skaterboytae:

When a honeybee dies it releases a death pheromone, a characteristic odor that signals the survivors to remove it from the hive. This might seem a supreme final act of social responsibility. The corpse is promptly pushed and tugged out of the hive. The death pheromone is oleic acid [a fairly complex molecule, CH3(CH2)7CH=CH(CH2)7COOH, where = stands for a double chemical bond]. 

What happens if a live bee is dabbed with a drop of oleic acid?

Then, no matter how strapping and vigorous it might be, it is carried “kicking and screaming” out of the hive. Even the Queen bee, if she’s painted with invisible amounts of oleic acid, will be subjected to this indignity.

Do the bees understand the danger of corpses decomposing in the hive? Are they aware of the connection between death and oleic acid? Do they have any idea what death is? Do they think to check the oleic acid signal against other information, such as healty spontaneous movement? The answer to all these questions is, almost certainly, No. In the life of the hive there’s no way that a bee can give off detectable whiff of oleic acid other than by dying. Elaborate contemplative machinery is unnecessary. Their perceptions are adequate for their needs.

Ann Druyan & Carl Sagan, Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors: Who Are We?, What Thin Partitions 

sciencepopularis:

Oh so true….

Credit: SMBC

crownedrose:

Albertonectes vanderveldei : An Extreme Elasmosaur
Photo Above Credit: Albertonectes. From Kubo et al., 2012.

A new animal has been discovered/described in the latest Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology. It’s a new type of plesiosaur (marine reptile; not a dinosaur) that has a wicked amount of cervical bones; 76 to be exact! The neck alone comes out to be a length of around 23 feet. Pretty awesome, right? It’s even cooler because - if true - this animal has the highest count of cervical vertebra ever!

The animal comes from Alberta, Canada - hence the name Albertonectes vanderveldei. It’s practically complete, but unfortunately missing the skull. It apparently measures out to be just under 40 feet in length.

Since it’s a new discovery, there is much more we still do not know just yet. This is all very exciting. It sure makes you wonder how many other species are still in the rocks just waiting to be discovered.

Want to know more? Read up on the paper released on this animal below:

Paper: Kubo, T., Mitchell, M., & Henderson, D. (2012). Albertonectes vanderveldei , a new elasmosaur (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 32 (3), 557-572 DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2012.658124.

You can also read the article on Wired (where I got the released information from).

pochamarama:

Spiders couldn’t fly…

SO THEY DECIDED TO EAT ANIMALS THAT DID

socialistexan:

Happy Towel Day everyone!

rhamphotheca:

giraffe-in-a-tree:  Standing Gerenuks

Gerenuks or Waller’s Gazelles are well-known for their ability to stand on their hind legs to feed from trees with their long necks. What they aren’t well-known for are their incredible dancing skills which you can see in action here.

Photo by peggy.