How do clams reproduce?

Search: oysters bivalves procreate



Why: On reddit, Oyster eggs:

Answer: Bivalves (clams, cockles, mussels, oysters, scallops, etc.) reproduce by external fertilization!

Marine bivalves reproduce by releasing prodigious numbers of eggs and sperm into the water, where external fertilization occurs. The fertilized eggs then float in the surface plankton.



Within 48 hours after fertilization, the embryo develops into a minute, planktonic, trochophore larvae. This stage is followed by another larval form, the veliger, which settles to the seabed and transforms into an adult.



In freshwater bivalves, the eggs are retained in the gill chambers of the female, where they undergo fertilization and develop into a peculiar larval form, the glochidium.



Upon its release, the larva attaches to passing fish, and lives as an ectoparasite for several weeks before settling.

Oyster eggs are commonly sold as food for coral in saltwater aquariums.



Source: Science



The More You Know: But how do pearls form? First, anatomy:

Then (from HowStuffWorks):

As the oyster grows in size, its shell must also grow. The mantle is an organ that produces the oyster's shell, using minerals from the oyster's food. The material created by the mantle is called nacre. Nacre lines the inside of the shell.

­The formation of a natural pearl begins when a foreign substance slips into the oyster between the mantle and the shell, which irritate­s the mantle. It's kind of like the oyster getting a splinter. The oyster's natural reaction is to cover up that irritant to protect itself. The man­tle covers the irritant with layers of the same nacre substance that is used to create the shell. This eventually forms a pearl.

So a pearl is a foreign substance covered with layers of nacre. Most pearls that we see in jewelry stores are nicely rounded objects, which are the most valuable ones. Not all pearls turn out so well. Some pearls form in an uneven shape -- these are called baroque pearls. Pearls, as you've probably noticed, come in a variety of various colors, including white, black, gray, red, blue and green.

So basically, pearls are cysts that the oysters make to protect themselves from foreign objects. Some farmers even irritate their oysters on purpose to create "cultured pearls"!

Fun fact: Oysters are among the only frutti di mare that I don't eat.

Who sings the song in that Payless commercial?

Search: i am a paleontologist payless

Why: I know a Future Paleontologist of America who might just need that to be her official theme song.

Answer: They Might Be Giants!!! YEEESSSS!!! (and it says "w/ Danny Weinkauf," who is always in the band anyway... so I don't know).

This is one of the only bands anyone at my camp ever listened to in 1995-7. (The other one was REM.)

Oh my god, do you guys remember Dial-a-Song?

Lyrics go like:

I love diggin' in the dirt
With just a pick and brush
Finding fossils is my aim
So I'm never in a rush
'Cause the treasures that I seek
Are rare and ancient things
Like Velociraptor's jaw
Or Archaeopteryx's wings

Now all the kids
Who wanna see 'em
Are lining up
At our museum

I am a paleontologist
That's who I am

Could it be an herbivore
Crushing plants with rounded teeth
Or ferocious carnivore
Who moves so quickly on its feet
It's like pieces of a puzzle
That I love to try and solve
It's so fun to think about
How a species has evolved

Is it a T-rex? (I keep digging, digging, digging, digging)
Maybe a Triceratops? (digging)
Or a Carnotaur? (digging)
Pachycephalosaurus?

Source: YouTube

The More You Know: Speaking of sequins, sometimes I think about how there were actual flying dinosaurs, like dinosaurs who could fucking FLY, and they were huge and wanted to - and could - gobble you up in a single snap o' the jaw. Can you imagine that today? Look out your window right now and imagine a dinosaur flying around.

(Oatmeal)

BUT it turns out that the fearsome pterodactyl was not a dinosaur at all, just a regular ol' "prehistoric winged lizard." Boring!

Pterosaurs are sometimes referred to in the popular media as dinosaurs, but this is incorrect. The term "dinosaur" is properly restricted to a certain group of reptiles with a unique upright stance (superorder Dinosauria, which includes birds), and therefore excludes the pterosaurs, as well as the various groups of extinct marine reptiles, such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs.

Oh, it's also not called a pterodactyl - it's a pterosaur. At least 60 genera of pterosaurs have been found to date, ranging from the size of a small bird to wingspans in excess of 10 meters (33 ft).

What's a lede?

Search: bury the lede

Why: In "We Opened the Relationship, and It Epic-Failed" by MC Housework on xoJane:

I saw no reason to bury the lede with this post.

Answer: It's the "lead" of a story - just an alternate spelling!

Some American English writers use the spelling lede, from the archaic English, to avoid confusion with the printing press type formerly made from the metal lead or the related typographical term leading.

