I’m in <3 with this concept by designer Constance Guisset. From the artist’s website:
“DUPLEX is an acquarium/cage favouring an improbable encounter between a bird and a fish. The aquarium is thermoformed so as to create a space where the bird can fly at the same visual level as the fish. A surprising encounter that evokes the impossible fusion between the air and the waterworld.”
Every spring amphibians like frogs and salamanders make the great trek across dangerous roadways from their year round homes to breed in woodland pools, a once a year occurrence. Due to the mortal danger of these little guys crossing the street, volunteers across the country help them out every year by setting up roadblocks, adjusting speed limits in known crossing areas and even help carry the critters across the road to make sure they get to where they need to safely.
It’s unfortunate that as people we’ve imposed on their ecosystems this way. It makes us quite sad, but we can’t help but be a little in awe of the cool people spending their time trying to raise awareness about this issue. Hopefully come this spring you’ll be seeing the We Less Than Three team carrying buckets of salamanders across the road….
Read more – Amphibian Migrations and Road Crossings – NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation.
Riusuke Fukahori uses incredibly precise painting techniques to create 3-dimensional fish using meticulous layers of paint and resin. Breathtaking stuff. | via This is Colossal (with more pics + video)
This an amazing experiment by Iori Tomita, where animals are turned clear, and then their bones and cartilage are selectively dyed to expose what’s under the surface. Wish they were still living. | via Geekologie
I just learned what these are today! I was in awe of their beautiful color and when I saw the picture of the one above, I thought for sure the internet was fucking with me. But according to Wikipedia this is a real creature. So, what is it? It is a nudibranch, from the Latin nudus, naked, and the Greek brankhia for gills. They evolved from a hard-shelled mollusk that shed it’s shell after the initial larval stage.
Nudibranchs are often called ‘sea slugs’ but they are actually from taxonomic groups (nerd alert).
I have never seen one of these in the wild, although it is stated you can find them around the world, I will definitely be on the lookout the next time I’m in the Keys.
Nudibranch body shapes and colors vary greatly and unlike other types of gastropods they are bilaterally symmetrical externally and internally. These little guys can grow anywhere from teeny tiny (.79in) to a probably totally amazing at 2 feet in length. They are hermaphrodites, like other awesome shelled and sluggish creatures. And they are also carnivores, and some are even cannibals. In order to defend themselves from predators, nudibranchs have evolved different tactics like camouflage, bright contrasting colorations that warn off predators that they are distasteful or poisonous, or they eat other various poisonous creatures like man-o-wars, and store the toxins in their body, thus making them repellent to their predators, cool huh?
It turns out nudibranch are not recommended for personal aquariums as they are highly specialized predators and require very specific feeding rituals. Which is a bummer, because IF I had an aquarium, I would totally want a bunch of these rad dudes hanging out.
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