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24 hours in the Superstitions

See the First-Ever Photos of Cozumel’s Mysterious Dwarf Fox

Many believed the tiny fox had gone extinct

Strange things happen to animals when they colonize islands. Some of them get larger, like the enormous rabbit Nuralagus rex of ancient Menorca, while others get smaller, like the dwarf fox of Cozumel. This mysterious species of gray fox is estimated to be only around 60 to 80 percent the size of its larger mainland brethren. Fossils indicate it first arrived on the Mexican island around 5,000 years ago, predating the arrival of humans...

Cladonia didyma

Southern soldiers

Sometimes I can be a little hard on Cladonias since they are like, the pretty, popular girls of the lichen world. And the perpetual loser in me balks at the attention they get over like, more typical looking lichens. But like, I get it. C. didyma is STUNNING, after all. I just hate her cause I ain't her, ya know? This fruticose lichen has a basal/primary thallus made up of small, incised scales, and a secondary thallus made up of scaly, cupless podetia often topped by bright red, globose apothecia. The surface is usually powdery green or brownish in color. C. didyma grows on soil and rotting wood, and can be found in a lot of different habitats worldwide. It can be easily confused with C. macilenta which also has bright red apothecia, but C. didyma has a scaly podetial surface whereas C. macilenta has a dusty surface.

images: source

Social velvet spider, Stegodyphus lineatus, Eresidae