Cool Animals

[LJP07]

Now here's a strange animal. It's called the Star-Nosed Mole. Weird-looking but cool at the same time:

 

Natural History Magazine --

 

What do you think?

[Mercedes Benzene]

Now here's a strange animal. It's called the Star-Nosed Mole. Weird-looking but cool at the same time:

 

Natural History Magazine --

 

What do you think?

 

I have those in my backyard.

They're quite a nuisance because as they tunnel, they leave these raised mounds along the surface sometimes. Interesting animal though.

[Michaelangelica]

Cool animals are popping up everywhere!

This is quite a supprisdngly long list of new ones. Then they do say that only one-tenth of the world's estimated 10 million species are known.

Greater Paramus News and Lifestyle Magazine - In 2006, scientists discovered a whole new world of species

EG

African primates have been tracked and studied in the wild by scientists for more than a century, so it was quite a shock to find an entirely new monkey in a farmer's trap in Tanzania. Rungwecebus kipunji - with a mane of hair crisscrossing its head like a Mohawk cut in two directions - is the first new African monkey genus designated in 83 years.

 

The 30-pound, gray-brown monkey was first spotted by two researchers working in two separate regions of Tanzania. Its appearance convinced Tim Davenport of the Wildlife Conservation Society and Carolyn Ehardt at the University of Georgia that it was a type of mangabey.

 

But new genetic analysis from the trapped monkey shows it to be more closely related to baboons, even though its skeletal anatomy and physical appearance are dissimilar.

 

"It wasn't a (mangabey), but it wasn't a baboon," said William Stanley, who published the new genetic work in Science in June. "So we had no choice but to put it into its own category, placing it in its own genus."

 

As typical, the classification is being debated by other scientists, and a final determination will await further study - and the capture of additional individuals of this most elusive bunch of monkeys.

[Racoon]

As a side post for ants and the Cordyceps Fungus, one of the most fascinating Fungus as when it affects the ant it takes control of it's body then eventually kills it by coming out of it's head!

 

Here's a video from the famous Planet Earth series: Just click Play on the video:

 

Parasitic Cordyceps Fungi Attacks Ants

 

Very Cool Video! Fascinating! :thumbs_up

 

Cordyceps fungus can also be used for boosting energy! as a supplement...

I have taken some personally a few years back, after reading about it in a muscle magazine.

Of course I had to find a good Chinese-Vietnamese apothocary over in Portland.

Its a little spendy but works... :beer: I may revisit Cordyceps

 

Boost energy with cordyceps: this Chinese fungus helps athletes go further - Supplement Brief Natural Health - Find Articles

 

CORDYCEPS SUPPLEMENTS - INFORMATION, BENEFITS, USES, ADVANTAGES, FACTS

[Ganoderma]

from: Welcome to Mush-World.Com

 

sorry to stray off topic thought this may interst others. there are many other articles about Cordyceps species at that site. excellent site! free signup...definatly one of the best around.

 

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Characteristics of Cordyceps species

Writer: Gwang-po Kim / Date :2000-07-16 / hits: 498

From the taxonomical point of view, Cordyceps sinensis is a bacterium that belongs to Cordyceps, Clavicipitales, Ascomycotina division. It originally belonged to Clavaria but its scientific name has been renamed to Cordyceps genus by Saccardo(1878) of Italy. About 250 species of the Cordyceps are distributed worldwide, about 65 of them in China, 100 in Japan, and about 70 in Korea. In China, only a few of the species such as Cordyceps sinensis, C. sobolifera, C. militaris, and C. opioglossoides are known to be effective.

 

The C. sinensis species are distributed in China, Japan, Germany, the U.S.A., Mexico, Canada, Denmark, and Italy; in China, this mushroom grows naturally in the cold, 3000-5000m high mountainous areas in Sichuan, Qinghai, Xizang, Yunnan around the Himalayas. In Korea, the mushrooms have not been artificially cultivated yet and even in China, cultivation of this mushroom takes place in a few limited areas. Production of the fruiting bodies is an important process in mushroom cultivation, but mycelium formation is also of great importance. Recently, pharmaceutical companies, started using liquid culture mycelium made from synthetic medium which could be provided easily by industrialized mass-production system to secure a raw materials supply.

