sea lion skulls, they are kind of scary creatures umzoology:

Eumetopias jubatus 

I’m swamped!  Life always seems to happen all at one time.  At least we can enjoy these pictures of a Stellar sea lion skull (Eumetopias jubatus, also known as the northern sea lion), juxtaposed with the partially mangled skull and mandible of Ursus americanus, the black bear.  I put them together because I like the morphological similarities between the two families; quite similar, but they inhabit completely different environments.  

(The bear illustration in the background is another in my series about vertebrate pathologies, which I’ll post about when I’m feeling more self-indulgent, but I feel the need to at least credit my own artwork). 

(via scientificillustration)

snake head illustrations scientificillustration:

n404_w1150 by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

shark eats another shark…whoa wjtotheizzoe:

wnyc:

msnbc:

Shark gulps another shark whole - while humans watch

 Image: Tom Mannering

You mean: “Shark dressed as a sunken carpet bag, or, like, a weird envelope- gulps another shark whole.” —A.P.

What they didn’t tell you is that this poor guy sat there for 30 minutes, unable to swallow his dinner, and refusing to let it go. Of course, if you had a meal the size of your body to finish, you could probably block out a few days on your reef calendar to get the whole thing digested. It’s a cost/benefit thing.

Like this guy:

more beautiful roads

(via sav3mys0ul)

sav3mys0ul:

Cold road (by Maakupics)

velociraptor and her young… very awesome paleoillustration:

Velociraptor mongoliensis by BrokenMachine86

 A mother Velociraptor and its youngs. I was inspired by seeing an ostrich with its chicks.

Lapiz/pencil: 2H, F, HB, B, 2B, 3B

(via scientificillustration)

oo vipers rhamphotheca:

biomedicalephemera: The Rhinoceros Viper or River Jack

Bitis nasicornis 

The river jack is also known as the horned puff adder, though the latter name is given to more than one “horned” viper. It’s native to the central African forests, and is rarely seen outside of heavily forested and humid areas. 

As a viper, the river jack has a highly venomous bite, and limited studies suggest that it’s very near (if not) the most venomous puff adder. It’s not a highly aggressive species, but has known to defend its territory more than the more well-known Gaboon Viper. Given the more hemotoxic venom and the more defensive demeanor, this viper could well account for many deaths per year, but Central African snake bites are often unreported and untreated.

Noviates Zoologicae: A Journal of Zoology. Vol X. The Hon. Walter Rothschild & Dr. Ernst Hartert, 1903.

(via scientificillustration)

dailyfossil:

Stethacanthus - The Ironing Board Shark

When: Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous (385 - 320 million years ago)

Where: The seas that covered what is now North America and Europe 

What: Stethacanthus is an extinct shark. Over all this ancient shark is an excellent example of the amount of conservation the simple shark body plan has seen throughout the eons. It is relatively small, 2.3ft/70 cm long, and has a general form very much like an extant shark. The one major exception to this is the shape of its dorsal fin. It was flattened and covered with enlarged denticles (the particles in shark skin that give it it’s sandpaper texture). The head of Stethacanthus was also topped with enlarged denticles. Though some sort of courtship role has been suggested for the structures, detailed studies have determined that the dorsal fin could be flexed forward, to start to come into occlusion with the patch of denticles on the top of the head. This would give the illusion of a much bigger mouth than Stethacanthus actually possessed, allowing this little pre-historic shark to hopefully scare off potential predators. 

(via scientificillustration)

20 things you didnt know about alcohol sciencingsara:

approachingsignificance:

20 Things You Didn’t Know About… Alcohol

1. Sobering disclaimer: The family of compounds known as alcohols are all toxins that can kill you, whether instantly, quickly, or gradually.
2. Yet one of them—ethyl alcohol, or ethanol—is a staple of the human diet. Archaeologist Patrick McGovern speculates that fermented beverages were made as early as 100,000 years ago, when people first spread out of Africa.
3. The seeds Johnny Appleseed sold to farmers throughout Ohio and Indiana produced apples that were inedible, but perfect for making hard cider.
4. According to the Drunken Monkey Hypothesis, our zest for alcoholic beverages derives from our distant ancestors’ impulse to seek the ripest, most energy-intensive fruits.
5. Designated driver at the zoo: The Malaysian pen-tailed treeshrew routinely chugs the equivalent of nine glasses of wine a night in naturally fermented nectar, and yet it remains fully functional.
6. For a treeshrew, that is.
7. Fermentation occurs when enzymes, typically produced by yeast, convert sugar molecules in grapes or grains into ethanol.
8. That process can also happen in your digestive system, spiking every 100 ml of blood with 0.01 to 0.03 mg of alcohol.
9. Seriously, officer! Japanese doctors have observed patients with “auto-brewery syndrome,” in which high levels of candida yeast in the intestines churn out so much alcohol that they can cause drunkenness.
10. No digestion required. Ethanol is such a small, simple molecule—just two carbon atoms, six hydrogens, and a spare oxygen—that it pours directly out of the stomach and small intestine into the bloodstream.
11. A lean, muscular person will be less affected by drink than someone with more body fat: Water-rich muscle tissues absorb alcohol effectively, preventing it from reaching the brain.
12. Drunkenness is considered an impairment of the neurons in your head, but Australian researchers recently reported that part of the feeling may result instead from the effect of ethanol on the brain’s immune system. The finding could lead to new treatments for alcoholism.
13. The times they are a-changin’. In 1895 Anheuser-Busch launched Malt-Nutrine, a 1.9 percent-alcohol-content beer prescribed by physicians as a tonic for pregnant women and a nutritional beverage for children.
14. Until 1916 whiskey and brandy were listed as scientifically approved medicines in the United States Pharmacopeia.
15. Drinking and driving: Surplus wine in Sweden is distilled into ethanol, mixed with gasoline, and sold to service stations.
16. Ethanol was widely used as an industrial fuel in America until a tax on alcoholic beverages, levied to help pay for the Civil War, prompted a switch to kerosene and methanol.
17. Methanol, a distillation 
of wood pulp, can destroy the optic nerves. “Blind drunk” was Prohibition-era slang for damage 
caused by drinking grain alcohol that had been cut with methanol by unscrupulous bootleggers.
18. Interstellar brewery: The nebulas where stars form abound with hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, 
the atomic building blocks of alcohol.
19. Sure enough, astronomers found vast quantities of ethanol—as much as that in 400 trillion trillion beers—
in G34.3, an interstellar cloud some 10,000 light-years from Earth.
20. Resolution for 2012: Don’t stare at the cork. The 
carbon dioxide in champagne bottles creates 90 pounds of 
pressure per square inch, three times the pressure in automobile tires. Flying corks can cause retina detachment, double vision, and blindness. Happy New Year!

I usually like the # of Things You Don’t KNow About... pieces, but I already knew most of these. Maybe that just speaks to some of my favorite pleasures and pastimes.

Seemed relevant to this Tumblr.

red algae.. so interesting, bleeding ice scientificillustration:

invisiblestories:

“Red snow” along cliffs in Greenland, from John Ross’ A Voyage of Discovery (1819)

Watermelon snow or red snow is caused by the presence of the algae Chlamydomonas nivalis