Oh no! I (almost) missed IRFD, 2010!!!

Yikes! I somehow failed to recognize that today is International Rock Flipping Day, 2010!

So what's a thesis-writing, easily distracted grad student to do? Why run outside and flip some rocks, of course. Pics will be posted below once I get them cropped and uploaded to the intertubes.

[Brief pause while I run outside with a camera and flashlight...]

Turns out, there aren't too many rocks worth living under in our yard - and the few that are are a bit on the huge end of the spectrum.  Still, I managed to snap some decent photos of a few of the invertebrates living around our house.  Pictures will be posted below tomorrow.

Nature/Science Gadgets

If you like fun gadgets, check out some of Adam Bowman's work available on his gadgets page.  These can be customized and are interactive.  Here are some examples...

Turtles:

Tree Frog

Spider

[Thanks to David Steen @ Living Alongside Wildlife for bringing these to my attention.]

American Toads in Spring

A Dinosaur on the Christmas Dinner Table

If you recall my post from back around Thanksgiving, the Wild Turkey -- like all birds -- is a modern day dinosaur.  What better opportunity to share this little fact with your friends and family than over the Christmas Turkey?

Below are some resources for turning the remains of your holiday feast into a biology lesson, but before we get into details I want to first answer a simple question: What exactly is a dinosaur anyway?

Dinosaur's are a group of (mostly extinct) reptiles that arose around the early Triassic period about 230 million years ago (mya).  They persisted until the mass extinction event that occurred 65mya at the end of the Cretaceous period, (also the end of the Mesozoic era and start of the Cenozoic era), when all of the dinosaur lineages save modern birds died out.

To put this talk of dinosaurs and birds into perspective, lets take a crash course in vertebrate taxonomy. Starting with the ancestor of all land vertebrates, we can follow evolution forward to the present, noting major points of divergence along the way.  We're of course skipping a lot, taking the fast track from the first vertebrate land animals to modern day birds.

The first amphibian-like terrestrial tetrapods appeared over 350mya (Late Devonian into the Carboniferous period), with the Synapsids (whose descendants became the modern mammals) splitting off 25+ million years later.  Another 25 million years or so later, ancestral turtles and other Testudines appeared, then the sphenodonts (the tuatara) and the squamates (lizards and snakes), then crocodilians, then dinosaurs and birds.

These relationships can be summarized as follows (here I've included proper group names as well as extant representatives):

•  Amniotes - Descendants of the first egg-laying terrestrial vertebrates (~ 340mya) split around ~325mya
• Synapsids - Mammalian ancestors
• ...
• Mammals ~ 200 mya
• Primates ~ 55+ mya
• Human-Chimp Split ~ 5-10 mya
• Saurapsids - Modern Reptilians
• Anapsids - Turtles
• Diapsids - Other modern reptiles (including birds), split ~ 300mya
• Lepidosauria -Tuatara, Lizards and Snakes
• Sphenodonts - Tuatara
• Squamates - Lizards, Snakes
• Archosauria - Crocodilians, Dinosaurs (including birds)
• Crocodilia
• Dinosauria - Two dinosaur groups diverged ~250 mya
• Ornithischia - "bird-hipped", beaked - but not birds!
• Saurischia - "lizard-hipped", toothed ancestors of birds.
• Sauropodomorpha - big herbivores like Diplodicus.
• Theropoda - bipedal carnivores like T. rex, Velociraptor and...
• Aves - modern birds, originating ~ 150mya

Whew!  So to sum up, birds have been around since their divergence from the other dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period (145-65mya), and are the only surviving Dinosaurs of the big Cretaceous extinction 65mya. Their closest living relatives are the Crocodilians (together with dinosaurs and other relatives, these are the Archosaurs), then the lizards and snakes (which all together form the Diapsid reptilians), then turtles (all together, the Saurapsids). After all the reptilians, the next closest relatives are the mammals (all together, these are all of the living Amniotes), then amphibians, fishes, etc.

