Yeah, those pandas are gonna die.
Knut posted this at 3:08 PM EDT on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 as Animal Kingdom Strikes Back
June 25th, 2008
I concur
June 8th, 2008
Primates Uber Alles
This fight, monkey vs. tiger, shows why monkeys make for the most amusing fights.
Apollo posted this at 4:02 AM EDT on Sunday, June 8th, 2008 as Animal Kingdom Strikes Back
June 2nd, 2008
Happy Birthday to Me
MSN.com doesn’t know that my birthday is in October, so they posted some animal vs. animal videos in June.
Flamingo vs. Baboon (Go monkey, go monkey, go!)
Centipede vs. Snake (These two should both lose, but the ending is funny)
Bat vs. Catfish (This one doesn’t end how you think it will, unfortunately)
Apollo posted this at 8:31 PM EDT on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 as Animal Kingdom Strikes Back
May 29th, 2008
Animal-Cylon Alliance
Our worst fears realized.
(CNN) — Monkeys with sensors implanted in their brains have learned to control a robot arm with their thoughts, using it to feed themselves with fruit and marshmallows.
Tom posted this at 9:47 AM EDT on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 as Toaster Update, Animal Kingdom Strikes Back
May 25th, 2008
Shark, Tiger, or Polar Bear? Hmm
Imagine that a Great White shark and a Bengal tiger are going to fight to the death. How many inches of water are needed for the shark to win?
I could take ‘em both. But that’s because I’m cool like that.
Knut posted this at 8:14 PM EDT on Sunday, May 25th, 2008 as Animal Kingdom Strikes Back
May 7th, 2008
Monkey Fish-Frog
Damn. Platypuses are just plain weird:
The research is described in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature by a group of almost 100 scientists led by Wesley C. Warren, a geneticist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The single subject of the study was a female platypus named Glennie, a resident of Glenrock Station in New South Wales, Australia, whose DNA was collected and analyzed.
The platypus, native to Australia, is so odd that when the first specimens were sent to Europe in the 19th century, scientists suspected a hoax. It was classified as a mammal, one of only two monotremes (echidna is the other) living today that are offshoots of the main mammalian lineage. The divergence occurred some 166 million years ago from primitive ancestors combining features of both mammals and reptiles.
“What is unique about the platypus is that it has retained a large overlap between two very different classifications, while later mammals lost the features of reptiles,” Dr. Warren said in an interview.
…
Of particular interest, the researchers reported, the analysis identified families of genes that link the platypus to reptiles (like those for egg-laying, vision and venom production), as well as to mammals (antibacterial proteins and lactation). The platypus lacks nipples; the young nurse through the abdominal skin.
One surprise was finding genes responsible for sensitive odor receptors. As a primarily aquatic animal, the platypus was already known to rely on electrosensory receptors in its bill to detect faint electric fields emitted by underwater prey. So why the considerable ability to sense odors? The scientists speculate that it may involve sexual communication or the use of water-soluble odorants in navigating and hunting underwater.
Richard K. Wilson, director of the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University, said that the comparison of the platypus genes to those of other mammals was the beginning of an examination of how “genes have been conserved throughout evolution.”
The project, involving scientists from eight countries, was primarily financed by the National Human Genome Research Institute in the United States. Its director, Francis S. Collins, said, “As weird as this animal looks, its genome sequence is priceless for understanding how mammalian biological processes evolved.”
[Title derived from this hilarious (and non-family friendly) South Park sequence.]
Tom posted this at 12:12 PM EDT on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 as Science & Evolution, Animal Kingdom Strikes Back