I could publish a whole blog on that subject (as could Walter Hingley, who sends me many good ones, more than I have time to use). But then I could run one on books, or wildlife art or bird ancetsors or the Pleistocene– and have NO time…
But some demand attention. I know, this short report from Science News looks like pure geekery, worse than my pigeon obsessions. Who cares about the “reassignment” of the jellyfish- like comb jellies? But look at the cladograms.
This may be the greatest rethinking of the family tree since “they'”separated Bacteria from Archaea. And yeah, that’s big.
My other note comes with an apology– three weeks or more ago, my Explorers Club associate Jut Wynne sent me this YouTube of his recent talk to science fiction writers comparing parasitoids to (the movie) Alien, and taking his ideas to search for life on Mars and further. I finally read it this morning and wanted to race over to Flagstaff and badger him with questions…
Among other things, I need to ask him about Strepsipterans, strange insects with an even stranger sex life and cycle than his wasps… but that will be another post.
Streps are pretty freaking cool. One of my friends works on them. He (through another mutual friend) once traded me a pizza for one I collected. They are actually pretty common if you're collecting at the right place/time.