So how do you bring all this information to the dinner table?  Well the easiest way to see the relationship between dinosaurs and birds is from the differences and similarities in their skeletal structure.

Source: The Origin and Early Evolution of Birds | Geology Rocks

Other ideas can be found here, and for a nice reference you can bring with you to the Christmas dinner table...

Source: Image from here, modified by Tom Holtz here.

Resources:

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1. Prothero, S. 2007. Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters. Columbia Univ. Press.
2. The Dinosauria, from the University of California Museum of Paleontology website.
3. Wikipedia (links above).
4. Wedel, Matt. Your Holiday Dinosaur, University of California Museum of Paleontology website.
5. Holtz, Tom. Your Thanksgiving/Christmas Therapod from Dave Hone's Archosaur Musings.

It's International Rock Flipping Day!!

So why aren't you outside looking under rocks!?

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, Sunday September 20th is International Rock Flipping Day - a day to grab a friend or family member and head outdoors to go explore the variety of really cool critters to be found under rocks (or logs, or old plywood, or...).

It's super easy to participate!

To maximize your fun, and minimize any risk of harming you or the critters tucked away under those rocks, please read over the short list of tips and rules here or here.  A camera is a must!

Want to share what you find or see what others found this weekend?? Lots of things are already showing up over at Wanderin Weeta's blog, and you can also upload photos to the Flickr group "rockflippingday".

So turn off your computer, maybe call up a friend or neighbor or round up the family, and head outside to your nearest patch of woods, rocky shoreline, or desert wash and flip a rock or two!  Get outside and have some fun!

Almost time for International Rock Flipping Day!

I just noticed on Bug Girl's blog that Wanderin' Weeta is hosting the annual International Rock Flipping Day on Sunday, September 20th.

You're going to join in too, aren't you?

Here in western New York there are plenty of flippable pieces of Devonian shale, and plenty of cool critters living underneath them: various insects, snails, slugs, Scutigera centipedes and other Myriapods, earthworms, a few salamander species, half a dozen or so species of snakes (no venomous species save the few locales away from Ithaca with rarely seen Timber Rattlesnakes and Eastern Massasuagas - no way I'll find one near Ithaca, unfortunately).

While encouraged to flip a rock or two (or three) I think I might have some fun with it... maybe flip a few rocks in a number of different habitats?  Maybe flip progressively larger rocks until I can't flip anything more?  Some urban, some rural, some wilderness?  Other suggestions, anyone?

Hope you get a chance to join the fun! :)

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Paraphrasing the rules over on Wanderin' Weeta's blog - if you're joining in for the first time, here's a quick rundown of the procedure:

• On or about September 20th, find your rock and flip it over.
• Record what you find. "Any and all forms of documentation are welcome: still photos, video, sketches, prose, or poetry."
• Replace the rock as you found it; it's someone's home, but...
  
• as David Steen suggests - "If there are critters underneath, don't place the rock back on top of them, move the animals to the side, replace the rock and let them scurry back."
  
• Post on your blog, or load your photos to the Flickr group.
• Send me a link. My e-mail address is in my profile, or you can add a comment to any IRFD post.
• Wanderin' Weeta will collect the links, e-mail participants the list, and post it for any and all to copy to their own blogs. (Maybe we can Tweet it, too, this year. Use the hashtag #rockflip.)

Springtime in New York (part III)

With spring now turning to summer, here's a few more photos and comments to follow up on part I and part II of "Springtime in New York". Sticking to my promise, I'll leave the insect world behind with a parting nod to another arthropod before getting into more bird, reptile and amphibian pictures.

When most people think of animal mothers and their young, they're likely to think of a family of some mammal or bird. Indeed, familiar urban and suburban animals like birds, deer, foxes and the like can very noticeable when they've got young in tow!

Still, nearly all major groups of organisms contain examples of moms (and dads!) providing some form of parental care for their offspring - far more species in fact that just the furry and feathered species we tend to notice the most!

