The Past Few Days

Hey everyone, sorry I've been quiet the past couple of days, but I have an excuse: calculus. Seriously, calculus has pervaded every facet of my daily life for the past few days, haunting my dreams, wearing me down to a weary, broken shell of a man...and my final was this morning. I'll say simply that it didn't go well. For further explanation, I defer to Nicolas Cage. Fastfoward to 1:19 in the following video:

I wanted to do that. It was bad. I mean, I studied, but the simple fact is that I don't have high school calculus to back me up, and this class has been brutal. The final was worse than I suspected, and frankly, I admit defeat. I'm just going to hope the curve saves me, and if not, I'll retake the course next quarter. It's not fun, and I'm really embarrassed to truly fail at a class, something I've never done before, but that's life. If I want to be a zoologist, I just have to tough it out and keep fighting Newton's challenging legacy tooth and nail...

Blogging Among Friends

So, those of you that read me on here (and I fear that number may be low, as my absence has no doubt discouraged you) tend to have your own blogs as well, or at least be connected with a few others, so it's hard to find new ones out of the blue without some prior personal knowledge. The converse is also true: unless your friends start reading it, having a blog at the start is like having a journal which is open to googling. Point being: it's nice to be connected to other people on here.

That brings me to my point. See, I have a friend here at Davis, Evan. He too is in the Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity department, and he too spends some of his rainier weekends plunging his hands into muddy buckets in search of salamanders, just like me. We are friends. And now he has a blog! I find it quite entertaining, so if you would like to get a taste of this wonderful internet opportunity, pop on over to "Ramblings of a Young Biologist". Yes, he too rambles, and he too is a young biologist. We're like twins without the same mom part.

Fun Fact 12/2

So it's a rainy evening here in Davis, and I'm currently enjoying a Diet Coke and some rest in my dorm before heading off to Calculus, followed by a couple hours of work at the fish lab. So, I decided to blog a little bit before I go, seeing as I've underutilized these interludes for most of the quarter. Needless to say, a fun fact for today is in order. So, for inspiration, I turned to my room mate Trevor, who sits about 10 feet from me at his desk. I asked him what his favorite animal was, and after some pondering, he concluded that he likes tigers. So, rather than doing one long fact about these big cats, I figured I'd give you a small list of things to digest about tigers.

• Tigers belong to the genus Panthera, which includes all other big cats. It's latin name is Panthera tigris, but there are also several subspecies of tigers, nine in all. Three of these, sadly, are extinct, but the other six still exist, despite critical endangerment in some areas. The largest of the living subspecies is the Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica)
• Tigers are the largest of all big cats, weighing in excess of 500 pounds in some imstances
• Tigers are notorious in some parts of the world for having developed a taste for human flesh. In one part of India and Bangladesh, a large swamp known as the Sundarbans boasts huge numbers of tiger attacks. In one case, a tiger actually leaped up into a boat from the water to attack a man.
• Tigers can take down very large prey. In India, they often hunt Sambar deer, sneaking up on them and then pouncing on their backs, attacking the neck with their powerful jaws. Bites to the neck can sever the spinal column, deprive the brain of oxygen, and cut through the jugular vein, all of which are fatal.
• stripes on these animals serve to break up its pattern in dense brush and forest. Few realize how effective this is until seeing it in action. Try to find the tiger in the following photo:
• Tigers can sprint between 30 and 40 miles per hour
• To avoid tiger attacks, many people in India and elsewhere would wear masks resembling human faces on the back of their heads, believing that these would convince hunting tigers that the element of surprise had been lost.
• The only place where tigers can be found alongside lions is in India, where small pockets of the endangered Asiatic lion (Panthera leo perscica) can be found along with Bengal tigers
• Tigers are highly solitary and territorial animals, with home ranges extending (in males) up to 100 square kilometers

So yeah, that's some of my tiger facts. If you want more, email me or something. I'm going to get ready to go to Calculus discussion, but you have a nice evening.

