MUSIC: Nonpoint - In The Air Tonight. The Oarfish is the longest bony fish. It normally me
MUSIC: Nonpoint - In The Air Tonight. The Oarfish is the longest bony fish. It normally measures 16 to 35 feet (5 to 11 meters) long. However, people have reported seeing oarfish more than 55 feet (17 meters) in length. The fish live in temperate (mild) and warm seas, normally at depths of 1,000 to 2,000 feet (300 to 610 meters). They have flat-sided, silvery bodies with bright red fins. On the underside of an adult's body, two long pelvic fins end in blade-shaped swellings. These fins resemble the oars of a rowboat, giving the fish its name. The Oarfish is very rare and has only been captured on film alive a handful of times.
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MUSIC: Oakenfold. All filming done by me free handed with a hi 8mm camera.
(SPIDER) Th
MUSIC: Oakenfold. All filming done by me free handed with a hi 8mm camera.
(SPIDER) The spider species "Argiope aurantia" is commonly known as the Black and Yellow Garden Spider or Writing Spider. It is common to the lower 48 of the United States, southern Canada, Mexico, and Central America. They have distinctive yellow and black markings on their abdomens and a mostly white cephalothorax. Males range from 5 to 9 mm; females from 19 to 28 mm. Like other members of A.aurantia and almost all other spider species, they are considered harmless to humans. This female of the species is striking in appearance with distinct yellow and black markings, including banding on the legs. Despite the vivid color, the garden spider is well camouflaged, blending in easily with partially sunlit areas. The female of the species grows much larger than the male. Females have large rounded bodies that may grow to 40 mm (1 1/2 inches), excluding the legs. If the length of the legs is added, the female can reach 75 mm (3") in diameter. Males are thin-bodied and only 20 mm (¾") long. Aurantia has three claws on each foot, unlike spiders that have only two claws and do not spin orb-webs. The third claw helps them manage the strands of silk while they spin the complicated web. The young of the species resemble the adults, except for size and the development of reproductive organs. These spiders are not dangerous to people, and their bites result in nothing more than a sore, itchy swelling that goes away in a few days. The medical literature contains at least one report of a bite by A.aurantia (Gorham and Rheney 1968). Mild pain some distance from the site of the bite was suggestive of a neurotoxin.
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~plank/plank/pics/spider.html
(BUTTERFLIES) Palamedes Swallowtails "Papilio palamedes" The Palamedes Swallowtail is a large, dark swallowtail butterfly marked with yellow spots and bands. It is particularly common in and near swampy woods. Its eggs are pale yellow-green. Older larvae are green with a pale yellow lateral line edged beneath with a fine black line. The underside of the larva is pinkish-brown. Abdominal segments have a transverse band of six blue dots with each dot ringed by a fine black line (much thinner than those on larvae of the spicebush swallowtail, Papilio troilus). One dot on each side is beneath the lateral line. There are a pair of large tan false eyespots lined with black on the rear of the thorax. The eyespots have a large black center and a white "false reflection" above. Larvae also have a smaller pair of tan spots at the front of the abdomen. Pupae are green with a white lateral line edged above with a purple-brown line. Pupae have two short horns.
http://www.carolinanature.com/butterflies/palamedes.html
(GECKOS) The Leopard gecko "Eublepharis macularius" is a nocturnal ground-dwelling gecko found in the deserts of Pakistan, Western India, Afghanistan, and parts of Iran. Unlike most geckos it possesses eyelids. Leopard geckos have become well established in captivity, particularly the pet industry.
Info: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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An international team of scientists recently announced the discovery of a new species of b
An international team of scientists recently announced the discovery of a new species of blind deep-sea crab whose legs are covered with long, pale yellow hairs. This crab was first observed in March 2005 by marine biologists using the research submarine Alvin to explore hydrothermal vents along the Pacific-Antarctic ridge, south of Easter Island. Because of its hairy legs, this animal was nicknamed the "Yeti crab," after the fabled Yeti, the abominable snowman of the Himalayas. The Yeti crab was discovered during the Easter Microplate expedition to the southeast Pacific, led by MBARI scientist Bob Vrijenhoek. The primary goal of this expedition was to learn how bottom-dwelling animals from one deep-sea hydrothermal vent are able to colonize other hydrothermal vents hundreds or thousands of miles away. Vrijenhoek and his team were addressing this question by comparing the DNA of animals at hydrothermal vents in different parts of the Pacific Ocean.
During one Alvin dive, marine biologist Michel Segonzac, from Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer (IFREMER) in France, noticed an unusually large (15-cm-long) crab with hairy arms lurking on the seafloor. Segonzac asked the Alvin pilots to collect this crab and bring it back to the surface.
The researchers saw more of these unusual crabs during subsequent Alvin dives. Most of the crabs were living at depths of about 2,200 meters (7,200 feet) on recent lava flows and areas where warm water was seeping out of the sea floor. According MBARI biologist Joe Jones, "Many of the crabs were hiding underneath or behind rocks—all we could see were the tips of their arms sticking out."
After returning to shore, researchers Segonzac and Jones worked with Enrique Macpherson from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) in Spain to identify the crab they had collected. They found that the crab was not only a new species (which they named Kiwa hirsuta), but an entirely new family (Kiwaidae). The Yeti crab is a distant relative to the hermit crabs commonly seen lurking in tide pools.
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