 

Here are some examples of mushrooms that are treated as a species of Cordyceps sinensis in China.

 

* A. Characteristics of Main Species

 

(1) Cordyceps sinensis

 

This mushroom is a complex body of stroma and sclerotium, which are formed by Cordyceps sinensis (Bereley) Sacc. that parasites on Hepialus armoricanuse. It is one of the most typical species found, and is the most valued one in China.

The short-lived stroma occasionally generates on the host larva's frontal parts in groups of 2~3 and reaches 4~11x3~4mm in length which makes it longer than the host. The brown, conic head part of the stroma is 4~4.5x2.5~6mm in length, and on the edge of the stroma, it has no pregnant part which appears in brown or black, and are 1.5~5.5mm in length.

Its host is an insect that belongs to Hepialus armoricanuse family. The parasitic bacteria invades the living larva in forms of spores or mycellium in summer, absorbs nutrition from the host's body for mass-propagation, and forms hard hypha clusters csclerotium, eventually killing the host.

 

In winter, sclerotium are formed on the body, and the body of the dead host is placed with its head pointing upward and the end part downward. The Sclerotium are nurtured in intestinal parts of the larva, and the outer tissues form cuticle which preserves the host body from decay. When it becomes suitably warmer, in other words, in summer, herbage come out from frontal parts of sclerotium, and this is what we call Cordyceps sinensis.

 

The perithecium are either oval-shaped or egg-shaped, and are 380~550x140~240 micrometer big. In the perithecium there are a countless number of thin, long ascus, the size of which is 220~480x12~16 micrometer, and there are generally 2~4 ascospores in the ascus. The ascospores reach 160~470x4~6 micrometer in size and have several diaphragms.

 

The climatic conditions of Cordyceps sinensis' habitats are very complicated, and multiple factors like light, temperature, and humidity are subtly compounded together to promote the growth of the mushrooms. Take for example, in the northwestern part of Sichuan, one of the mushroom production districts in China, the average temperature is about 0.2~0.8 C, with the highest reaching 32 C, and the lowest -36.6 C. The annual precipitation amounts to 556.7~651.3mm, and about 75~93% of the rainfall is concentrated in the period from May to October. Relative air humidity is 50~70%, and soil humidity, about 15~40%. The annual daylight hours are 2,076~2,541 hours, the average temperature of the land surface is 4.4~9 C, and it snows for 140~286 days per year.

 

(2) C. militaris

 

Cordyceps militaris

This mushrooms are used to treat symptoms for pulmonary tuberculosis, weakness that comes from aging, and anemia. They grow in the cold, northern parts of China, or mountainous regions of Jilin, Hebei, Anhui, Guangdong, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, and Shanxi.

 

 

 

 

 

Cordyceps nutans

 

(3) C. sobolifera

This mushrooms is said to be effective for treating children's convulsions and tachycardia. It is found in Yunnan, Jiansu, Zeziang, Fuzhou, Sichuan, and Hubei.

 

(4) C. hawkesii

It grows in Guanxi, Guangdong, Yunnan, Hubei, and Sichuan.

 

(5) C. nutans

The mushrooms are found in Anhui, Zeziang, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong, Yunnan.

 

(6) C. sphecocephala

It is found in the southern part of Sejiang, Anhui, Zeziang, and Yunnan. Newly found Cordyceps that belong to the same family are C. taishanensis, C. shanxiensis, C. liangshanensis, C. gracilis, and C. barnesii.

 

Cordyceps pruinosa

(7) Cordyceps pruinosa

It forms on dead insect eggs and on pupae when they are underground. The fruiting body appear in reddish yellow or red, and the apex grows clearly in the shape of a club. They form ascus and perithecium, and the stroma inside those during the sexual generation, and four ascospores are formed attached to one another with string-like structures on the end parts which make it easy to fall apart and to be released.

