animal kingdom geek-out

[truepenny]

So between my job and my friends, I've spent most of today looking at weird creatures.

Researching for Shadow Unit (with a big assist from matociquala), I learned about the Chinese bird spider, which rejoices in the appellation of "earth tiger," and the katipo, whose name is a Maori word meaning "night-stinger." I also learned the difference between neurotoxin and hemotoxin venoms, and that the species of black widow indigenous to the American southeast, Latrodectus mactans, is the only species of black widow of which the female has been observed in the wild to eat her mate. None of this is actually germane to the story I'm working on, but it's all very very cool in an OMG GET IT OFF ME sort of way.

My new favorite blog is Creepy Animals, which I found from brisingamen's post about naked mole rats and star-nosed moles. (The BBC let me watch the clip on the naked mole rats--saber-toothed sausages--but not the clip on star-nosed moles, so I turned to PBS instead, which gave me an awesome video, in which they use slow-motion so as to slow the mole down enough that you can actually see its nose tentacles moving.) I wonder seriously if H. P. Lovecraft had seen illustrations of star-nosed moles when he came up with the moon-beast. I also wonder if, working backwards and in a sort of subconscious fashion, that's why moon-beasts are my favorite HPL critter.

And from Creepy Animals, I found Thumbelina, the World's Smallest Horse (who, be warned, has an evilly catchy theme song).

And today isn't over yet!

Comments

[pnkrokhockeymom.livejournal.com]

SQUEE!

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Have a slightly NSFW naked mole rat! http://www.redwombatstudio.com/wpg2?g2_itemId=661

[voidmonster.livejournal.com]

Having grown up cruelly deprived of the delightful L. mactans, I was very disappointed to discover that in the real world, getting bitten by one -- while very annoying -- was not particularly exciting.

One night of uncontrollable shakes, a bit of fever and it was over. No convulsions or anything. And the bite itself was no worse than a bee sting. Wasp stings hurt much worse.

[ishafel.livejournal.com]

But have you seen Einstein, the NEW world's smallest horse? He's not as bad as Thumbelina, but it's sort of creepy the way this woman carries him around like a stuffed animal instead of letting him be a horse: http://www.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/04/little-horse-in-nh-may-be-worlds-smallest/1

[slithytove.livejournal.com]

Have you found the the naked mole rat cam (http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/SmallMammals/default.cfm?Cam=NMR) at the National Zoo? It's probably better at night, I think NMRs are nocturnal. Cam is somewhat low res. But Live! Mole! Rats! Right now, there's one just lying there, being naked and all.

Mole-rats are the only known mammals to live in large colonies presided over by a queen (like ants and termites).

Well, except for the Githyanki. And the State Department.

[fuchsoid.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, they are very naked, aren't they? Not sure I was quite ready for that so soon after breakfast.

I should have more fellow-feeling for them, since I too live in a large group presided over by a queen, if you cou8nt the whole country as a group, I suppose.

[meijhen.livejournal.com]

I really should not have visited that Creepy Animals website. How can things be so fascinating and also make me go "AAAAAH! DO NOT WANT!!!!"???

[fuchsoid.livejournal.com]

Thumbelina is marginally more creepy than the naked mole rats, but the star-nosed mole is downright cute, in an eyeless, tentacled sort of way. It has a little tail!