NAME THAT ANIMAL!

Go as far into the taxonomic detail of this thing as you can!

NAME THAT ANIMAL!

This week’s photo has been stolen from Marcus Stensmyr’s Facebook page. Marcus is in the Deparment of Evolutionary Neuroethology in Jena, and works on olfaction in Drosophila (and land crabs). And the great thing is, I have no idea what the answer is, unless Marcus tells me!

EUROPE 1.8 MY AGO – BBC GETS IT WRONG?

November 2007

Giant hyenas, giraffes and sabretooth cats roamed around Southern Spain 1.8 MY ago. A great collection of fossils have been unearthed at Fonelas in Granada.

BBC article. Scroll down the BBC page – what’s wrong with the picture of the sabretooth?

Highlight from here to the bottom of the post to read the answer: The upper canines were behind the lower canines – just like in a modern cat. This doesn’t look anywhere near as scary, so most modern pictures of sabretooths – and indeed, prehistoric images – have the big upper teeth at the front.

SPIDER DAVE DIGITALLY DISSECTS

November 2007

Dr David Penney, from the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, a.k.a. Spider Dave, has used Very High Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography to dissect a 1mm spider that has been preserved in amber for 53 MY. Amazing pictures. The spider is a male. How can you tell?

BBC news item; original Zootaxa article (open access).

Quiz answer – highlight this line: Male spiders have little bobbles on the end of their palps; they use them to transfer sperm (don’t ask).

DEVILS IN DANGER

October 2007

The Tasmanian Devil suffers from a horrible viral cancer which is killing off the population. Conservationists are trying to take measures to save them.

Faculty of Life Sciences trivia quiz: which member of staff has a scar from a Tasmanian Devil bite?

Highlight this line to get the answer: Andrew Loudon

NAME THOSE CATS

March 2007

Bet you don’t know the names of the middle two species. Answer here (in the caption).