The Horrors of Evolution

While the page titled “Evolution Fucked Your Shit Up” isn’t something I’m proud to be linking to, this is some pretty interesting stuff.

Evolution Fucked Your Shit Up: The World’s 50 Freakiest Animals

Fun fact: on the head of the Human Faced Carp, it looks like a distorted face is screaming (and no, that’s NOT what the “Human Faced” part is referring to).

Sheep Gives Birth to Human-Faced Lamb

There really isn’t anything witty I can say in response to this.

Well, I’ll quote the article at any rate:

The governor of the province where the ugly goat was born said that the little goat was the fruit of unnatural relationship between the female goat and a man.

“This incident is very shocking. It is my first time to see such an evil thing. It is really embarrassing,” he reportedly said. “The head belongs to a man while the body is that of a goat. This is evident that an adult human being was responsible. Evil powers caused this person to lose self control. We often hear cases of human beings who commit bestiality but this is the first time for such an act to produce a product with human features,” he added.

The mutant creature was hairless. Local residents said that even dogs were afraid to approach the bizarre animal.

The locals burnt the body of the little goat, and biologists had no chance to study the rare mutation.

Okay, granted, that thing is creepy as hell… but burning it? So sad scientists couldn’t study it. Hopefully next time one of these is born, it will be in a more developed nation where locals don’t kill the animal, claiming it is evil and sent by the devil. Unfortunately, this excludes many parts of rural America as well.

Coral eats jellyfish

I found this article pretty interesting. Not much else to comment on, just sharing. Enjoy!

Gorillas!

I suppose between the last two posts, first with a post with a comic about having sex with a partially shaved gorilla, and my last post involving bonobos, this was ultimately going to end up here.

Yes, it’s almost two years old, but still fascinating!

The first video was captured of two gorillas mating face to face. Yes, both gorillas AND bonobos are fond of the missionary position. Does this mean it’s considered less holy now?

By the way, speaking of partially shaved gorillas…

Bonobos!

One of the first things I learned in Anthropology is that there are five great apes:
-Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)
-Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla — original, I know)
-Humans (Homo sapiens
-Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
-Bonobos (Pan paniscus)

When you tell most people this, they’re good up until the bonobo. “What the hell is a bonobo?!” they often ask. Bonobos are the only other extant members of the Pan genus. In lay terms: they’re closely related to chimpanzees. With chimpanzees, they’re the closest extant species to humans.

Originally called the pygmy chimp, the bonobo, like all other great apes, is endangered. Like all the great apes except the orangutan (who only live on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra) come from Africa, and the bonobo’s home region is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Unlike the other great apes, however, bonobo society is run by females.

The one thing about bonobos that a lot of people seem to enjoy is the fact that they practice intercourse face to face. Yes, there are great apes who do it missionary style. Bonobos are very sexual creatures–they solve many problems by having sex and have no problem practicing frotteurism with members of the same sex. Strangely enough, this sex-driven, female run society is one of the most peaceful among the great apes.

Bonobos, like the other great apes, have considerable intelligence as well. They tend to be slightly less hyper and distraction prone than chimpanzees, which means working with them can often produce better results. Sue Savage Rumbaugh has spent many years researching intelligence in the great apes, and she’s a leading authority on bonobos.

One of my favorite online videos is about bonobos and their considerable mental capabilities. Because I am an insane nerd, I have watched this video at least five times and have shown it to many people I know. Now I am sharing it with you, internet! It’s a fifteen minute video, but when you have the time or are severely bored at work, sit down and check it out.

TED talk — Sue Savage Rumbaugh

A bonobo community peacefully existing together, possibly due to the fact that their leadership don’t feel it necessary to fight over who has the largest genitals.

Vegetarian spider discovered

Spiders give me the creeps, so me blogging about one seems a bit odd… but it is still pretty cool!

A newly discovered species of spider, Bagheera kiplingi, is thought to be the first species of vegetarian spider. According to this article, normally spiders “excrete enzymes onto their prey to digest them outside the body and then consume what’s left as a kind of soup” (this is unbelievably sexy, I know, and I apologize to anyone reading this over their lunch break). Bagheera kiplingi, however, eats its vegetables whole. The females of the species have even stopped eating their sexual partners directly after mating.

At any rate, that’s about as much as I’m willing to delve into the world of spiders. You’ll never see me blog about cockroaches, though–I can guarantee that!

Here is an adorable baby turtle to make up for posting about spiders.

Bird moves faster than human sight

A while back I came across this YouTube video that features a bird which moves faster than the human eye can process. For those of you too lazy to click the link, here’s the video embedded for your viewing pleasure:

This is awesome. Thanks to the wonders of technology, we are finally able to capture the movement of these birds that our own eyes cannot see. And, of course, the moonwalking part is pretty cool… it may not be as good as being shagged by a rare parrot, but it’s still quite interesting.

Parrots: Yes, They Probably Have More Rhythm Than White People

Originally posted at anthropologist.moonfruit.com

Recently (okay, in April) a blog was written about how 14 species of parrots and the Asian elephant have been scientifically considered capable of dancing. When I watch the videos, I’m undeniably reminded of watching hipsters attempting to dance without looking like the rhythmless white kids they are.

These findings are once again proving that we are not as unique as a species, like we originally thought we were. Now another thing that we thought to be unique to humans has been taken on by other species.

Some people may look at the videos on that page and say that the birds aren’t dancing; they’re merely bobbing in time to the rhythm. And yet this is more than a fair amount of people are capable of. Don’t believe me? Just go to a club and watch white people try to dance some time.

Your average white person attempting to dance.