NASA Finds new life...in Mono Lake

Mono Lake, for those of you who haven't been there, is a pretty extreme place. Located downslope of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, north of Mammoth and right near the entrance to Yosemite National Park at Tioga Pass, it's a lake characterized by amazingly high salinity and alkalinity. Very little lives in it, save for some species of shrimp. It is also a breeding ground for over 90% of seagulls in the state, making it a pretty important place.

But as of an announcement today, this place also apparently has some residents which are pretty mind-blowing. Researchers from NASA, the US Geological Survey, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have found a microbe that uses something in its biological structure that no other organism on earth can: arsenic. See, every living thing on earth, from you to your cat to a squid, uses the same six elements for life: Oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorous. But a particular strain of Gamaproteobacteria found in Mono Lake completely changes that assumption. The researchers grew this particular bacterium in the lab, feeding it these elements, including phosphorus. But when they removied phosphorus and added arsenic instead, something astounding happened: the bacteria kept growing. Somehow, though more work needs to be done, the bacteria are incorporating the normally extremely poisonous element into their cellular structure.

This is a big deal, mind you. It may not sound like much, but this creates a whole other view of how life can exist, both here on Earth, and (for astrobiologists) on other planets. I'm pretty excited to see where this goes from here!

Fun Fact 12/1

Ah yes, fun facts, those are back.
Well, today I decided to enlighten you all to a fact which is another common misconception. I often like to do these sorts of fun facts, since it may help my small readership avoid making otherwise commonplace errors in zoological discussion. Today's clarification falls similarly into the vein of the sorts of taxonomic errors pertaining to species distinctions. Namely, the differences between two very well known amphibious creatures: Crocodiles and Alligators.

So, what is the difference? Well, I'm going to tell you how to tell the difference, but I'd also like to delve into reptile classification a bit as well so you can see not only how but also why there is a distinct difference between using those two names. First off, lets get the easy part done. Let's say you're in a swamp somewhere in the world, or a wetland of some sort, and a scaly, toothed creature swims past you. Now, those of you who don't already know the difference, both anatomically and geographically, might be inclined to peg the reptile you see as a "crocodile". But you might feel equally inclined to call it an "alligator" as well. They're both green, scaly, and bitey, aren't they? Cartoons often depict them identically, right? Well, no. And knowing the difference in this hypothetical situation could in fact save your life!

Anatomical Differences:
So, first off, take a peek at the creature's head. Almost all the distinguishing characters for your ID are around the animal's head. So, if it's an alligator, several things should be clear. For one, the snout should be rounded. If you look at the lower picture there on the left, observe just how broad the individual's snout it. Now compare that to the upper image, the crocodile. See how it's jaws are shaped more like a triangular death machine? Here's a better picture:

An additional difference on the head can be seen from the side. Namely, these critters have dental differences as well. With an alligator, if you were to lay down alongside it and peer at its impressive jaws from the side when they were closed, you would notice that only upper teeth are visible when it has its jaws closed. The lower teeth fit inside the mouth when the animal has its jaws closed. In crocodiles, this is not so. Their lower teeth are clearly visible in several places along the jaw. Additionally, crocodiles are typically lighter in color than alligators.

Taxonomic Differences:
So, that was my long winded way of explaining just what the very basic differences are between crocodiles and alligators. It could have been a short paragraph. "But Charlie!", you implore your computer screen, "those are so basic! I want a complete understanding of this topic so that I can know for sure!". I'm glad you asked. So, as you can imagine, differences in the animal kingdom are not sorted simply by looks. Indeed, the practice of sorting animals according to their most accurate relations is called taxonomy, and it may spice up this seemingly easy clarification to explore some taxonomy this afternoon. So, to begin, let us first establish the basic group that crocodiles and alligators belong to. They fall, like all reptiles, into Class Reptilia. And from there, we narrow it down to Order Crocodilia. Crocodilia contains our two topics of discussion, as well as caimans and gharials, pictured below:

Aren't they precious? At any rate, these groups all fall under this order, which in turn is broken down into three superfamilies (which is an overarching category for the family):

• Gavialoidea: This group contains family Gavialidae, which encompasses the gharial of India, as well as the false gharial of southeast Asia.
• Alligatoroidea: This group contains one family, Alligatoridae, which in turn contains two subfamilies: Alligatorinae and Caimaninae
• Crocodyloidea: this contains family Crocodylidae, which again in turn contains subfamily Crocodylinae, which encompasses crocodiles.

