of Bundenbach here. Ever wanted to buy a fossilised snowflake on legs? Now you can.
But back to the other example - you will no doubt recall the parasitic barnacle I brought to your attention a few posts, and its host the Velvet Belly Lantern Shark.
New Scientist's Zoologger blog has these same sharks as their Species Of The Week - because they're bioluminescent.
If you're trying to camouflage yourself, surely the last thing you want to do is glow? Actually, no - if you're a velvet belly lantern shark it could be a bright idea.
Imagine you are a fish deep in the ocean. You look up and see the silhouette of a shark, black against the greenish-blue sunlight streaming down through the water. At this point, if you have any sense, you high-tail it for cover.
But not if the shark has smart camo - in this case, a glowing belly. If it gets it right, this glow will make it blend into the sunlight, and you won't see it until it's too late.
But back to the other example - you will no doubt recall the parasitic barnacle I brought to your attention a few posts, and its host the Velvet Belly Lantern Shark.
New Scientist's Zoologger blog has these same sharks as their Species Of The Week - because they're bioluminescent.
If you're trying to camouflage yourself, surely the last thing you want to do is glow? Actually, no - if you're a velvet belly lantern shark it could be a bright idea.
Imagine you are a fish deep in the ocean. You look up and see the silhouette of a shark, black against the greenish-blue sunlight streaming down through the water. At this point, if you have any sense, you high-tail it for cover.
But not if the shark has smart camo - in this case, a glowing belly. If it gets it right, this glow will make it blend into the sunlight, and you won't see it until it's too late.