Sea Slugs

Also called nudibranches

These creatures have amazing variety of shapes, patterns and colors.

How do these snails survive without shells? Why are they so varied and colorful?

By Stephen Childs

They eat the stinging or toxic cells of sea anemones or coral without discharging them. The cells then pass from the slug’s digestive tract to the feathery structures on the back where they are used for defense. The bright colors and patterns combine with a sour or toxic taste so fish notice them and are repelled.

Some glow by eating luminescent algae and passing it through to their skin.

by Dan Hershman

By Minette Layne

By Scott Stevenson

By Glylow71

 

 

Smiling Animals

NO CUTESY DOLPHIN, DOG OR CAT PHOTOS…WELL, JUST ONE

but first

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/4160791/Piglet-squid-is-always-smiling.html

Bet you could never guess what kind of familiar animal this is.  Hint:  what looks like hair are legs.  It’s a squid!  A piglet squid to be precise, named because of its rotund shape.

It’s the size of an orange, lives about 320 feet deep, that is deeper than light can travel, and is a lousy swimmer because of its shape.

The body is clear except for the occasional cells containing red pigment.

From www.wineandbowties.com/nature/the-crested-smiling-aucklet-2

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/03/funny-animals-part-10.html

From www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/03/funny-animals-part-10.html

Looks like a two-toed sloth to me, a contented one.

O.K.  I couldn’t resist the temptation to have at least one cute, smiling cat.

Had to put this guy, the Axolotl in again even though he’s got his own solo post.

Blue Footed Booby

Cool Facts (Besides the name and the blue feet)

1)     First the male flaunts his brilliant blue feet with an exaggerated high-stepping silly-looking strut.  Then they spread their wings and tilt their bills upwards while they whistle and groan (see below, including video).

2)    The male presents nesting materials to the female like twigs and grass, but then she lays the eggs in a shallow depression on flat ground.

3)    The female lacks the extra skin birds have to fold over eggs and keep them warm—So she uses her blue-webbed-feet which have extra blood flow to incubate them.

4)    Once hatched, the female balances the chicks on top of her feet for one month while both parents feed them.

The dance

By peter-gene

Reflections in Raindrops

These stunning images are by  Light❖’s photostream on flickr.   The wonder of these photos is in both the artistry of the photographer and in the magic of reflected light on raindrops– so this post is in both human ingenuity and natural wonders.

None of these images are photoshopped, including the last one.

Click on an image to visit his site.

The following image is taken from a tiny dot on the edge of a leaf on this tulip.


SEA DRAGONS

Sea Dragons are close relatives of sea horses, having larger bodies and leaf-like appendages which enable them to hide among floating seaweed or kelp beds.

Leafy Sea Dragons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/annak/441319200/

Like seahorses, male sea dragons carry and incubate the eggs until they hatch.  But sea dragons carry the 250 eggs or so on the underside of the male’s tail.  Only about 5% of them survive to maturity (2 years.)

(c) David Hall/www.seaphotos.com

“Pregnant” male leafy sea dragon with pink eggs underneath his tail.

Sea Dragons grow to about 18 inches so are larger than sea horses.

Weedy Sea Dragons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saspotato/4299086755/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maveric2003/2090848444/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rling/4048015994/

COLLIDING GALAXIES

Ring Galaxies

Ring galaxies are a special kind of colliding galaxy formed when a smaller galaxy passes through the center of a larger one.

The space between stars in a galaxy is vast, so when galaxies collide, the stars don’t actually crash into each other. Instead, it’s their gravity that makes a mess. It’s somewhat like ripples in a pond after a large rock has been thrown in.  As the ripples plow outward, clouds of interstellar gas and dust collide and compress creating their own gravity.  Eventually these gas clouds collapse and form new stars.  The ring is blue because the countless stars being formed by the gravity-ripple are new and hot.  The bright yellow light in the middle shows the older stars in the  galaxy.

The Double Ring Galaxies of Arp 147 from Hubble
Credit: M Livio et al. (STScI), ESA, NASA

Other colliding galaxies

Most of these photos from Hubble telescope via www.geology.com

Axolotl

When I first saw this photo, I thought it must be a stuffed toy, not an animal or a fish.

www.uglorable.com/.../

www.uglorable.com/.../

It’s a salamander.  Besides its looks, it’s unusual in that it stays in its larval form, like a tadpole that never matures into a frog.  It never develops full lungs, retaining its gills and fins, so it lives under water.  The axolotl becomes sexually mature in the larval stage.

http://www.axolotl.org/

The axolotl can completely regrow a lost limb.

