@earthstory / earthstory.tumblr.com
Bass Rock Bass Rock is an island off the east coast of Scotland home to a large number of gannets and a few abandoned buildings. While the occasional human has made for the shore, the island is currently uninhabited allowing the gannets to run riot. The white colouring seen in the photo is not due to snow but is actually a thick layer of gannet poo that coats the island.
falcnr
A banded Eurasian stone Curlew changes shift with its mate and comes to incubate her eggs and protect them from the hot desert sun. Typically they nest in shallow depressions they make on gravel surfaces and lay between 2-3 eggs.
Somehow I just want a video of birds hanging out on the path to the new overlook view at Kilauea Caldera.
vuite
🇬🇧 ⛰Few shots put together of this griffon vultures, filmed my very first day out after quarantine, i’ve missed you guys. You can hear in the background, juveniles screams, nesting in a cliff next to this promontory. 🦅 🇫🇷⛰Quelques plans mis ensemble de Vautours fauves, filmés mon tout premier jour dehors post confinement, vous m’avez manqué les gars. Vous pouvez, si vous tendez l’oreille, entendre les jeunes crier, nichés quelque part dans la falaise juste à côté de ce promontoire. 🦅
Meet this organization - Ducks Unlimited - who are working with landowners and ranchers in the southern US Great Plains to conserve water and landscapes along the Platte River, supporting the Ogallala aquifer in the process.
Melanism Melanism is the development of a dark pigment (melanin) in the skin of an organism, which, like albinism alters the appearance of the organism. Examples of melanism in the animal kingdom include the Black Panther (a melanic form of the leopard), coral snakes, birds (such as flamingos), canids and squirrels.
Dinosaur Tails and Birds These 2 pictures show distinct tails in dinosaurs. The large animal is of course, Sue, the Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil at the Field Museum in Chicago. The other skeleton, from the same museum, is a Deinonychus, the carnivorous dinosaurs that were the inspiration for the way the Jurassic Park series showed velociraptors. I want you to take a close look at the tails, because in these two shots you can see one of the steps involved in dinosaurs evolving into something resembling birds.
I this great shot of the false tooth bird beak are clearly seen the bony structure ‘volkmanns canals’ which are bony triangular tissue evolved to grip soft bodied prey picked form the surface of the ocean. Read more about these and other attributes of the amazing pelagic prehistoric seabirds of the Cretaceous period, on our blog posts, in the news section of thefossilstore.com…#pelagic #birdsofinstagram #birds #prehistoric #fossilbirds #odontopteryx #paleo #bones #skeletons #beaks #jaws #teeth #pseudotoothbird #pelagornis #pelagornithidae #avianworld #prehistoricflight
Oh wow I really have not been on tumblr since like March huh? I deleted the app to make space and just kinda... left it.
Here’s a little bit of what I’ve been up to!
Most of these were taken around Lake Applegate in Southern Oregon; a couple were taken at Mount McLoughlin and a couple were taken up in Portland.
I’ll start posting regularly again probably
Wallaman Falls Emerging from mountain heights, a small stream plummets breathtakingly over a precipice into primeval jungle. In the heart of a steamy rainforest, Stony Creek winds a gently sloping course through tangles trees and shrubs. Still dripping from the night’s rain, palm fronds jostle in the undergrowth, and high overhead a canopy of leaves filters the early morning light. Somewhere in the forest a black cockatoo is calling an omen of more rain.
When "You might be wondering how I found myself in this situation" ends up on an ice sheet in Antarctica surrounded by Penguins.
Bower Birds Like much of the animal kingdom, the male Bowerbirds have a complicated ritual for attracting females to mate with. The males build a nest (called a bower) from sticks and then decorate it with bright coloured objects. Bowers generally take two forms; Maypole Bowers (which have sticks placed around a sapling) and Avenue Bowers (created from two walls of vertical sticks).
The story of workers obtaining "Edible birds nests" and the voyage of those materials into Michelin star restaurants as one of the world's most expensive ingredients. While a delicacy, the birds that make these nests are currently endangered (read more here: https://www.audubon.org/news/birds-nest-soup-more-popular-ever-thanks-swiftlet-house-farms).
williamdrumm
The Eagle Show with @biganimalencounters . Never before have I seen anything quite on the scale of “The Eagle Show” which I witnessed a few days ago off of Vancouver Island. Once a day in a secret passage two currents collide creating a natural phenomenon of epic proportions. One current pushes the other current up from the bottom with such force that any small fish in the area is rocketed up to the surface, then held there unable to go back down. Hundreds of bald eagles have caught wind of the phenomenon, and essentially form an eaglenado of roughly 200 birds for less than an hour of intense feeding right around tide change. Other animals including giant lingcod also take part in the daily feast. I snagged a few shots of the eagles snagging fish, including this one. If you are ever looking for something special and unique while visiting Vancouver Island definitely check out @biganimalencounters . Follow @williamdrumm
for more wild wildlife footage.
Pteranodon
Common name: Pteranodon (ter-AN-oh-DON) Size: Wingspan: 7.8-10m (25-33ft); Standing height: 1.8m (6ft) Age: Late Cretaceous Period (85-75 million years ago) Geographic range: North America and Europe Liked: being huge and eating fish Disliked: being mistaken for a "dinosaur" Taxonomy: Animalia > Chordata > Archosauria > Pterosauria (flying reptiles) > Pteranodontidae > Pteranodon
Pteranodon was a flying reptile. Now, do not mistake this for a dinosaur. Flying reptiles and marine reptiles are not technically considered dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are classified as diapsid (skull classification meaning two holes behind the eye hole) reptiles with an upright stance. By this definition, the semi-upright stance of the Pteranodon makes it just a reptile.
Pteranodon was a 1.8m (6ft) tall reptile with a massive 7.8-10m (25-33ft) wingspan. The Pteranodontidae family is considered to be the first vertebrate to take flight. It had hollow bones and likely had a variation of fur called "pycnofibres." Its entire body was covered by a thin, though skin that stretched from the knees to the finger tips, creating the wing structure. They were a carnivorous species that likely ate fish. The name "Pteranodon" means "winged and toothless." They are also likely to have been warm-blooded.
In Jurassic Park, the Pteranodon was incorrectly portrayed as being a toothed dinosaur. This is incorrect. The beak of the Pteranodon was similar to that of common birds; long, slender, and toothless. The Pteranodon in the movie also lacked the pycnofibres.
Jurassic Park introduces three variations of the Pteranodon: one that is bird-like, with tan/brown colouration and a green head. The second is more reptile-like with teeth and a quadruped terrestrial gait and a tan/brown colour with black on the wings and beak. The third variation is not an available clone, but was an actual species.
~Rosie
Images: http://bit.ly/1HvRgcN Movie screenshot belongs to Universal Pictures/Jurassic Park.
