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Weird Animals
Topic Started: Aug 19 2013, 04:34 PM (34,622 Views)
Swimming Spaghetti Monster
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Zoocrazy
Mar 19 2014, 02:17 PM
Article: http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/sea-anemones-are-half-animal-half-plant

So sea anemones are half plan, half animals genetically speaking.
Title seems misleading and exaggerated. This doesn't change the fact that thing itself is rather interesting, though.

And my two findings:

Algae directly transferring products of photosynthesis to vertebrates, first time ever discovered.
Quote:
 
Each spring, North American spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) females each lay hundreds of eggs in shallow pools of water. Eggs are surrounded by jelly layers and are deposited as large gelatinous masses. Following deposition, masses are penetrated by a mutualistic green alga, Oophila amblystomatis, which enters individual egg capsules, proliferates and aggregates near the salamander embryo, providing oxygen that enhances development. We examined the effects of population density of intracapsular O. amblystomatis on A. maculatum embryos and show that larger algal populations promote faster embryonic growth and development. Also, we show that carbon fixed by O. amblystomatis is transferred to the embryos, providing the first evidence of direct translocation of photosynthate from a symbiont to a vertebrate host.
A snail which gets materials from hydrothermal vents and makes a metal armour out of them.
Quote:
 
Also called the “scaly-foot gastropod”, Crysomallon squamiferum was discovered back in 1999, over two miles below the central Indian Ocean, deep within hydrothermal vent fields. Fluids in these vents are high in sulfides and metals, which the snail incorporates into its shell. The gastropod’s shell has three layers: a highly calcified inner layer, a thick organic middle layer, and an outer layer that is fused with granular iron sulfide. It is unlike any other known natural or synthetically engineered armor.
MIT project leader Christine Ortiz and her colleagues have been testing the shell’s properties, simulating predatory attacks with computer models as well as with “indentation testing”—striking the top of shells with a sharp probe to measure the hardness and stiffness of the shell.
In a NSF press release Ortiz says:
Christine Ortiz
 
Our study suggests that the scaly-foot gastropod undergoes very different deformation and protection mechanisms compared to other gastropods. It is very efficient in protection, more so than the typical mollusk.

Potential predators that are found in the same regions as C. squamiferum include the cone snail, which penetrates its prey with a harpoon-like tooth before paralyzing it with venom, and sea-faring crabs, which use their claws to squeeze for days until the mollusk’s shell gives way.
The researchers write in the PNAS report that C. squamiferum’s impressive exoskeleton is:
PNAS report
 
[...]advantageous for penetration resistance, energy dissipation, mitigation of fracture and crack arrest, reduction of back deflections, and resistance to bending and tensile loads.

Maybe this is what will future palaeontologists propose when they will find cars?
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Swimming Spaghetti Monster
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Weird, sand-bubble making crabs. and copepod from the genus Sapphirina, the most beautiful animal of the world.
Edited by Swimming Spaghetti Monster, Apr 7 2014, 12:13 PM.
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Furka
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Golden Pikes.
I didn't even knew such thing exhisted.

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Ignacio
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I think we are kind of diving away from the definition of weird... that pike would be something more like rare. And those crabs, despite their peculiar behaviour doesn't look weird either. I know i sound like a prick but when i made this topic i was thinking to be about weird looking animals :P

I guess the crabs behaviour can count as weird i supposed...
Edited by Ignacio, Apr 7 2014, 03:25 PM.
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Jules
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Mihi est imperare orbi universo

The Amazon Leaf Fish is awesome.

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Ignacio
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That is awesome indeed! What a great camuflage. I didn't knew about this fishes.
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CyborgIguana
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Zoocrazy
Apr 7 2014, 03:15 PM
I think we are kind of diving away from the definition of weird... that pike would be something more like rare. And those crabs, despite their peculiar behaviour doesn't look weird either. I know i sound like a prick but when i made this topic i was thinking to be about weird looking animals :P

I guess the crabs behaviour can count as weird i supposed...
I think they're weird enough. No offence, but sometimes I feel like your definition of "off-topic" is too strict. :P
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Okeanos
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Zoocrazy
Apr 7 2014, 03:15 PM
when i made this topic i was thinking to be about weird looking animals
Well, why should weird be limited to appearance? xD Behaviours can be just as strange, and as you never specified it was 'weird appearance only', I don't see how it's off-topic

Weird is ambiguous anyway, one person's definition of weird is different to another's. You may not think so, but I think those Golden Pikes are weird :P thanks for sharing Furka!


Edited by Okeanos, Apr 8 2014, 10:38 AM.
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Ignacio
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Oh i didn't meant that should be limited to appereances only. I my self i'm sure that i have posted animals with weird behaviours rather than weird looks. I just don't think a golden pike is a weird animal. It might be a rare variety but not "weird". To me it just doesn't fit the topic.

I never said anything about the posts being off topic... Of course what is weird and what is not is rather subjective, but there is a common ground with what everyone can agree with i think. If we start posting here every rare color variety of animals that are for every species then anything that doesn't fit the prototype of an animal can be considered weird.

I'm not attacking Furka in particular, i just think that showing color variants and or rare subspecies and variants of aniimals does not fit the subject of this topic.

As for the crabs i already said the behaviour can be considered "weird" even if they look like regular crabs... although it doesn't seem weird to me personally.
Edited by Ignacio, Apr 8 2014, 11:40 AM.
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CyborgIguana
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There's no concrete definition of "weird", however. Ultimately members should be allowed to post about animals that they think are weird.
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Furka
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Golden fishes aren't exactly new stuff, just look at golden tenches, rainbow trouts or the goldfish itself. The difference is that most of these are captive bred animals, while the pikes are born and grown in the wild, which IMO is weird, considering they would have more troubles not only to escape predators, but also at ambushing preys.
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Ignacio
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And to me there is a difference between weird and rare, and you are mixing them.

EDIT: this post was directed to CyborgIguana, not to Furka.
Edited by Ignacio, Apr 8 2014, 11:45 AM.
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Ignacio
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First of all sorry about my previous posts... i wasn't in a very good mood that day tbh. You guys should be able to post whatever you consider weird to you. Like you said the deffinition of weird is not very strict.

On-topic: don't know if this one has been posted before but is awesome! xD

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/desert-rain-frog-dangerous-beast-or-adorable-squeaky-toy
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Cryptidman
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That coder over there

Desert rain frogs are by far the most awesome frog. And the cutest :adowable:
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Ignacio
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They are cute indeed. Maybe i should have posted this in the Cute Animals topic :P
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