#new science

But a lab in Hungary has done the impossible and accidentally created the all new

Sturddlefish

Scientists created the “sturddlefish,” a hybrid between a Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) and an American paddlefish, entirely by accident.

if you KNOW all this Knowledge already (i bet you 5 whole dollar bucks you don't 👀) ->

👁LOOK👁 at ❔️WHY❔️ it works that way? 👀

cells, if anything, are pretty to look at.

but, cells, because everything we forgot, are possibly key to the next 50 years of science breakthroughs.

El amanecer de los reptiles voladores

En San Juan, Argentina, paleontólogos/as hallaron los restos más antiguos de pterosaurios del hemisferio sur.

Mi reportaje para AGENCIA SINC.

Se lee aquí.

This caught my eye today because it’s a very similar adaptation to something we see in modern mammals! 

The researchers theorize that the spines must have been covered by keratin sheaths (similar to the structures on horns of current mammals), because according to one of the researchers, if they “had they been just bare bone structures or covered only by skin, they could have been easily broken or fractured with a blow or when being attacked by other animals.” The reconstructions look a little shrink-wrapped to me, but I’d love to know what @paleofail thinks. 

What this dinosaur reminds me of, though, is the potto. Yup: this little dude. 

(Image Credit: Cincinnati Zoo)

Pottos, a small primate in the same family as lorises, actually have a similar spiky adaptation along their spines that’s thought to protect them from predators. What makes it super cool, though, is that it’s hidden under their skin until they need it. Potto have what are called nuchal spines - literally, elongated spikes on the vertebrae in the neck region - that are covered by a thin layer of skin and hair. You can feel them as slightly protruding bumps when palpated lightly, but you wouldn’t want to press harder! These nuchal spines are thought to help potto discourage predators: when at risk, they can present the area of the neck as an easy target, which would leave a predator biting onto a mouthful of hidden spikes! 

(Image Credit: Loris Conservation)

What’s really interesting to me is that, when I was looking up images for this, I came across a post where dinosaur researchers were actually considering the potto’s nuchal spines as a potentially analogous structure for another spiked-neck sauropod, the Amargasaurus cazaui. 

(Image Credit: Svpow.com)

Their caption on the image was: “At left, Potto with flexed neck, showing its cervical and thoracic spines. From Walker (1970). At right, Amargasaurus as reconstructed by Salgado (1999). Salgado imagined this to be the animal's normal posture: an idea that we find somewhat unlikely (see Taylor et al. 2009).”

As I reflect on this year, one of the things I’m most proud of is this!

July saw the publication of my first scientific paper, co-written with the fantastic @marinebiologylife : FIRST EVER match of a UK Humpback Whale to Arctic feeding grounds (Scotland - Svalbard, Norway). Emily & Daniel are a fab science duo and old friends of mine from University, and together we produced some great research that has been published in the journal Marine Biodiversity Records and is freely available online, just click here!

You may have seen our work covered by Em on Sky News, alongside some of the images I took of the Forth whales.  The article was also picked up by a number of newspaper, and I managed to kick my anxiety in the pants and give a radio interview for BBC Scotland's Newsdrive.

Our research suggests that UK seas act as a service station for migrating humpback whales, offering these magnificent ocean giants a place to rest and feed on the long journey from their Arctic feeding grounds to their tropical breeding grounds. This publication is the result of 16 months of hard work by the 3 of us but also builds on the countless hours of dedication by the volunteer whale watchers that contributed the sightings and photos that informed this research. Without them, this publication would not have been possible. Thank you to each and every one of you 👏

UK seas are full of wildlife, so keep an eye on the waves next time you're at the coast and be sure to report any sightings to your local wildlife organisation... it might just lead to a new discovery! _ For more information, please give our paper a read… and feel free to share it around!