They are endangered in the wild because of habitat loss, but they are used in labs all over the world because of their ability to regenerate limbs and their embryos which are large and robust.

The only place on earth you can find them in the wild is at Lake Xochimilco in Mexico.

Sea Horses

Cool Facts

1)      Seahorses have heads like horses, tails like monkeys and pouches like kangaroos.

2)       It’s the male seahorse that becomes pregnant!

3)      They are monogamous, mating several times with the same partner during one season.

4)      They mate during the full moon.   Male seahorses try to impress females by having tail pulling competitions, dragging each other around on the bottom of the seabed and displaying their pouches.

5)  Then they have a courtship ritual that includes changing colors and synchronized swimming.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathaninsandiego/3605208614/

Photo courtesy of Rudie Kuiter and NOVA Online

The above photo shows the male and female mating when the male’s pouch meets the female’s egg duct.  She injects 200-600 eggs directly into his pouch where they are fertilized by his sperm.

The pouch lining becomes like a placenta, each egg forming an umbilical cord to supply oxygen and nutrition for the next six weeks.

Credit: iStockphoto/Kristian Sekulic

This couple are performing their daily ritual during pregnancy, entwining their tails and spiraling to the surface in a dance of celebration.

Francesco TURANO

You can see babies emerging from the top of this guy’s bulging belly and others newly born swimming nearby.  The males go through up to 72 hours of labor and contractions to release the babies.

gledwood2.blogspot.com/2009/09/seahorses.html

www.zooborns.com/zooborns/2009/04/the-secret-..

Here’s a Dad and some newborns clinging to the grass.

SEAHORSE CAMOUFLAGE

Seahorses can change colors in the blink of an eye to camouflage themselves.

©David Hall at www.seaphotos.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maynard/842188173/

©David Hall at www.seaphotos.com

©David Hall at www.seaphotos.com

Seahorses anchor themselves with their prehensile tails to sea grasses and corals, using their elongated snouts to suck in plankton and small crustaceans that drift by. Voracious eaters, they graze continually and can consume 3,000 or more brine shrimp per day.

(c) David Hall/www.seaphotos.com

Great shot of a seahorse eating a brine shrimp.

Seahorse bodies have bony plates arranged in rings, that act as body armor. The body has exactly 11 rings and the tail has 34 to 35 rings.

The sharp points on the body have the ability to numb whatever it pricks.

They range in size from 1 ½ inches to one foot.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rling/4048015994/

Star fish/Sea stars

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmauerer/3218391830/

Marine scientists have re-named star fish to sea stars, because they are not fish.  They belong to a group of animals called echinoderms, which means “spiny skin.” They are related to brittle stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and sand dollars.  There are about 1800 species of sea stars and they live is oceans around the world.

Cool Facts:

1)       A few species of sea stars can grow an entirely new body just from a portion of a severed limb.  They accomplish this by housing most or all of their vital organs in their arms. Others require the central body to regenerate a new limb.

2)      Sea stars use sea water instead of blood to pump nutrients throughout their bodies.  They have no brain, instead they have one or more rings of nerve tissue surrounding the esophagus to lend some coordination to their movements.   They detect light with five purple eyespots at the end of each arm.

3)  They have an organ that creates a mighty suction at the end of hundreds of tube feet under the arms by pumping water through the tubes.  With this suction  they can pry open even the most tightly closed shells such as mussels and oysters.

4)  They then force their stomach out of their mouth (which is on their bottom side) and insert it into a tiny crack between the two shells of the mussel or oyster.  They secrete a digestive enzyme which turns the animal’s flesh into a puree that the stomach absorbs.

5)      Sea stars can have up to 40, even more “arms” though five is the most common number.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/torvaanser/3992246262/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmauerer/3218391830

http://www.flickr.com/photos/omnia_mutantur/89389659/

Bleeding seastar

Had to put this in:  chocolate chip seastar

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgalvan/2378001928/

Had to put this in:  chocolate chip seastar

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rling/438035923/

Looks like Gumby

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nuytsia_pix/2264937798/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saspotato/4022484862/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saspotato/4022484862/

Biscuit seastars

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rling/3611463307/

Detail of the upper surface of a Firebrick Sea Star

The following Basket Stars are one of the stranger cousins of starfish. These plantlike creatures coils into a knotted ball during the day.  At night they stretch out into a basket-like shape fishing for plankton and other microscopic critters.