 

The ascospores can be germinated easily, and they go through asexual generation stage on occasions. This mushroom has spores that germinate easily and vital mycellium, and grows well on a variety of substrates; all of these characteristics make the mushroom well-suited for various environments, and so in Korea, they can be found in many regions like Chu ng-Yang, Guang-Yang, and Chunchon. For cultivation, the Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) is good for mycelial growth and helps the fruiting body formation. Recently, there has been an announcement about the positive medicinal effects of this mushroom, but it is still not well-known to the public.

[Michaelangelica]

Great stuff!

BUT

maybe should be in "Cool Plants" forum

 

Or

even better how about you start a "Cool Mushrooms/Fungi" thread?

That would be great!

[Ganoderma]

yes, cool fungi would be better....they aint plants. sorry for the off topic, but their food is an animal :naughty:

[jogja06]

that really cools animals guy

[smartypant]

Wolves!!! Especially Grey Wolves!!! They are SO co-opperative when hunting and they are so CUUUTE!:naughty: I also love some of the desert lizards like the Thorny Devil and the Flap-necked lisards!!! Above all these(and the cobras like the Rattle Snake and the King Cobra) are DOLPHINS AND WHALES!!! Dolphins are so beautiful when they jump out of the water. Whales like the Humpback and the Giant Blue Whale are so cool! The way they filter ther food is kinda gross but easy to clean because their just bristles. They Spurt out water like a fountain and THAT is SOOOO COOOOL!!!!!:naughty:

[Boerseun]

Of course, no list of cool animals will be complete without the dooster, a new breed of dog bred close to Chernobyl.

[smartypant]

All the Arctic wolves,Grey Wolves, and some animals like sharks are really cool. The wolves have white fur to blend in with their surroundings! And plus they're SO CUTE!!! Thats a really nice and clever thing that nature did for dogs. As for sharks, well I don't like them that much but they hunt very strategically.

Apart from the Arctic and water I love some desert animals like meercacats and lizarsds. The meercacats have their own system of living! They co-operate like a town! And also the lizards have clever ways of bearing heat. I've heard one dances on the sand to keep its feet from burnunig! Theres another one that's like a moving, living cactus! It's called the Thorny Devil and it hunts with it's (this is so obvious prior to its name) thorns!

Last but not least, (actually the most) DOLPHINS!!! I LOVE DOLPHINS!!! They look so cute and cuddly when they're on land and so beautiful when they leap out of the water!

[smartypant]

Okay there are some wierd animals on the face of the Earth but a DOG with a ROOSTER HEAD:eek2: ;) :eek: ??? THAT is WIERD!!! I'ts also kinda gross too when you think about it. I mean every famous dog is photographed for their face right? Roosters are never photographed becaus they are HIDIOUS!!! You are just taking away a dog's beauty. That is so UNFAIR to the dog!:(

[Qfwfq]

;)

 

Don't take that picture tooooooooooooo seriously now, Smarty.

[Monomer]

I saw a blue-tongue lizard in my garden yesterday, and it was pretty cool. It was hanging around the tap near the back door, so I filled up a shallow container with water and it had a drink. It was great watching that blue tongue lap up the water.

[Ganoderma]

blue tongues are also Ovoviviparous. great pets, but i am pretty sure they are technically all illegal world wide.

[Monomer]

I guess if you wanted to have one as a pet you'd need to get it when it was just a baby. The one in my yard was about 20 cm long and gave me a very nasty hiss when I got too close.

 

It's legal to have a blue-tongue as a pet in Australia as long as it's not taken from the wild.

[Ganoderma]

Cool, i have no idea about keeping things in Australia, but i am fairly certain there is no export regulations in effect. No reptiles anyways are legally allowed to exit the county, and i have yet to hear of anyone in the pet trade having any proper papers for the importation of them. but they are commonly bred and kept so no worries i guess. my favourites are the shinglebacks. those guys are pretty cool! Australia has some pretty killer wildlife! like the Moloch mentioned above!