Whew. So, they are in different groups. So what? Well, this distinction encompasses the fact that each has been shaped by different forces of evolution, as well as the fact that there are distinct variations across the whole group. Alligators and caimans are very similar, whereas crocodiles get their own Superfamily. But more importantly, there are also departures from one another in diversity. There are only two species of alligator: the well known American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) and the highly endagered Chinese Alligator (Alligator sinensis). Though, the group does get a boost from the closely related caimans, of which there are eight species. Compare this to crocodiles, which boast a more impressive species count at 13. Total, there are 23 species in the Order altogether.

Geographic differences:
So, with taxonomy covered, how about that question of where they live? Go back to out hypothetical wetland. You may be able to figure out what the animal is simply by looking, but with so many species out there, and some species looking alike (like Alligators and Caimans often do), that may not do you a whole lot of good. So, let's discuss the geographic variations among the Crocodilians. To begin, Alligators are found in small pockets in China and in very high numbers across southeastern North America. Caimans are found in much of South America, with their range extending into parts of the Caribbean as well. Gharials are more limited, with their natural range only occuring in India and parts of Southeast Asia. Finally, Crocodiles. Crocodiles occur very widely, on 5 continents. They are the only crocodilian species in Australia and Africa, and they share continents with other groups.

However, keeping in mind the relatively limited scope of the original question, the only place on earth where you would be able to see both a crocodile and an alligator would be right here in the good ol' US of A, in Florida. There, the extremely numerous American alligator actually overlaps the range of the aptly named American Crocodile, which is found primarily in Central America, but extends into Florida.

Behavior Differences
Lastly, I wish to briefly touch upon the fact that there is also a pretty big difference in how dangerous these critters are as well. Alligators are generally the safer of the two, but some species of crocodile, namely big ones like the Nile, Saltwater, and Mugger can be pretty bad news should you stumble upon one in some waterway. Nile crocodiles kill a surprisingly huge number of people in Africa each year, and attacks in Australia by Saltwater crocodiles are also rather high, particularly compared to many other large, traumatogenic animals.

This could be due to alot of reasons. My guess would be that, in the wild, alligators typically hunt pretty easy to eat prey, such as turtles, waterfowl, and the occasional deer. Compare this to the diet and ecosystem of a Nile crocodile, which makes a living munching on wildebeest, cape buffalo, and zebras, all of which have evolved to fight predators on the savannah. Additionally, Africa is filled with competitors: lions, hyenas, leopards, you name it. As a result, Nile crocodiles are probably a much more "take what you can get" type of animal...not to mention more than ready to kill you for food. All in all though, this is also due to the fact that so many people live around and use water across Africa for a variety of things, and so put themselves right next to crocodiles.



So, in short, that's the difference. I hope you enjoyed the MEGA Fun Fact! Have a good evening.

My Oatmeal.

It has little dinosaurs in it! I'm eating it right now, rather than trudging all the way to the dining commons. So far, the species lurking amongst the brown sugar and oats include: Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, what appears to be an Ankylosaurus, Triceratops, and an unidentified lump presumably scarred by the heat and stirring of its brutal microwaved environment. This is awesome.

I have my floormates to thank for this bountiful paleontological feast of course, they gave me a box of this wonderful stuff as a birthday present. The dinosaurs hatch out of eggs as you stir. So magical.

Some Rearrangements

Hey all, just letting you know about some rearrangements here on the ol' blog. I have a new email address, see, and this means I have a new Google account as well. I'd like to link this blog to my new address, but the process is a headache. I'm going to try it, but I may lose some info in the process, mainly followers. So, if you follow the blog and you're reading this, just resubscribe if it disappears. I'll let you know how the changeover goes.

UPDATE: It worked, surprisingly well. I'm all linked up and ready to go!