That's "ledding." And then:

Leading refers to the distance between the baselines of successive lines of type. The term originated in the days of hand-typesetting, when thin strips of lead were inserted into the formes to increase the vertical distance between lines of type.

Anyway, to "bury the lede" is to begin a story with details of secondary importance to the reader while postponing more essential points or facts. Boring. Sounds like somebody went to journalism school!

Ostriches don't really bury their heads in the sand. That's an urban legend. But:

If threatened while sitting on the nest, which is simply a cavity scooped in the earth, the hen presses her long neck flat along the ground, blending in with the background.

So where does the myth come from?

Ostriches swallow sand and pebbles to help grind up food in their stomachs. This means they have to bend down and briefly stick their heads in the earth to collect the pebbles. Bingo! Another false myth is born.

More animal myths dispelled here.

Source: Wiktionary, Wikipedia

The More You Know: Speaking of lead ("led"), it has kind of never been actually been used to make pencils. That's another urban legend. The ancient Romans used lead styluses to make light, but legible marks on papyrus. But by the 1500s, people had started wrapping graphite sticks in string because it left darker marks. Wood and graphite pencils came in the 1600s. Behold!

How can you tell a leopard from a cheetah?

Search: leopard cheetah

Why: I showed Katrina this picture,

and then this happened:

And then this happened:

And then this happened.

Anyway.

Answer: Their spots are way different!

The Quick Trick: It’s all in the spots. Cheetahs have simple black spots, while leopards have a more complex pattern.

They both live in sub-Saharan Africa. Points of note:

Cheetahs

• Have solid black round / oval spots
• Have black "tear lines" that run from their eyes to their mouths to keep sunlight out of their eyes
• Are smaller lankier than other big cats (and are not in the genus Panthera, like lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars)
• Hunt during the day
• Rely on bursts of speed
• Move their same-sided legs together (both left, then both right)
• Purr when they inhale
• Can't roar

Leopards

• Have black and brown clustery spots called "rosettes" that simulate moving shadows
• Have spots on their faces
  
• Are gigantic
  
• Rely on "surprise attacks"
• Drag their prey up trees so they can eat at their leisure
• Move their legs in diagonal pairs (front left-back right, front right-back left)
• Only purr when exhaling
• Roar
  

But which has cuter kittens?

(Cheetahs.)

Source: Mental Floss

The More You Know: But what about jaguars! They live in South America.

Jaguars

• Have fewer larger rosettes with black spots in the middle
• Have rounder heads and shorter limbs than leopards
• Are the strongest of all the big cats
• Bite directly through the skulls of their prey
• Are goddamn enormous
  

What's a dagga boy?

Search: dagga; dagga boy

Why: Bob has been sending me journal posts about his hunting trip to Zimbabwe, and he keeps saying things like:

We were back on the tracks of four dagga boys early on the sixth day of our safari.

I don't know what that is, but it sounds racist.

Answer: They are old Cape buffalo who have been kicked out of the herd!

They call these Buffalo "Dagga Boys" - they are large old bulls that have been kicked out of the herd and spend all day wallowing in Mud. Dagga means "mud" in Zulu. They have really short tempers - best to stay away. The mud is to get rid of parasites.

I see this:

The younger males not only bred with the cows, but easily defended the herd against predators, so their presence was vital to the group. The Dagga Boys were basically useless and the old bulls seemed to know it.

That's sad. The name "dagga boy" was coined by South African outfitter and hunter Gerhard Vos. If you want to see some pictures of him with dead animals, click here and here.

Source: This guy's site, Po's Peek

The More You Know: "Dagga" is also slang for pot in South Africa. And also, a South African psychoactive plant, Leonotis leonurus, is commonly known as "wild dagga" (or "lion's tail"). You can smoke it:

It is sometimes used as a Cannabis substitute by recreational users looking to evade current laws on cannabis and other psychoactive plants. Leonotis leonorus is not currently scheduled under federal law in the United States. The smoke is reported to have an unpleasant taste and to be an irritant to the lungs and throat.

What's the origin of the word "henchman"?

Search: henchman etymology

Why: In the Wikipedia plot summary for True Romance, which I haven't seen in years:

Clarence draws a gun and kills Drexl and a henchman.

What's a hench?

Answer: It comes from the word for "horse"!

• O.N. hesta-maðr, "horse-boy"
• Ger. Hengst, "stallion"
• O.E. hengest, "horse, stallion"
• M.E. henxman, "henchman"
  

Young henchmen, in fact "pages of honour" or squires, rode or walked at the side of their master in processions and the like, and appear in the English royal household from the 14th century until Tudor Queen Elizabeth I abolished the royal henchmen, known also as the "children of honour."

