We have always known about the parthenogenetic (but mating, and reproducing, sometimes in the yard–see below) hybrid whiptail lizards of New Mexico, some of which live in our yard, known as Aspidoscelis (formerly Cnemidiphorus) neavesi, or more rudely, if correctly, as lesbian clone lizards. They are indeed a species of all- female virgin clones that …
Tag: Biology
New Creature
Annie Davidson sent this video of a new siphonophore, more beautiful and odder than a Portuguese Man o’ War, the only well- known member of the family. Was it Arthur Wilderson who recently observed that the ocean’s abyss is full of “new” life forms, as odd as anything in science fiction?
Happy Birthday 2
… to Dr John Burchard, scientist, man of letters, scholar, adventurer in far places, and one of the best tellers of tales I know. As the old saying has it, he has forgotten more about “salukiformes” and falconry than almost anyone else in our time has ever learned. Like me, he was a Massachusetts boy …
“Cyborg Naturalists”
Two Wyoming friends who I spent time with last week, Carlos Martinez del Rio and Jeff Lockwood, discuss a new concept of the naturalist. Among other things, I envy Carlos’s library!
Linkage
Is the Honeyguide the most gruesome nest parasite alive? The video is not for the faint- hearted, but check out the little blind monster hanging fby its bill from the naturalist’s finger in the still pics. That it will grow into a pretty if nondescript bird that eats wax and guides humans and honey badgers …
What Birds Say
From John Wilson : Owes something to There’s a Hair in my Dirt I suspect… No water. TWO “meetings’ tonight for those of us who want to sit in irritable crowds in the heat and not be able to shower afterward.
Science Links
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 …
Why Quammen’s Spillover is worth Your Time
David Quammen’s new book Spillover, on emergent diseases; or more specifically, on emergent zoonoses, came out a few months ago to a series of middling good but somehow lukewarm reviews. I vehemently disagree, but it takes a bit of unfolding. Why do some readers find such a book fascinating while others find it dull? First: …
Two rather biological quotes
From William Hamilton, the eccentric genius whose new biography is on the way, and from our old neighbor David Quammen, who chronicled Bill’s demise from the complications of malaria meds in his Spillover, review on deck at last… Hamilton, from volume 3 of his collected works: “For me it seems that the universe only needs …
Art, Science, Insect Hunting, and Nabokov
John Wilson’s butterfly photos remind me of one of the great neglected stories of 20th century intellectual life; that Vladimir Nabokov was not just a writer and teacher but a great taxonomist, this despite being denigrated as a dilettante in his time. Joseph Conrad is legitimately revered for becoming a great English novelist in his …