Nature Thread

[RSK]

Check out these images!

Great White Shark

Well developed 'heterocercal tail' allow for Speedy Acceleration, and upward thrust. A predators mode of life!

Tiger

Look at those POWERFUL muscles!

Frog

Looks Pretty, huh? Don't let the color fool you! Contains DEADLY poison, which immediately attacks the respiratory system. AKA, the Poison Arrow Frog.
[url]http://www.rainforestlive.org.uk/index.cfm?Articleid=403[/url]



Well, I guess I'll post more later

[Converse]

Nice. Sharks and Tigers are the best animals ever!

[RSK]

Rhino - (on the verge of extinction)

[url]http://www.american.edu/projects/mandala/TED/rhinoblk.htm[/url]

[Only-virgins]

Nice pictures. I love the wild, living proof of natural selection.

[RSK]

Sturgeon

Who likes caviar? Another black market...
[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1054434.stm[/url]

[RSK]

Nice pictures. I love the wild, living proof of natural selection.

This one is for you.



I also appreciate living proof of evolution, and the relatedness of ALL the living world! It's a beautiful thing!

[Only-virgins]

Damn, it is almost freaky how alike our arms and the lizards arms are structured.

[RSK]

Damn, it is almost freaky how alike our arms and the lizards arms are structured.

That's only one example. Besides skeletal structures (which are the most documented), Darwin noted a whole bunch of OTHER similarities between species - they HAD to be related somehow!

In his time, EVERYBODY called Darwin NUTS (even most of his colleauges). But his vision must have been AMAZING. He saw what nobody else could, or wanted to.

[RSK]

cat skeleton

[RSK]

Iguane - From the Galapagos Islands

[RSK]

blue footed boobie - galapagos


Boobies are plunge divers and their dive is spectacular. When they spot fish, from 30-50 feet in the air, they power-dive, beak-down into the water, folding their wings back only at the last minute disappearing for several seconds and then bobbing up to the surface. Blue-footed boobies dive in remarkably shallow water, and they use their large tails to pull themselves out of the dive. One usually sees individual birds fishing, but it is not at all uncommon to see a small group of boobies flying in formation, heads down, looking for fish. Occasionally one can see large flocks of boobies fishing together. Amasa Delano, a yankee sea captain who visited the islands in 1801 described such a sight:

There is another remarkable bird found here which has not before been described. It is called the diver. They resemble the small kind of booby, and something similar to the kind which is described at the Lobas Islands, called Bonaparte's army, excepting they are of rather a darker colour on the breast and neck, and their beaks and feet are of a prussion blue. These birds collect together in small flocks for the purpose of diving. They fly round in a circle and continue to rise till they get to the height of from sixty to a hunmdred yards in the air, when one of them makes a pitch to dive, at which motion everyone follows. They fly down with remarkable swiftness till within four or five yards of the surface, and then suddenly clasp their wings together and go into the water with the greatest velocity that can be conceived of, exceeding anything of the kind that I ever witnessed. This bird should be contrasted with the pelican. They go into the water with such force as to form a curve of thirty or forty yards in length, before coming to the top again, going to a great depth under water. They glide under water at almost as great a degree of swiftness as when flying in the air. The water was so very transparent where the ship lay, that they could plainly be seen during their submarine course.

The plunge dive of the blue-footed booby is just as awe-inspiring today as when Delano described it nearly 200 years ago.

-from, [url]http://www.rit.edu/~rhrsbi/GalapagosPages/Boobies.html[/url]

[Only-virgins]

LoL, I think those are sketchers. That blue footed boobie is awesome.

[RSK]

the cheetah

Worlds fastest land animal. Speeds up to 70 mph!

[url]http://www.cheetah.org/?nd=35[/url]

[RSK]

A cryptic frog - This species has developed a coloring, texture and form that are similar to the leaves found in its environment.

[NeoSeminole]

Tigers are the ultimate display of beauty, grace, and power.