(c) David Hall/ www.seaphotos.com

(c) David Hall/ www.seaphotos.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/afagen/3186726740/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rling/3611463307/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rling/3611463307/

Sand Sculptures

See below for info on how these are made and links.

Cinderella trying on glass slipper

Seven dwarfs

Probably these are not the sand castles you made as a kid– me neither.

There are international competitions on beaches around the world.  The biggest international competition is at Harrison Hot Springs in  British Columbia, Canada where I happened to vacation several years ago–so some of the above pics are mine.

In recent years many artists have formed companies specifically geared towards creating sand sculptures. These companies have found a niche market with corporate and private clients looking to promote a business or product or simply to wow their guests at a special event.

Corporate team building has been a growing part of the business of these groups (you and your co-workers build a sand sculpture together.)

From Team Sandtastic

The following photos and information show Jenny Rossen at www.jennyrossen.com making a 75 ton sand castle.

(you order a size by tons of sand, 25-100 tons.)

You start with wood forms, boxes that have no top or bottom.  Each layer is smaller.  The forms  hold the sand and also act as scaffolding that the sculptors can stand on.

Form from teamsantastic.com

teamsandtastic.com

http://www.jennyrossen.com

Water is mixed with the sand and tamped down.

www.jennyrossen.com

The top form is taken off and carved, then the next, and on down.

jennyrossen.com

The 75 ton sandcastle finished.

.jennyrossen.com

Links:   www.jennyrossen.com

www.teamsandtastic.com



Kangaroos

(See below for kangaroo and dog story)

By cskk

COOL FACTS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW:

1)  A female kangaroo can nurse two babies (joeys) of different ages through two teats, each with a different formula appropriate to that joey’s age?

2)    The formula in a female’s milk changes weekly to suit the nutritional needs of the infant as it grows?

3)   Kangaroos are the size of a jelly bean when they are born—and can grow to 6 feet?

4)  A female kangaroo can slow the growth of her suckling young during drought conditions and hold a pregnancy in her uterus up to two years, until the food supply is replenished.

MORE:

A baby is born only 4 weeks after conception and is not fully formed.  It is eyeless, earless, all but skinless and with only buds where its hind legs will be.

It crawls about 4 inches to the pouch where it clamps onto a teat.  It can’t even open its mouth for about a month.

Newborn with teat.

THIS IS HOW THE MILK FORMULA CHANGES AS THE JOEY AGES:

At 2.5 months– the milk is low in fats and high in sugars and vitamins to help develop the nervous system.  The joey is the size of a mouse.

At 5 months– the milk becomes higher in protein to support the growth of muscle tissue and tendons.

At 6 months– the milk is low in sugars and high in fats to support growth.  The joey is the size of a squirrel.  Its eyes are beginning to open and it’s starting to take in the world although it’s still firmly attached to the teat.  Its vital organs are now complete.

At 7 months– the joey can feed when it chooses and can also begin to peek out of the pouch and leave its mother’s pouch occasionally.

At 9 months the joey leaves the pouch permanently, but continues to nurse until 18 months.

Photo: Georgios Kefalas/Associated Press

Photo: Georgios Kefalas/Associated Press

Kangaroos can jump up to 30 feet in a single leap, and move up to 40 mph.

By Mundoo

By CHRISTIAN CHARISIUS

A mom and twin joeys.

THIS DOG SAVED THIS JOEY’S LIFE

“By all accounts the baby kangaroo should have not survived the road accident that claimed its mother…but then along came Rex the wonder dog.

The pointer discovered the baby alive in the mother’s pouch and took it back to his owner.

“I’d taken Rex for a walk and we’d gone past the dead kangaroo that morning, and later I was working out the front and he started pointing,” his human, Ms Allan said.

“I was worried he’d found a snake and called him back, but when he returned he dropped the joey at my feet.  He obviously sensed the baby roo was still alive in the pouch and somehow had gently grabbed it by the neck, gently retrieved it and brought it to me.”  Amazingly, the 10-year-old dog had been so tender with the joey that it was both calm and unmarked.

“The joey was snuggling up to him, jumping up to him and Rex was sniffing and licking him,” Ms Allan said.  The joey, to be named Rex Jr after his saviour, is now being cared for at Jirrahlinga Wildlife Sanctuary and when he is 18 months old will be released back into the wild.”

