c0nc0rdance

Tim Osborne Photography @timosborne.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 13:32 UTC

Apparently yesterday was World Porcupine Day. So, let me be the first to wish you a Happy Belated World Porcupine Day! #wildlife

5 replies 18 reposts 96 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 13:38 UTC

Here's a wild thought: it's possible that more biomass on Earth is dependent on radionuclide decay than on the Sun.

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 12:52 UTC

Here are the 1825-1833 empresario grants, corresponding to early settlements that became Austin, San Antonio, Houston, etc. In the Hill Country, the German settlers rebuffed claims by American immigrants, so there wasn't the plantation sprawl of E Texas.

0 replies 0 reposts 7 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 12:48 UTC

East Texas is a bit more like MA, but scaled way down. Like you can drive for 3 hrs and pass through little rural farming communities that are basically a stop sign, a Dairy Queen, and a post office. Central Texas was shaped by empresario grants, with little dense cultural enclaves far apart.

1 replies 0 reposts 5 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 12:37 UTC

There are exceptions. In the case of the Galapagos penguin, they live in the cold water upwells of the Humboldt current.

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 12:31 UTC

To read more about Bergmann's rule, I recommend this primary source:
www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth...

0 replies 0 reposts 11 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 12:19 UTC

And it's worth noting that cold temperatures inhibit the growth of cartilage, which forms the scaffolding for new bone in the young. Rather than a law of evolution, it could simply be environmental conditions showing their influence on anatomy without selecting for allelic variations.

3 replies 0 reposts 19 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 12:15 UTC

There are some alternative explanations for Bergmann's law: for example, the arctic has longer winters when food is scarce, but lower predation pressure, and cold temperatures favor longevity... all of which give benefit/opportunity for large body mass.

1 replies 0 reposts 19 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 12:12 UTC

But I have to point out that Bergmann rule (and Allen rule) exceptions are common. It's less "law" and more "tendency". Some of this stuff whiffs of genetic determinism when applied to human populations, like the native populations of the Arctic vs native population of the equatorial regions.

3 replies 0 reposts 18 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 12:09 UTC

So a round-bodied animal with stubby limbs can better maintain their heat in cold climates. Allen would predict that desert animals are smaller, but with longer, thin limbs. Even within species, populations in colder climates tend to be more sphere-like than their desert cousins.

3 replies 1 reposts 29 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 12:06 UTC

Here I need to bring in the Allen rule as well, which modifies Bergmann's: cold temperatures tend to favor shorter limbs, but larger stature. Using the same number of cubes, you can see that shorter, thicker stacks have less surface area for their volume, which reduces heat flow.

2 replies 1 reposts 20 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 12:04 UTC

Named for German biologist, Karl Bergmann (1814-1865), who observed the effect exclusively in endotherms, warm-blooded animals. We have since found similar trends in cold-blooded 'ecotherms', including marine invertebrates like copepods. So why?

1 replies 0 reposts 19 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 12:01 UTC

Let's talk about Bergmann's rule. It states: within closely related organisms, as latitude increases (closer to the poles), average height and volume of an organism increases. For example, the size of penguins increases as a continuous function of latitude. (🧑‍🎨: Karel Frydrýšek)

4 replies 12 reposts 59 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Dec 27, 2023 at 22:39 UTC

Something that always amazes me: When you turn on the tap in your home, you're draining the water out of a giant tower, by gravity. From the point of view of the water, it must be a wild ride.

3 replies 5 reposts 38 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 21:06 UTC

I'm sure your appetite was a compliment to her dumpling making skills 😁

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 13:20 UTC

We're mixing our mythologies!

1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 13:18 UTC

It's a fine distinction.

1 replies 0 reposts 5 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 13:17 UTC

Same.

0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 13:06 UTC

Generally heat-exchange/thermoregulatory structures are heavily vascularized, and there isn't evidence of that from the fossilized structures, but I think it's a possibility.

1 replies 0 reposts 5 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 13:02 UTC

... letting the filling drip out your mouth as you utter a roar to signal territorial dominance to your rivals.

0 replies 0 reposts 7 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 13:01 UTC

You can read more about this spiky dino here, at the Western Australian Museum:
museum.wa.gov.au/explore/dino...

2 replies 0 reposts 20 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 12:59 UTC

Option 3: Communication It's likely the unsupported keratinized neck spines would have clattered together, possibly under the dino's control, and provided some way of signaling herd-mates or potential mates without vocalization.

3 replies 0 reposts 26 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 12:56 UTC

Option 2: Defensive horns The spines were likely keratinized, similar to goat horns, and could have been used for defense from predators, a neck flail attack. The same structures could have been sexually selected for mating display, rival challenges.

2 replies 0 reposts 25 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 12:50 UTC

Option 1: They were air sacs to extend lung function. It's possible the spines supported a large air-filled structure ("supravertebral diverticulum") that extended to the lungs, allowing better oxygen utilization, inflating for mating or challenge or communication. (🧑‍🎨: Fred Wierum)

1 replies 0 reposts 28 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 12:46 UTC

We don't quite know what the spines were for. They're circular in cross-section, meaning they probably didn't support a 'sail', as in Dimetrodon's flattened spines supporting a sail structure. So several explanations for what they were "for":

1 replies 1 reposts 46 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 12:43 UTC

You're looking at the only known fossilized skeleton of a sauropod dino called "Amargasaurus", recovered from the La Amarga Formation in Argentina. One of the smallest sauropods at 13 m in length & 2-4 tons in weight, the distinctive 'neural spines' projecting from the vertebrae are a puzzle.

10 replies 52 reposts 260 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 12:25 UTC

1919 map of peach orchards, with each dot representing 500 acres of peach trees. Millions of peaches! Peaches for me!

8 replies 5 reposts 83 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 12:16 UTC

I think the trick is to catch the peaches in the week that they're truly, perfectly ripe.

1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 12:11 UTC

Colobopsis explodens use a strategy called autothysis (Greek for "self-sacrifice"), which only makes sense from a Darwinian perspective if the group being protected is very closely related, as in eusocial insects (the other example of autothysis is in eusocial termites, Globitermes sulphureus)

3 replies 5 reposts 29 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 12:01 UTC

Bird mafia.

0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 12:01 UTC

Well, I know what *I'm* making this weekend.

15 replies 136 reposts 734 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 02, 2024 at 01:31 UTC

Interesting!

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jan 08, 2024 at 13:36 UTC

Looking like someone clawing their way up from the grave is the reason that this fungus🍄, Xylaria polymorpha, is sometimes called "Dead Men's Fingers". Let's talk about how they might help remediate micropollution, with an ALMOST ZERO chance of turning people into zombies.

5 replies 32 reposts 139 likes

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 01, 2024 at 22:18 UTC

This is a democracy. We should get to vote on which animal he fights.

1 replies 0 reposts 18 likes