In full color.

But the Pages of Honour still exist. It is usually a distinction granted to teenage sons of members of the nobility and gentry. Their job is to carry the train of the Queen's dress.

Elizabeth II has had about a million of them.

Anyway,

The word [henxman] became obsolete in England, but was retained in Scottish as "personal attendant of a Highland chief," in which sense Sir Walter Scott revived it in literary English from 1810. The sense of "an obedient or unscrupulous follower" is first recorded 1839, probably based on a misunderstanding of the word as used by Scott.

Source: EtymOnline, Wikipedia

The More You Know: Did you miss this news story? I thought his real name was Jimmy Henchman, and I thought, "Boy, is that unfortunate."

Jimmy Henchman Arrested by Feds DEA confirms that Czar Entertainment honcho was apprehended and arraigned on drug charges

The manhunt for hip-hop music executive James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond ended Tuesday afternoon (June 21), the DEA confirmed to MTV News. Henchman, who ran the Czar Entertainment management company overseeing the careers of artists like the Game, was arrested in New York City and charged with heading a cocaine trafficking ring.

Rosemond has been on the lam since warrants were issued for his arrest on May 17. On Tuesday afternoon, the onetime music manager noticed federal agents as he walked out of the W Hotel in Union Square, according to the New York Post. Henchman tried to evade US Marshals and DEA agents by taking off on foot, but was apprehended and arrested on 21st Street and Park Avenue South.

Rosemond was then arraigned in Brooklyn on conspiracy to distribute in excess of five kilograms of cocaine; he is being held without bail, a DEA representative told MTV News.

What's a viscacha?

Search: viscacha; jvm's spirit animal

Why: I am in a Reddit hole. This picture is labeled: "I really think think a viscacha would make a killer real-life side kick."

It looks like a sagacious bunny.

Answer: It's a kind of rodent!

Any of four species of slender yet fairly large South American rodents similar to chinchillas. They have short forelimbs, long hindlimbs, and a long, bushy tail. The soft fur is long and dense, and the soles of the feet have fleshy pads.

They look sleepy.

Source: Britannica

The More You Know: Three of the species live in the Andes, where it's v. cold. They eat seeds and grass, and are therefore a pest to farmers. I want to cuddle one so bad.

I want to watch some dik diks fight

Search: dik diks fight; dik diks fighting

Why: In "America's Next Top Animal Graphic Trend" on Hello Giggles:

Dik Dik
If Lady GaGa were to design a baby deer, I’m pretty sure it would look like this. Extra dainty legs, ant-eater nose, teacup stature. My favorite thing about dik diks is that they almost never fight. But when they must, dik diks just run towards each other only to stop short and aggressively shake their heads until somebody gives up. Is this not the animal kingdom’s two snaps up?? Diva!

Answer: Well, I'm not sure that's entirely true. These guys appear to be knocking skulls:

I saw some dik diks in Kenya in 2000, and o my god, they were precious.

Source: YouTube

The More You Know: I also found a bunch of videos from a Japanese guy who owns several fennec foxes and also a cat, of course. Maybe I want to name a child Fennec.

Fun fact: The fox in The Little Prince was hot probs a fennec fox.

The French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry made a reference, in a letter written to his sister Didi from Cape Juby in 1918, to his raising a fennec that he adored. Saint-Exupéry also mentioned encountering a fennec when wandering in Sahara when his plane crashed there in 1935. The fennecs he had known in these two contexts are considered to have inspired the fox character in Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince.

What is a group of stingrays called?

Search: group of stingrays name

Why: I'm still in Florida, y'all. Today, Sadie and Meggan and I went on WaveRunners to look for dolphins. We saw lots of dolphins, and we also saw lots of stingrays. They looked like they were flapping their wings. They were traveling in packs. What are they called? A school? A flock? A fesnyng?

Answer: Who knows! I see these names:

• Draught!
• Drift!
• Scale!
• School!
• Shaol!
• Fever!
  

Source: Yahoo! Answers, Wikipedia,

The More You Know: The word "school" (like 'school of fish') may be a corruption of the word "shoal" - like Mussel Shoals. Or it may have come from somewhere else:

School of fish was borrowed from Middle Dutch schōle, "troop, group." This went back to West Germanic skulo, which may have been derived from the base skel-, skul- "split, divide" (source also of English scale, scalp, shell, etc); if so, it would mean etymologically a ‘division’.

Maybe 'shoal' came from that, too. Who knows.