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-551330/Best-mates-baby-kangaroo-wonder-dog-saved-it.html#ixzz0lypnbyVI

Slot Canyons

MAGICAL LIGHT, MAGICAL PLACES

by TTVo

A slot canyon is a narrow canyon significantly deeper than it is wide.  Some slot canyons measure less than three feet at the top and can be more than 100 feet deep.

by funkandjazz

They are formed  by water rushing through rock, most often sandstone and limestone rock.

by alienwatch

by Vin60

by PIX IN MOTION

Only a small number of creeks will form slot canyons due to a combination of the particular characteristics of the rock, regional rainfall and wind.

Vin60

By JcOlivera.com

The above photographs are all from the Antelope Slot Canyons on the Navajo reservation, near Page, Arizona.  Though there are many other slot canyons that are deeper, narrower or longer, and some have rock that is even more colorful and sculptured, conditions at Antelope Canyon  are ideal for catching light to make these majestic photographs.

By 12fh

Labyrinth Canyon, Utah

Utah has the largest concentration of slot canyons in the world.  Most are usually filled with pot- holes of ice cold water, and explorers wear wet suits and wade and swim through the narrow slots.

By rangergord

By tkellyphoto

Little Wild Horse Canyon in Utah’s San Rafael Swell.

Saturn, its rings and moons


This photo is of SATURN RINGS AND TWO MOONS

1)    Saturn has over 60 moons.

2)    The smaller moon in this photo, Epimetheus, is only 72 miles across and has a very uneven shape.

3)    The larger moon, Titan, is 3,200 miles across.

4)    The moon Titan is larger than the planet Mercury.

5)    Like Earth, Titan has lakes, rivers, dunes, mountains and possibly volcanoes.

6)    Like Earth, Titan has clouds, rain and snow.

7)   A day on Saturn is 10 hours and 39 minutes—it spins on its axis very quickly.

8)    A year is equal to 29.5 Earth years.

This composite photo shows the relative sizes of Earth and Saturn.

1)    Saturn’s rings are made of ice chunks and rocks that range in size from the size of a fingernail to the size of a car.       Although the rings are extremely wide (almost 185,000 miles), they are very thin (as little as a few thousand feet ).

2)      Though this looks like just a few rings, it is actually tens of thousands of thin “ringlets.”

3)       Rings form when asteroids or comets pass too closely to a planet or moon and tear it apart.  The parts continue in orbit.

A moon shadow (on Saturn’s rings) for Cat Stevens

Saturn’s north is a seething cauldron of rolling cloud bands and swirling vortices. This image was taken at a distance of approximately 336,000 miles.

See the tiny white-dot-of-a- moon in the middle of the black space in the rings.

This photo shows how gravity from a passing moon disrupts the orbit of one bright and one faint ring.

Most of these stunning photos were taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft as shown at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1172205/Saturn-close-Sensational-cosmic-images-bring-ringed-planet-life.html#ixzz0kL0wy11R

Bower Birds

Male satin bowerbirds like blue because female satin bowerbirds like blue.

A male collects up to 1000 short sticks to construct a bower.  Then he decorates it with blue, all to convince a female to mate.  Rather than fancy plumage or beautiful song, the male can spend as much as 9-10 months constructing his bower and decorating it.  Sometimes they even steal adornments from rival’s bowers.

Once the bower is completed, the male sings and dances puffing out his crest to any interested females.  Female’s visit a few bowers, deciding who to mate with.  When she’s selected a male, she builds a nest nearby.  Then she returns and stands in the bower while the male continues his song and dance routine, singing, struting, hissing, and adding more objects to charm her.  Eventually they mate in the bower.

A mature male with a specially fancy bower and decorations might successfully entice several females in one season to mate, while some males might completely fail.

Photo by The Waterboy

The volgal bowerbirds use a variety of colors and shapes from flowers to berries to any shiney or interesting object.

mdeboer{at}var.nl. I believe this is the person who took this pic and put it on members.tele2.nl/michiel.1/papua/West%20Papua.htm

.

Check out this bower and the size of the bird that built it!

By greyherbert

This is a Vogelkop Bowerbird who has built a “maypole” bower, like a wild head of hair on a pole.  The bird is in the lower right of the photo, tiny compared to his bower.

There are about 20 species of bowerbird in Australia and New Guinea.

READ THIS!!!

THE Leucochloridium paradoxum PARASITE has the most bizarre life-cycle imaginable.

This is the wonder that got me started collecting cool life forms.

