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Zoologica42

@zoologica42 / zoologica42.tumblr.com

Birds, Books and Belligerance
Anonymous asked:

Have you heard of Cosmo Sheldrake's album The Much Much How How & I?

I ask because your profile picture very much reminds me of its cover art.

you’re damn right I have, Pliocene goes extremely hard, all the evobio girlies love Pliocene.

Maybe if you looked at the diversity of loricariids then you'd feel better

(From Lujan et al. (2012). Trophic diversity in the evolution and community assembly of loricariid catfishes. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 12(124), 1-12)

I did, and I do.

TIL the USGS has a flag. A special tribute to my USGS brothers in arms (by which I mean science) in the new era of governmental chaos.

I recently fulfilled a deep desire of mine to go out to sea and pursue the sight of maritime birds. The ocean was beautiful, as soon as my ship left the embrace of False Bay and lost the sight of the Cape of Good Hope we were greeted by flocks of the beautiful Pintado Petrel with wings recalling the pattern of melting alpine snow. We saw the Southern Fulmar, who’s ice-colored plumage recalls the Antarctic wildernesses where it rears it’s young, the fragile storm-petrel who’s wings seem far too small for the unyielding open sea, and the giant-petrel, of whom legends have been told that include the bird’s predation on sailors that fall from the decks of their ships. At last, about 30 miles from land we saw a Northern Royal Albatross, a bird with a wingspan nearing 10 feet. Upon sighting the bird I raised my camera to document the near-mystical creature, however, I found myself unable to hold my hands steady in the face of the jarring waves. I was overcome with the torments of Neptune, and at last, while still gripping my camera attempting to continue following the magnificent bird- Gracious reader, I frew up.

One thing people have been asking me about this experience is why I didn't have any anti-nausea medications when I went out on the boat. What happened was I had to get ready to go out at 3am in a dark room, full of sleeping people and I wasn't super careful with my packing. I put what I thought was Dramamine in my bag, but when I pulled it out on the boat, it was an anti-diarrheal. It was not helpful in my situation.

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