I want to see a Bergamasco puppy

Search: bergamasco puppy

Why: I am doing something for work. Did you guys know I started a new job? It's why I have been so lax about bloggin. Today, I'm checking for duplicate content on one of our sites, Puppy Dog Web. Things could be worse. On the Bergamasco breed page:

They are working dogs with a coat recognizable in any country. Their coats are unique to only a few breeds, in that their fur actually grows into long mats that eventually turn into "cords" that are twisted and rough. Bergamascos largely resemble that of a dirty mop in that their fur is gray or black, with a light coloring of fawn and white. Its flocked coat is considered to be hair, not fur, and thus non-allergenic

When does it get like that? And why?

Answer: Omg.

Look at those goddamn things. The name comes from the town Bergamo in the Italian Alps.

Source: Google Images

The More You Know: And some Puli puppies. I always thought these dogs looked gross / not inviting to pet, but I think I would really like to touch one of those little ones.

What did Thomas Edison due to an elephant?

Search: edison elephant

Why: When Rachel said someone spoiled The Usual Suspects for her, Jeff said:

I hope it wasn't me.

I recently spoiled Edison's Electrocuting an Elephant for the wife.



1903.

Don't tell him, but he just spoiled it for me, too.

Answer: He electrocuted it to death! Oh god...

BUT it turns out this was a very mean elephant who had already trampled to death 3 handlers (one of whom was trying to feed her a lit cigarette) and was scheduled to be euthanized. So it's OK then.

He did it as a demonstration about the dangers of alternating current, which Westinghouse and Tesla were touting. Edison had established direct current at the standard for electricity distribution and was living large off the patent royalties when these guys showed up.

Edison's aggressive campaign to discredit the new current took the macabre form of a series of animal electrocutions using AC (a killing process he referred to snidely as getting "Westinghoused"). Stray dogs and cats were the most easily obtained, but he also zapped a few cattle and horses.

So he found this elephant. A news report:

Topsy, the ill-tempered Coney Island elephant, was put to death in Luna Park, Coney Island, yesterday afternoon. The execution was witnessed by 1,500 or more curious persons, who went down to the island to see the end of the huge beast, to whom they had fed peanuts and cakes in summers that are gone. In order to make Topsy's execution quick and sure 460 grams of cyanide of potassium were fed to her in carrots. Then a hawser was put around her neck and one end attached to a donkey engine and the other to a post. Next wooden sandals lined with copper were attached to her feet. These electrodes were connected by copper wire with the Edison electric light plant and a current of 6,600 volts was sent through her body. The big beast died without a trumpet or a groan.

Yuck!

Is it weird that we have pictures of these guys? Or is it weirder that I don't think I had any idea what Thomas Edison looked like until right now?

Source: Wired.com, Railway Bridge

The More You Know: I was thinking the other day about how funny it is that my cat and dog just walk on and over me as though I'm not even there. I wish we had some giant animals to just walk and climb on all the time without being afraid they would bite me. Baby elephants climb like puppies.

Why did Philippe Croizon have his limbs amputated?

Search: Phillipe Croizon

Why: Edward just posted this article with the tagline, "This guy clearly aspires to get eaten":

Philippe Croizon, Quadruple Amputee, To Brave Shark-Infested Crossings Between Five Continents

Croizon, who made a splash with his English Channel swim in 2010, is going to dive into open seas again, Agence France Presse reported.

A custom pair of flippers enables the limbless Croizon to swim.

With Arnaud Chassery, a former long-distance swimming champion, Croizon will start an aquatic tour in May 2012 in the Pacific Ocean with a 12-mile crossing between coastal towns in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia in an area known to be a shark and poisonous jellyfish habitat.

Etc. Where did his pre-existing limbs go? Into a shark's mouth? Because if so, he's really just an asshole.

Answer: Ha shoot:

• "A freak accident"
• His amputations were required due to a severe electric shock accident which occurred in March 1994.

And if I had scrolled to the bottom of the original article, I might have seen this:

• Croizon lost his arms and legs in 1994 after he was electrocuted while adjusting a television antennae on the roof.

That sucks.

Source: Daily Mail, Wikipedia, AOL

The More You Know: Speaking of sharks, I am going to the beach next week (in Florida, not California). Will I go in the ocean? I can't say for sure yet, but I will keep in mind that bull sharks attack in less than 2 feet of water, and also that they like to kill people in all parts of Florida, including Destin. Other sharks do, too!