This parasite lives in the intestine of a bird. When it reproduces, the offspring need to spread out by getting into other birds. So:

1) It lays eggs which are excreted by the bird.

2) The eggs are eaten by snails and they hatch into larvae.

3) The larvae take over the snail’s behavior so that it stays out in the open after dark, rather than hiding under leaves or brush as snails usually do.

4) To ensure the snail gets seen, the larvae invade an eyestalk, making the snail’s tentacle pulsate like a green neon sign, telling hungry birds, “Here I am, eat me.”

5)  Like magic, it’s back inside another bird’s intestines.

Clearly, nature has a sense of humor.

Slow Loris

These cute, cuddly primates have a toxic bite.

Cool fact:  This guy feels threatened.  His defense is to put his arms over his head.   It looks adorable but useless Actually, he is transferring a toxin from a gland on the inside of  his elbow to his mouth to make his bite even more painful.  The toxin smells like sweaty socks.

Slow lorises move in slow motion, but can make quick moves to get food.

Pygmy Marmoset

Pygmy marmosets are the world’s smallest monkeys weighing 4 – 7 ounces, measuring about 5 inches long with an 8 inch tail. They live mostly in the rainforests of South America with a few in southeast Africa.

The family units are composed one dominant female, who reigns over the group, a reproductive male, second in command, and the offspring from one to four litters of these two. The older siblings are dominant over the younger siblings except for infants who are not a part of the dominance hierarchy.

The presence of an adult female may suppress ovulation in other females. Only the dominant female reproduces.

When two male Pygmy Marmosets from competing families meet, they will threaten each other with rapid flattening and erection of their ear tufts.

By Joachim s Mueller

After the first 24 hours of life, the infants are carried by the adult male (see below) or juveniles and returned to the adult female for nursing. This practice relieves the mother and gives siblings practice for parenthood.

By Julie Larsen Maher (Bronx Zoo)

Due to the Pygmy Marmosets incredibly small size, they are able to live in the very highest leaves of a tree.

They are swift and their coloration makes great camouflage.

josh bousel

They are listed as special concern or somewhat threatened because of habitat destruction and the pet trade.

Striped Icebergs

Even though they float in salty oceans, more than two-thirds of the Earth’s freshwater exists as ice in the form of glaciers and ice caps.  Antarctica and Greenland have 98% of the earth’s ice mass.

Icebergs in the Antarctic area sometimes have stripes, formed by layers of snow that react to different conditions.

Blue stripes are created when a crevice in the ice sheet fills up with melted water and freezes so quickly that no bubbles form.

Green stripes form when an iceberg falls into the sea and a layer of water rich in algae freezes onto the bottom.

Green icebergs are infrequently seen because their bellies of algae and other plant life are underwater; it’s only when they flip over, a rare event, that their richly colored regions can be seen before they melt.

Brown, black and yellow lines are caused by sediment, picked up when the ice sheet grinds downhill towards the sea.

By Oyvind Tangen

Why we have the expression, “it’s only the tip of the iceberg:”  just one-tenth of an iceberg usually lies visible above the water.

©Ralph A. Clevenger

By Steve Nicol

By Steve Nicols

By Glen Browning

By Waye Papps

For info and more photos: www.dailymail.co.uk

Or: http://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=24046

Frogfish

© David Hall/seaphotos.com

Also called Anglerfish.

COOL FACTS:

1)  Find this fish’s eye and mouth.  See the blue thing sticking up in the air with the worm-like end?  That’s a bone coming out of his nose.  It’s a fishing pole with a worm-lure on the end.  He dangles is over his mouth to attract prey.

2) He is said to be capable of swallowing prey larger than himself.  His mouth can expand to 12 times his size which creates a huge suction.

3) This happens in 6 thousandths of a second, faster than the eye can see.

by Tom Weilenmann

This is a moaning frogfish so his mouth stayed open long enough to get the shot.

© David Hall/seaphotos.com

© David Hall/seaphotos.com

© David Hall/seaphotos.com

By Tom Weilenmann

This guy looks like he has leaves growing out of his skin and his lure looks like a branch.

By Spamily

You can get a sense of how frogfish use their fins like feet to bounce along the bottom of the ocean.

© David Hall/seaphotos.com

Check the size of this red male hairy frogfish and his lovely golden mate.  She is ready to lay eggs and attracts the male by releasing pheromones.

This is a Psychedelic frogfish, discovered in 2008.  This frogfish doesn’t have a lure.

