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Natural Science Forum / Biology / Paleontology / March 2005Couple of interesting articles
The first one : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/4268363.stm Megarachne, previously identified as the largest ever spider, was not a spider but a sea scorpion. The paper will be published in Biology Letters (Selden P A, Corronca J A, Hünicken M A, The true identity of the supposed giant fossil spider Megarachne). To which spider now goes the glory of being largest ever ? The second one Rich T H, Hopson J A, Musser A M, Flannery T F, Vickers-Rich P, Independent Origins of Middle Ear Bones in Monotremes and Therians, Science 2005; 307: 910-914 Review in the same issue : Martin T, Luo Z, Homoplasy in the Mammalian Ear, Science 2005; 307: 861-62 It appears that the complicated middle ear structure of the mammals have evolved at least twice. Therian & monotreme middle-ears are not homologous. Any comments ?  SignatureGautam Majumdar Please send e-mails to gmajumdar@freeuk.com > The first one : > [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > Any comments ? Well, you have to think about what homology means here. They're mostly homologous, certainly. It's just a question of independent loss of the connection between the middle ear bones and the jaw; they were already serving as middle ear bones long before that contact was lost, way back to the first therapsid with a reflected angular lamina. Mind you, I haven't seen any of the actual articles yet. > The first one : > [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > Any comments ? It strenghtens my belief that form follows function and what I was taught to call convergant evolution should be given more respect than I think many people give them. I'm 54 and have always been interested in natural history and always lived in the same location. I expect to have seen the local life forms before. I saw something a few moments ago that I am completely unfamiliar with. It is an arthropod. It has a segmented brownish body. I thought it was a centipide or mililide at first but it only has three leg pairs. That suggested insect larva. No sign of wings. The body was about an inch long and widest at the top. It looked kind of armored. The head is very small for the fairly plump body and at the time it was sticking out on a long neck that it pulls in when bothered. The legs are very short for the body. It was extending the back of the body to push itself along kind of like and earthworm and several times it curved its back part and used it to kind of like a leg to push itself along. I'm guessing this is a soil dwelling insect larve but the segments got larger from back to front. There were a lot of them and what should have been the thorax looked to be made of three segments. The rear legs looked to be on a seperate segment but maybe I'm blind. If you guys know what the heck this was share the secrete because I've never even seen a picture that looked like it and no I didn't take a picture, keep it or kill it. If its kind is known fine and if not I don't want to kill a rare and endangered animal or the government declaring my yard a wildlife refugee. > I'm 54 and have always been interested in natural history and always lived > in the same location. I expect to have seen the local life forms before. I [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > segments. The rear legs looked to be on a seperate segment but maybe I'm > blind. The thorax should have three segments. I'm going to assume you are blind. I have no idea about the long neck; define long. But I'm going to guess you have a campodeiform beetle larva. If I had to guess at random I'd say a staphylinid, but there's really no way at all to tell from your description, and the long neck still stumps me so I'm ignoring it. > If you guys know what the heck this was share the secrete because I've never > even seen a picture that looked like it and no I didn't take a picture, keep > it or kill it. If its kind is known fine and if not I don't want to kill a > rare and endangered animal or the government declaring my yard a wildlife > refugee. >> I'm 54 and have always been interested in natural history and always >> lived in the same location. I expect to have seen the local life forms [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > a staphylinid, but there's really no way at all to tell from your > description, and the long neck still stumps me so I'm ignoring it. As noted the head was tiny compared to the body and it could stick its neck out maybe three times the width of its head. When bothered the neck contracted and the head touched the body. >> If you guys know what the heck this was share the secrete because I've >> never even seen a picture that looked like it and no I didn't take a >> picture, keep it or kill it. If its kind is known fine and if not I don't >> want to kill a rare and endangered animal or the government declaring my >> yard a wildlife refugee. >>>I'm 54 and have always been interested in natural history and always >>>lived in the same location. I expect to have seen the local life forms [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > out maybe three times the width of its head. When bothered the neck > contracted and the head touched the body. Never heard of anything like this. How do you know the head was a head? Did it have eyes, mandibles, and/or antennae? I am not thinking of any insect at all with a flexible neck of this sort. >>>If you guys know what the heck this was share the secrete because I've >>>never even seen a picture that looked like it and no I didn't take a >>>picture, keep it or kill it. If its kind is known fine and if not I don't >>>want to kill a rare and endangered animal or the government declaring my >>>yard a wildlife refugee. >>>>I'm 54 and have always been interested in natural history and always >>>>lived in the same location. I expect to have seen the local life forms [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > Did it have eyes, mandibles, and/or antennae? I am not thinking of any > insect at all with a flexible neck of this sort. All of the above. >>>>If you guys know what the heck this was share the secrete because I've >>>>never even seen a picture that looked like it and no I didn't take a >>>>picture, keep it or kill it. If its kind is known fine and if not I >>>>don't want to kill a rare and endangered animal or the government >>>>declaring my yard a wildlife refugee. >>>>>I'm 54 and have always been interested in natural history and always >>>>>lived in the same location. I expect to have seen the local life forms [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > > All of the above. Damn. Now you've got me wondering what this is. Any chance of getting a photo? Or, even better, how about getting a specimen and taking it to the local university's or museum's entomologist? I'm going to make a few more random guesses. Do you know what all these look like? Staphylinid or staphylinid larva; embiopteran; earwig. With 6 legs it's guaranteed to be an insect of some kind. >>>>>If you guys know what the heck this was share the secrete because I've >>>>>never even seen a picture that looked like it and no I didn't take a >>>>>picture, keep it or kill it. If its kind is known fine and if not I >>>>>don't want to kill a rare and endangered animal or the government >>>>>declaring my yard a wildlife refugee. >>>>>>I'm 54 and have always been interested in natural history and always >>>>>>lived in the same location. I expect to have seen the local life forms [quoted text clipped - 39 lines] > look like? Staphylinid or staphylinid larva; embiopteran; earwig. With 6 > legs it's guaranteed to be an insect of some kind. Some I do. I'm satisfied that this is a burrowing larva or it would end up lunch. It's method of locomotion was awkward at best. The segments had small projections or ridges that would have helped hold against backward movement and as noted earlier it seemed to be able to elongate something like an earthworm and then contract. The neck was pink and obviously flesh. It most likely wouldn't even be obvious that it could do this from looking at a dead specimen. The neck seemed to contract to normal length, the body got rather shorter, and the creature froze when the creature was scared. I let it go. I have a digital camera with a 10X optical lense. I didn't take a picture. You are over looking my first point. If this is a new or rare species then the endangered species act would apply. I don't want to deal with that kind of crap. >>>>>>If you guys know what the heck this was share the secrete because I've >>>>>>never even seen a picture that looked like it and no I didn't take a >>>>>>picture, keep it or kill it. If its kind is known fine and if not I >>>>>>don't want to kill a rare and endangered animal or the government >>>>>>declaring my yard a wildlife refugee. >>>>>>>I'm 54 and have always been interested in natural history and always >>>>>>>lived in the same location. I expect to have seen the local life forms [quoted text clipped - 57 lines] > species then the endangered species act would apply. I don't want to deal > with that kind of crap. If it's a new species it's your positive duty to bring it to the attention of an entomologist. Even if it's endangered, one larva removed from the population isn't going to have any effect. But I suppose this is moot unless you can find one of them again. |
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