Young Canada Geese (Branta canadensis), Ithaca, NY - 23 May 2008.

In many spider species, for example, the eggs are carefully bundled up together with various kinds of silk produced by mom, and are then guarded until they hatch. While most young spiders are independent and can fend for themselves, young wolf spiders will spend some extra time under their mother's guard by clinging to her abdomen. Other arachnids (e.g. scorpions) are known to do the same.

A large (dollar coin?) sized wolf spider (species unknown),
Guarding her eggs in Ithaca, NY - 24 May 2009.

Amphibians, on the other hand, are more hands off - they tend to produce offspring that are ready to fend for themselves and need no care from mom or dad once they've hatched.

Similar to the very first vertebrates to adapt to life on land, modern amphibians still need to lay their eggs in water. In most species, these eggs often hatch long after the parents have left, and the young are left to look after themselves as they mature from fish-like larvae (e.g. tadpoles) to more adult-like forms that can leave the water and live on land.

By late spring a variety of frog, toad and salamander larvae can be found in ponds and streams near Ithaca ( full list of these species and other information can be found here at the New York Herp Atlas (DEC) website). Some species have clear preferences for where they lay their eggs. For example, the two-lined and spring salamanders prefer moving water, while others like most frogs and toads almost exclusively use shallow ponds.


A female American Toad (Bufo americanus) nearing the
end of her stay in a breeding pond near Ithaca, NY
Her offpsring won't need any parental care (Note the biting flies!).
24 May 2009.

American Toad eggs from the same pond as the above female.


A Pickerel Frog (Rana palustris) found along
the grassy banks of a stream near Ithaca, NY - 24 May 2009.

Larval salamander or newt (unknown species - approx. 2cm),
Monkey Run, Ithaca NY - 25 April 2009.

A 4-5" larval Northern Spring Salamander (Gyrinophilus p. porphyriticus)
under a rock along a small stream near Ithaca, NY - 24 May 2009.


Northern Two-lined Salamander (Eurycea b. bislineata)
An adult from near Ithaca, NY - 24 May 2009.

And of course, there are the most observable of all wildlife - the birds! While I was tempted to stick to "herps" for this post - the evolutionary position of birds more than justifies their inclusion here. Still, I'll be brief.

By late spring, a number of the local breeders have returned from their wintering grounds south of New York - some having traveled up from Central or South America or islands in the Caribbean. Many (like the Northern Waterthrush, below) waste little time - and begin to breed almost immediately.

Northern Waterthrush (Seiurus noveboracensis) with
nest material, Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Ithaca, NY - 4 May 2008.

American Robin (Turdus migratorius) with
nest material, Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Ithaca, NY - 4 May 2008.
Resident or shorter-distance migrants have in some cases already begun to breed by the time these migrants return. This adult red-tailed hawk, for example, is taking a young Cottontail Rabbit to its almost adult-sized chick up in a nest on Cornell campus.

A Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) with a prey item
(a young Eastern Cottontail Rabbit) near the hawk's nest,
Cornell University, Ithaca NY - 29 April 2009.
Finally, I'll end with a few shots of our local snakes. Many snakes like the locally uncommon Black Ratsnake (Pantherophis o. obsoleta) emerge from hibernation in spring, and after their first shed will mate and lay their eggs once it's warm enough to maintain the higher temperatures they'll need to hatch later in the summer. Others, like the Brown Snake and the Garter Snake (T. sertalis) are viviparous, meaning they give birth to live young - usually in late summer around the time other snakes eggs are hatching.


Dekay's Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi dekayi)
near Ithaca, NY - 24 May 2009.

Northern Ring-necked Snake (Diadophis punctatus edwardsii)
A rear-fanged snake, though it rarely bites. It's venom doesn't
appear to affect humans, only it's prey (e.g. salamanders).
This one was found near Ithaca, NY - 24 May 2009.

Black Ratsnake (Pantherophis o. obsoleta)
Note the opaque eyes, indicating it's about to shed.
Seen near Ithaca, NY - 9 May 2009.