(c) David Hall/www.seaphotos.com

© David Hall/seaphotos.com

Like other frogfish, this one appears to bounce on the ocean floor like a rubber ball.  It moves by a method similar to “jet propulsion”, forcefully expelling swallowed water through small, rear-facing gill openings. When moving in this way, the psychedelic frogfish tends to contort its body into a ball-like shape.  This, combined with an off-center tail, causes it to bounce around in a bizarre and chaotic manner.

© David Hall/seaphotos.com

Be sure to check out David Hall’s website:  www.seaphotos.com for many wondrous pictures, including many on this site.

Eskimo Nebula

Nebulas are huge areas of gas in space. Some form stars and some, like the Eskimo nebula are dying stars. This star began dying about 10,000 years ago. As a star dies, its outer layers expand and are flung into space by winds around 900,000 miles per hour. This cooling matter creates the bubble-looking area around the central sun. The bubbles are about one light-year long. They glow from radiation emitted by the central star. The orange-colored ring around the bubbles are comet-shaped objects whose tails are streaming away from the center.

By hubbesite.org

Whirlpool Galaxy

From Hubble Telescope

This swirling beauty is a spiral galaxy. The spiral arms are forming star clusters as gravity compresses hydrogen gas until it ignites, creating new stars. The dark color on the inner edge of the spiral is gas, the bright pink is the star-forming region, and the new star clusters are blue because they are burning very hot.

The white bulge in the center consists of much older and colder stars. The white bulge at the tip on the right of the spiral is another galaxy. The Whirlpool galaxy, like our galaxy, the Milky Way, rotates very slowly. Our galaxy completes a single revolution every 250 million years or so.

About 77% of galaxies are spiral.

For a scientific video on why we see spirals: Click Here

Informational credit to Hubble and Wikipedia.

Eagle Nebula

By hubblesite.org

The Eagle nebula is a star-forming factory. It is a huge pillar of gas many light years high. Stars are being formed in the bright tip. Hydrogen gas molecules in the cloud get crowded enough to create gravity. This draws more and more gas until the hydrogen molecules are so close they fuse and begin burning as a star. They continue to grow until they burn off surrounding gas which is why we see the glowing light in the top of the photo. Stars are also being formed in the midst of the dense gases so cannot be seen.

Clownfish (or Nemo as in “Finding Nemo”)

Clownfish can change their sex.

By D-32

They live in groups of one male, one female and several juveniles. If the female dies, the male’s sexual organs stop working, and previously dormant ovarian cells inside his body start making egg cells. He then takes the female place. To fill the vacuum left by this sex change, one of the juveniles then turns into an adult male. Therefore the sexual make-up of the group stays constant, and no breeding time is wasted.

By char1iej

The clownfish is able to live safely among the stinging tentacles of sea anemones by coating itself with a protective mucous coating. It gives scraps of food to the sea anemone, and the sea anemone protects the clownfish from predators with its stinging tentacles.

By Silvain de Munck

About Dusky and the site

Welcome to Dusky’s Wonder Site.  If you are interested in finding a therapist, click here.

I’m so glad to share with you some discoveries about our planet, its inhabitants and the universe that I have found to be awesome, funny, or just plain weird. The good news, supported by recent advances in brain science, is that spending time feeling appreciation or amusement is good for us. The more we purposely tune into moments of positive experience, the easier it becomes to notice them because we have literally made changes in our brain circuitry.

This website is my way to immerse my brain in wondrous things. I’m hoping you will also find something here to savor and enjoy.

Dusky

Featured Wonder: Reflections in Raindrops

June 10th, 2010

These stunning images are by “Licht~~~~’s photostream” on flickr.   The wonder of these photos is in both the artistry of the photographer and in the magic of refracted light on raindrops.

None of these images are photoshopped, including the last one.

Click on an image to visit his site.

The following image is taken from a tiny dot on the edge of a leaf on this tulip.


WONDER

Are you exercising the muscle of wonder?  Is this synapse firing in your head every single day?  Some say we have lost our power to be awed.  We are too jaded, too soaked in info overload to be able to pick out the gems and say, “Would you look at that, and doesn’t it put everything in a fresh perspective, just for a minute?”

I say we are never too far gone.  It is merely a switch inside, a reactivation of that portion in the human soul that, when slapped awake and re-energized, will suddenly remember how easy it is to be continuously, calmly, deliriously amazed.

By Mark Morford, San Francisco Chronicle, March 17, 2006