evolutionarytravesty

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Chicken mushrooms having swaIIowed up a goIdenrod that’s sprouting from an oak tree that the chicken mushroom is eating. Boston 9/7/19

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Dog day cicada (Neotibicen sp.) on the hammock in my yard

August 28, 2019

Southeastern Pennsylvania

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After two years of work, the first paper from my PhD has been released! We combined evidence from fossils and genetics to study the phylogeny and evolutionary history of some of the most remarkable theropod dinosaurs, the members of Strisores (hummingbirds, swifts, nightjars, and more). The interrelationships of this group have been very challenging to resolve, but our study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that nightjars are most distantly related to the rest, and that the last common ancestor of these birds likely fed by snapping up insects in flight.

The paper can be read for free here and I’ve also written a blog post summarizing our main findings.

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The cranefly orchid (Tipularia discolor) is one of North America’s most unusual and enchanting terrestrial orchids. The plant produces a single evergreen leaf with a green, spotted top and a purple underside in late summer. The leaf persists through the winter, only to wither in the spring after the plant has stored sufficient energy to bloom. In the summer, the orchid produces a lanky, purple-green stalk with clusters of unusual flowers, which have long, spindly nectar spurs. The nectar spurs attract nocturnal moths, which pollinate the orchid’s flowers. Cranefly orchid grows in a substrate of rotting wood, where the fungi that help it to germinate and grow also live. The photos above were taken along the Mon River Trail.

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fly has a day

#this really is just how flies are

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I want to ask you about monstera's! I went to a ten acre nursery/orchard today and I noticed they had some monstera's growing beneath trees and when I asked the owner if they had any for sale he mentioned that they had a very interesting fruit. anyways I'd always been under the impression that they were an ornamental plant, and had no idea that they bore fruit. and then I thought maybe there were different varieties of monstera and I just thought I'd ask you! bc you seem familiar with them

Nope he was right! Their fruit is actually the reason they're called Monstera deliciosa. And also why they have the common name "Mexican Breadfruit". They aren't likely to fruit as a houseplant but it's supposedly very tasty.

Here's an unripe fruit I saw at a botanical garden:

They get even larger than that and then I believe you have to do some sort of peeling or removal of the outer bit. I don't know what it tastes like but it would be interesting to try!

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Meet “Sparklemuffin” (Maratus jactatus) and “Skeletorus” (Maratus sceletus)- I think you can probably work out which is which.

While these guys may sound like My Little Pony characters, they are actually two newly discovered species of Peacock Spiders. Discovered by Madeline Girard in Queensland Australia (where else!), these vibrant arachnids measure only about five millimetres in size. Peacock spiders are a type of jumping spider; they don’t weave silken webs to catch prey, but instead hunt and stalk their prey.

Keep reading

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JUST BIRDS! (undefined)

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Super Gourmet Mushrooms:

King Bolete, Morels, Golden Chanterelles, Matsutake, Blue-footed and Black Truffles. 

Done in Watercolors! 

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i found an old entomology textbook! it’s so pretty!

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MOTHS from Yunnan, China Click on and scroll through images for individual IDs….. by Sinobug (itchydogimages) on Flickr. Pu’er, Yunnan, China See more Chinese moths on my Flickr site HERE…

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Pawpaw sphinx moth (Dolba hyloeus) feeding from knapweed flowers

7/27/19

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A porcupine’s Halloween present (+ original sound effects)

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This is a dik dik

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Wasp mimic horse fly by Andreas Kay

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