My daughter has moray eels for her second grade research project and I am totally restraining myself from convincing her to put sequential and synchronous hermaphroditism in her report. Eventually she'll learn that hermaphrodites always get a laugh.
When we think of "survival of the fittest" we always think of biggest, meanest, strongest, etc., but it occurs to me when I read this article about giant, 8 feet long sea scorpions that the giant creature with the three foot claws is gone, but the horseshoe crab is still around in all its ugly, harmless glory. One scientist is quoted as saying he'd rather be in the water with a shark than a "eurypterid." Since it's not clear if the sea scorpions could swim or just crawl on the bottom like lobsters, I'd say that depends on 1) what kind of shark and 2) how deep the water is. (Link via Mrs. BoneDaddy)
Speaking of kids' TV, we watch the Backyardigans now. My babies love to dance, so it's a whirly, twirly, circly 20 minutes when they're dancing around. Mrs. C-Dog seems to think we watch it because I like it, but just because I often find myself humming the decidedly Morphine-ish "Riding the Range" song doesn't mean it's my show. It's for the kids.
Wild Animal Crossing
Driving into work this morning two animals darted in front of my car. The second was a wild turkey, of which I see a ton, so that wasn't too exciting, but the first a moment earlier was something I don't think I'd ever seen before. It was like a big ferret. Long, low to the ground, with a long sort of bushy tail, but definitely not a fox. It was dark brown or maybe even black and it moved quick. I've been driving myself crazy trying to think what animal is like a big wild ferret ... mongoose? polecat? People are trying to tell me it might've been an otter, but I've seen otter and this was no otter. Mink maybe? According to Encarta: "Although white-tailed deer are considered Rhode Island’s only large wild animal, moose and black bear occasionally cross the Connecticut and Massachusetts border in the state. Among the smaller animals native to the state are the raccoon, gray squirrel, woodchuck, and muskrat. Skunks, opossums, mink, coyotes, and red foxes are also numerous, as are salamanders, turtles, and snakes." I'm thinking mink.
