One Million Full Length Movies Are Stored In This Vial Using DNA As Storage Media. We’re Through The

Inked!

Squid (and their relatives of class Cephalopoda) have long been known to release ink when threatened by a predator. The ink acts as a smokescreen - obscuring the senses of the predator allowing the squid valuable seconds to escape their notice. Until now, this was thought to be the ink’s only function. However, scientists have discovered that at least one tiny species of squid - the Japanese pygmy squid (Idiosepius paradoxus) - utilises ink for an entirely different reason - they use it to hunt.

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“I’m on Lord Howe Island, a tiny speck of land 300 miles off the east coast of Australia. Humans beings only got here a little over 200 years ago, and it seems the birds that nest here are still quite curious to see what’s going on.“ (Life of Birds 1998)

This is it. This is my favourite Attenborough moment.

Do animals have sex for fun? This video attempts to answer a question all of us might have asked ourselves at some point!

a dream come true: ORCAS IN THEIR NATURAL HABITAT!

they examined our cruise vessel inquisitively and played in our stern wave <3 to watch these gentle giants from up close was such a beautiful once in a lifetime experience! they stayed quite a while so i could enjoy the moment and still take some neat pics. thank you for this special day, guys! stay safe.

Photograph of a pregnant uterus (womb) from a New Forest pony, approximately five months into the pregnancy. The developing pony (fetus) is outside the uterus but remains attached by its membranes and umbilical cord. The bent back legs of the fetus are sticking out from the membranes (top right-hand side). The uterus has been cut open to reveal its vast blood supply, which is visible on the inner surface. This historical specimen is from a cull animal that happened to be pregnant at the time. It is preserved in formalin in a Perspex container and was photographed in the Anatomy Museum of the Royal Veterinary College in London. (Credit: Michael Frank, Royal Veterinary College / Wellcome Images)

Shark Documentary: a dead shark!!

Me: oh no

Shark Documentary: something kILLED IT!!

Me: it was an orca

Shark Documentary: WHAt killed this SHARK??!

Me: orca

Shark Documentary: It was not a man!!!

Me: orca

Shark Documentary: *flips a shark upside down*

Me: ok

Shark Documentary: there are some orcas living nearby

Me: yes good

Shark Documentary: what could this mean??

Me: orcas killed the shark

Shark Documentary: did orcas kill this shark??!

Me: yes

Shark Documentary: orcas killed the shark!!

Me: fascinating

Red-lined bubble snail (Bullina lineata)

The red-lined bubble snail, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Bullinidae. This snail has a milky-white mantle with iridescent blue edges. There are small black eyes on the head between the head shield processes. The shell has a white background with horizontally spiraling red brown bands which are crossed by vertical bands in the same color. The length is 15 to 25 mm. This species occurs in the sublittoral zone of the Indo-Pacific from Japan to Australia and New Zealand.

photo credits: seaslugsofhawaii, Sylke Rohrlach, Richard Ling

I always get really…touchy, when someone says they want to go into marine biology for the whales. I admire their love for the ocean and the mammals living within it, but I also get frustrated with their naivety. A degree doesn’t guarantee any kind of field work. 

In fact, it’s a hell of lot of work to be able to do any kind of field work, and even less likely for it to be marine mammal related. I spent one semester on marine mammals. Just 16 weeks, and half the experiences I had with strandings and training and dissections came with my location and pure happenstance. 

Marine biology isn’t whales. It’s becoming a statistician with a deeply routed knowledge on marine ecosytems and processes. I didn’t spend four years working through the blood, sweat, and tears for this degree to listen to someone complain about not being able to pet a dolphin when they graduate. 

Bawean warty pig may be world’s rarest pig, with only 230 around 

by Fred Pearce

By day, they rest in the surviving scraps of rainforest on their remote tropical-island home. By night, they grub around for tubers and roots in the forest gardens of local communities, dodging guard dogs and the occasional angry farmer with a gun.

Now, the diminutive warty pigs of Bawean, a small island in Indonesia’s Java Sea, have a new claim to fame: they may be the rarest pigs in the world.

The warty pigs of Southeast Asia come in many shapes and sizes – and, it seems, many species too. Often dismissed as little more than pests, they are receiving a taxonomic makeover, with a dozen distinct species now acknowledged, and others likely to emerge.

The latest is the Bawean warty pig (Sus blouchi), a dwarf relative of the Javan warty pig (Sus verrucosus), but now claimed to be a species in its own right…

(read more: New Scientist)

photograph via: Bawean Endemik Konservasi Initiatif