The Unstartled Steppes of Dream
I am Ashley.
This is my personal blog. If you want just marine biology, go here.
I love the world; I really don't like people.
I balance all this animosity towards the human race with being an almost always kind and gentle being to all creatures.
I'm highly introverted and nature is my primary escape from humanity.
Creepy-crawly-slimy things are my favorites. Dinosaurs are fantastic.
Future marine biologist; presently an amateur entomologist, ichthyologist, artist, biologist, and writer.
Literature, video game, and music connoisseur.
I'm so full of passion for the world that it hurts.
I think a lot, I laugh a lot, I love a lot.
Almost none of the photos are mine and only some of the drawings are mine.
Listen in.
Incongruous with its scientific name, the Malagasy fanaloka (Fossa fossana) is not the common Madagascan predator known as the fossa. The Malagasy fanaloka spends its nights foraging in trees or on the forest floor for various invertebrates and frogs, sometimes even fruit. These animals work in pairs to defend their territory by making eerie calls to one another, scaring other species off.
Malagasy carnivores are classified into the taxonomic family of Eupleridae and are a group of civet- and mongoose-like carnivores endemic to Madagascar. This family includes the fossa, which is the largest Madagascan carnivore.
Once believed to be extinct, the web-footed tenrec (Limnogale mergulus), has been relocated in the wild, but information regarding that is scarce. Their reddish brown fur is short, dense, and water repellant. This species of tenrec noses among stones and weeds for water insects, crabs, and crayfish by propelling itself using its tail.
“Fossas are the largest carnivore in Madagascar and they are closely related to the mongoose … They are like cat-weasels on speed.”
-Actual description from the ZooBorns webpage
Photo Credit: San Diego Zoo
Four new species of chameleon were found on the African island of Madagascar. With an average adult length of of just over an inch (2.9cm) from snout to tail, these are some of the tiniest reptiles in the world.
Scientists think the diminutive new chameleon species might represent extreme cases of island dwarfism, whereby organisms shrink in size due to limited resources on islands.
Scientists think Brookesia micra (juvenile shown in top picture) might have achieved its small size through a “double” island dwarfism effect, in which the dwarf species Brookesia minima on the Madagascan resort island of Nosy Be found its way to an islet, Nosy Hara, where it shrank even further.
Brookesia desperata peers at a photographer through widely spaced eyes in the second photo.
The small sizes of the four new chameleon species make them especially vulnerable to habitat destruction, and some of their names were chosen to reflect this. The latter part of B. desperata’s name, for example, means “desperate” in Latin.