Fatal, unprovoked shark attacks in Florida in the last 10 years:

• Thadeus Kubinski, 69 (8/30/2000) - Killed by a bull shark while swimming in Pinellas County, FL. Witnesses said Kubinski had jumped into the water from the dock behind his home for his daily swim and was splashing vigorously. The shark raced toward him with its dorsal fin out of the water. He died from massive blood loss and organ damage before rescuers could get to him. The shark was estimated to be 9 ft long and weigh 400 lbs.
• Eric Reichardt, 42 (9/16/01) - Drowned while diving on the wreck of the Ronald B. Johnson in 270 ft of water 2 miles off Pompano Beach, FL fighting off a bull or tiger shark. His diving regulator may have fallen out of his mouth causing him to drown.
• Jamie Marie Daigle, 14 (6/25/05) - Killed while swimming with a friend on boogie boards about 200 yards off a beach in Walton County, FL, 8 miles east of Destin, FL. Witnesses estimated the shark was 6–8 ft long.
• Stephen Howard Schafer, 38 (2/3/10) - Killed by a bull shark while kitesurfing at approximately 4:15 p.m. about 500 yards off an unguarded section of a beach south of Stuart Beach in Martin County, FL. Authorities initially thought that multiple sharks may have been involved in the incident due to reports by rescuers that he was surrounded by sharks; the Martin County medical examiner's office concluded that he died from massive blood loss from a leg wound

Can you guess how many fatal shark attacks have occurred on dry land? I bet you can.

If you are in California and thinking about joining Saturday Surf Club, don't forget to check the Pacific Coast Shark Watch (for reports about shark sightings this week at Long Beach, Newport, Seal Beach, etc.) every single day until you change your mind. And maybe also think about this poor kid:

• Lucas McKaine Ransom, 19 (10/22/2010) - Died after a great white shark pulled him off his bodyboard just before 9 a.m. about 100 yards off Surf Beach near in Santa Barbara County, CA. He suffered the loss of his left leg, resulting in massive blood loss. The shark that attacked Ransom is believed to have been 17–18 ft long, weighing approximately 4,000 lbs.

I want to see some toad spawn

Search: toad spawn

Why: Rachel just posted:

Toad Spawn is quite different to frog spawn. The main reason is because the toad spawn, instead of being a large clump of jelly with eggs in, is a string of jelly containing eggs.

Answer: It's true!

Source: Google Images

The More You Know: For comparison, frog spawn:

What does an adult Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii look like?

Search: Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii

Why: In National Geographic's Photography Contest 2010:

Praying Mantis – Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii. This beautiful whalbergii evolved through two of its nymph-stages on the Barberton Daisy at left, surviving because of its bright color which blended so well with the flower. Towards the end of its growth into an adult, it became a little more adventurous (but not much more) as pictured here. Once it had shed the layer in this picture, it became a fully-fledged adult, and departed after about two weeks. Total stay in this tiny ecosystem was approximately six weeks. (Photo and caption by Fred Turck)

What the hell kind of bug is that?

Answer: First, it's a species of mantis called a "spiny flower mantis." Here it is in different stages. Look how weird and fancy!

Source: GOLDENORFE, Google Images

The More You Know:

What's the origin of the word "jumbo"?

Search: jumbo etymology

Why: A newsanchor teased a story about a "jumbo jet," which I sometimes can't believe is a real name for anything. Jumbo is a name for elephants. Or strip clubs.

Answer: It might have come from the Kikongo word nzamba, which actually meant "elephant"! In 1823, jumbo was a slang term that meant "clumsy, unwieldy fellow," and then the London Zoo had a huge elephant named Jumbo that they sold to P.T. Barnum in Feb. 1882.

He was captured by traders in Abyssinia in 1861, and he died in St. Thomas, ON, in 1885 after stepping in front of a train to save the life of another baby elephant. Well, maybe. The Railway City Brewing Company in St. Thomas brews that classy Dead Elephant Ale up there.

Source: EtymOnline

The More You Know: Barnum, a trustee of Tufts College, donated Jumbo's taxidermied carcass to the school in 1889. He is the school mascot, and I guess they are called the Tufts Jumbos (and by "they" I mean whatever sports teams they have, if they even have any; I've never heard of them). Jumbo's corpse was housed in the campus's Barnum Hall with a bunch of other animal specimens.

He was a big hit with the college's athletes, who adopted him as their mascot, while their coaches invoked his strength and bravery in pre-game pep talks.

For 86 years, Jumbo was a veritable mecca for students, their parents and other campus visitors. Students would pop pennies in his trunk or give a tug on his tail to bring luck for an upcoming exam or athletics competition.

In 1975, an electrical fire wiped out the whole collection, including everything but Jumbo's tail. His ashes are now kept in a Peter Pan Peanut Butter jar on the desk of the Tufts athletics director.