Finished the James Watson book. On Narnia at the moment - have the entire set of 7 in 1 thick volume. The Magician's Nephew at the moment, the books are thin! 2 nights of pre-bedtime reading and i'm halfway through the book. This is good. Still not a big fan of the fantasy novels though.
Imagining of creating an ecospace-esque type of place in my home - with different communities. Big lofty dreams. Useful for teaching biodiversity though. But here's what i'll have set up...
A marine community - complete with lovely brachiopods (they beat bivalves hands down.. enough with the clams and mussels). Give me the lovely Lingulata and Articulata. So the brachiopods are mostly sessile, epifaunal creatures on the substratum. Then i'll have lovely hagfishes and lampreys swimming around. LOVE their rasps. Tunicates (sea squirts) and amphioxus included. They are just so neat. Starfishes and various other echinoderms too. Like sea lilies and sea cucumbers. Going bonkers now at the thought of having them. Not too fond of bony fishes so i'll give them a pass.
A freshwater community - with the lovely axolotls. They have lovely external feathery gills and such pearly pink skin. Gorgeous. No idea what else should go into freshwater though.
On land, it will be filled with plants of all types. Mosses, liverworts, hornworts, horsetails, lycopods, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms. Everything i can get my hands on. YES. Then i'll have the native species of Singapore dispersed round them. Ratufa affinis (pale giant squirrel) is so cool. One of the largest squirrels in modern diversity, native to singapore, yet it is estimated to be down to 2-10 individuals. Ratufa is SO much prettier than the awful grey North American squirrels. EVIL things, they were introduced to Europe, and have nearly decimated the native red squirrels of Britain. So, roadkill of grey squirrels is highly encouraged. Other mammals that should go in are the numerous primates that i adore so much, like the lorises, tarsiers etc. They have such big round eyes rotated to the front of the head, which make them adorable.
Listed a whole variety of organisms. Of course this will never happen. How do you keep all these wild animals at home? CRAZY. Ah well, one can always dream.
The distinction between a biologist and a naturalist seems to be rather sharp these days, with the emergence of technology. What happened to good old fashioned Victorian syle naturalists? Collecting specimens, curating them. The good old days. Hmm, i guess i'm somewhere in between. I firmly believe that a student of biology should first and foremost be taught to appreciate biodiversity. A good grounding of phylogeny and systematics is absolutely essential. First comes the organisms!
I must confess it's a huge information pool out there. Even i do not know anything about fungal systematics, nor the huge number of single-celled eukaryotes (aka protists previously) kingdoms. Animal and plant kingdoms are so much easier to deal with. For they are but a small speck in the diversity of life.
Going to end off with this:
Go and take a look at axolotls. They have a really neat life history - being paedomorphic i.e. retention of juvenile characteristics in the adult form.
People keep them as pets. Grr... i want them too. Lovely amphibians.
Lizards. No. Still find them grotesque. I'm sorry.
Imagining of creating an ecospace-esque type of place in my home - with different communities. Big lofty dreams. Useful for teaching biodiversity though. But here's what i'll have set up...
A marine community - complete with lovely brachiopods (they beat bivalves hands down.. enough with the clams and mussels). Give me the lovely Lingulata and Articulata. So the brachiopods are mostly sessile, epifaunal creatures on the substratum. Then i'll have lovely hagfishes and lampreys swimming around. LOVE their rasps. Tunicates (sea squirts) and amphioxus included. They are just so neat. Starfishes and various other echinoderms too. Like sea lilies and sea cucumbers. Going bonkers now at the thought of having them. Not too fond of bony fishes so i'll give them a pass.
A freshwater community - with the lovely axolotls. They have lovely external feathery gills and such pearly pink skin. Gorgeous. No idea what else should go into freshwater though.
On land, it will be filled with plants of all types. Mosses, liverworts, hornworts, horsetails, lycopods, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms. Everything i can get my hands on. YES. Then i'll have the native species of Singapore dispersed round them. Ratufa affinis (pale giant squirrel) is so cool. One of the largest squirrels in modern diversity, native to singapore, yet it is estimated to be down to 2-10 individuals. Ratufa is SO much prettier than the awful grey North American squirrels. EVIL things, they were introduced to Europe, and have nearly decimated the native red squirrels of Britain. So, roadkill of grey squirrels is highly encouraged. Other mammals that should go in are the numerous primates that i adore so much, like the lorises, tarsiers etc. They have such big round eyes rotated to the front of the head, which make them adorable.
Listed a whole variety of organisms. Of course this will never happen. How do you keep all these wild animals at home? CRAZY. Ah well, one can always dream.
The distinction between a biologist and a naturalist seems to be rather sharp these days, with the emergence of technology. What happened to good old fashioned Victorian syle naturalists? Collecting specimens, curating them. The good old days. Hmm, i guess i'm somewhere in between. I firmly believe that a student of biology should first and foremost be taught to appreciate biodiversity. A good grounding of phylogeny and systematics is absolutely essential. First comes the organisms!
I must confess it's a huge information pool out there. Even i do not know anything about fungal systematics, nor the huge number of single-celled eukaryotes (aka protists previously) kingdoms. Animal and plant kingdoms are so much easier to deal with. For they are but a small speck in the diversity of life.
Going to end off with this:
Go and take a look at axolotls. They have a really neat life history - being paedomorphic i.e. retention of juvenile characteristics in the adult form.
People keep them as pets. Grr... i want them too. Lovely amphibians.
Lizards. No. Still find them grotesque. I'm sorry.
posted by Monty Elm at 1:02 am
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