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Invertebrate of the Week #15 – Gorgonocephalus Basket Stars

The stars of the show this week are the wonderfully weird Gorgonocephalus basket stars.  Members of the Class Ophiurodea, these bizarre deep sea echinoderms are members of the same evolutionary group...

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Long-tailed Tits – More than Just a Pretty Face

Long-tailed tits are adorable…they just are… They are so adorable that they will easily distract from anything I attempt to write so let’s all take-in their fluffy cuteness before proceeding, shall […]

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10th Annual Los Angeles Area “Museum Free for All” Happens January 31, 2015

It’s that time of year again!  Major museums throughout the Los Angeles area are offering Free Admission on January 31, 2015 during the 10th Annual Museums Free For All. The […]

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Noteworthy: Alex Cornell’s Deep Blue Iceberg

I have a fondness for icebergs.  There’s something about these quiet monoliths coursing across the polar seas that instantly commands my attention.  It’s just water, but the silent strength behind...

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What Gives Chrysina Beetles their Metallic Appearance?

This morning, I stumbled across this fantastic photograph from Thomas Shahan (@ThomasShahan) that was produced for the Oregon Department of Agriculture.  It shows the same Chrysina sp. beetle...

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The Presence of Termites May Help Grasslands Resist Desertification.

Termites engineer their environments in ways that allow the area around their mounds to be buffered from climatic changes.  That is the intriguing conclusion of a recent study published in the […]

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Invertebrate of the Week #16 – Peltodoris atromaculata

This week we are highlighting the distinctive nudibranch Peltodoris atromaculata.  A southern European species, this spotted Discodorid sea slug can be found throughout the Mediterranean and select...

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Space Phenomena: Pulsars

Pulsars are one of my favorite astronomical phenomena.  They are an amazing consequence of some fascinating physics and one possible end-result of the largest known explosions in the universe.  So…what...

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Raccoon Dogs – Yes, They’re Real

The first time I glanced at a picture of Nyctereutes procyonoides, I thought I was just looking at an obese raccoon.  Then again, heft aside, there was something not quite right with that […]

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What are the True Colors of the Martian Landscape?

On October 2nd, NASA/JPL released this ‘postcard‘ from the Curiosity rover showing the higher regions of Mount Sharp as viewed from the rover’s work-site in the Gale Crater. The scene seems jarringly...

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Wild Sea Otter gives birth at Monterrey Bay Aquarium

On Saturday, a gravid female sea otter (Enhydra lutris) entered the Monterrey Bay Aquarium’s ‘Great Tide Pool’ and surprised visitors and staff by giving birth to a pup. This was […]

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Identity of the “Tully Monster” revealed

Today, the researchers from Yale, Argonne National Laboratory, and the American Museum of Natural History released the identity of the “Tully monster” (Tullimonstrum gregarium), an extinct aquatic...

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Chip Clark’s iconic National Museum of Natural History photos resurface

Chip Clark  joined the team at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History (SI NMNH) in 1973 as a staff photographer. In addition to capturing high speed images of flying […]

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Guido Mocafico’s Blaschka glass biological model photographs

Generations before 3D printing was available to museums and institutions of higher learning, father and son glass-makers Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka were working tirelessly to produce thousands of...

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Invertebrate of the Week #17 – Stygiomedusa gigantea

A total of 114 times in 110 years. That’s how many times researchers have observed the elusive Stygiomedusa gigantea, a giant deep sea jelly with a bell 1.4 meters wide and broad […]

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Zoosphere and Museum für Naturkunde Berlin make high resolution insect...

  Biologist Alexander Kroupa and a team of 14 colleagues are working with the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin on a huge undertaking: make high resolution images of the museum’s insect collection of freely...

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iPhone Apps for Naturalists (2016)

Refreshing the List for 2016 This is an update of a post that initially appeared in 2014 highlighting iPhone apps for naturalists. Whether you’re a birder, stargazer, or mushroom fanatic (is there a […]

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Invertebrate of the Week #18 – Variable Thorny Oyster (Spondylus varius)

Thorny oysters are a genus of bivalve molluscs and are the only genus within the family Spondylidae. The term ‘thorny oyster’ is a misnomer since this organisms aren’t closely related to true oysters...

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Noteworthy: “Brilliant Botany” Youtube Series

Launched in 2011, Brilliant Botany began as a blog created by Claire Hopkins while studying Plant Science and English as an undergraduate. Initially a platform for Claire to share her contagious […]

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Andy Murray, Mesofauna, and ‘A Chaos of Delight’

Kindred Spirits I’ve never met Andy Murray in-person, but I feel like we’re kindred spirits when it comes to how we feel about the natural sciences. Andy is the “photographer, writer, entomologist and […]

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