by Matthew Cobb
Watch this video (preferably on fullscreen), and name those species (down to class level, please. This test will count towards your final mark).
From Earth’s point of view, these aren’t the aliens – it’s been living with things like this for over 500 million years. The really weird stuff is that bipedal quadruped that popped up the other day, somehow became conscious, and is now trashing the place…
(Don’t know who made this image)
I don’t trust that orange planet. How did it get so close to Earth and stick a thermometer in its ocean. What good would a thermometer do anyway?
I expect it’s measuring global warming.
I cannot get the video to run. Probably the bad service I have here.
I had problems but solved them by turning off the HD (just by clicking on the letters ‘HD’ at the base of the screen).
The most puzzling thing for me was what appear to be bits of children’s cold cereal getting nom’d by what I assume are sea anemones. The cereal pieces seem to be walking toward the mouth, and then getting swept in? What is going on?
They look like pieces of commercial pet turtle food, though they could be for some other sort of animal (commercial alligator food is quite similar). The “walking” is likely the pellets being pushed along by movements of the oral disk and tentacles, and the current created by the beating of cilia.
As far as ID’s go, there’s Asteroidea (Echinodermata), Bivalvia (Mollusca) and lots of Anthozoa (Cnidaria). Probably some others, too.
These were either an anemone or soft coral. It could be pellet food, I thought maybe unfertilized and deteriorating eggs. One segment has the mouth also extruding streamers of what was possibly sperm but I do not rule out gastric juices.
I agree the pellets were probably drawn in by cilia.
Thanks! Such colorful turtle food–is the brand Lucky Charms?
Kidding.
I don’t know what they are but under the UV lighting they looked delicious.
This video is a bit freaky. It could appear in Clockwork Orange easily.
The cartoon is similar to ones published under “Frank and Ernest”, which often featured the planets talking to each other; Earth’s human infection was featured at least once. The drawing style of this cartoon looks different, though.
Great musical pairing.
Mike
sub
Wildlife on TV and elsewhere in the popular media tends to be dominated by the, supposedly, more glamorous vertebrates, especially birds and mammals. Apart from the fact that invertebrates account for the vast majority of animal life, this video demonstrates very nicely that they are also beautiful and fascinating and deserve a bit more attention!
This is stunningly beautiful. I’ve mentioned before I’m a sucker for videos of the amazing stuff going on in our oceans. As always, evolution is so cool. Thank you Matthew! 🙂
Oh, I like the cartoon too, although I’ve seen it before. Like the best cartoons, it presents an uncomfortable truth.
First, that was very well done at all levels. The producers deserve praise.
In the fairness of full disclosure, it should be mentioned that most, if not all, of the scenes were photographed using lots of artificial ultraviolet illumination (“blacklights,” those purplish special-effects fluorescent tubes popular for certain types of parties and in many other settings), and many were shot exclusively with artificial UV.
This is not a criticism; it was used for superb effect to highlight features of the animals that would either be difficult to discern or simply be outright invisible. It’s also perfectly fair to say that they shot them in their best light. But it’s also important to note that, if you went reef diving, you’d only see the animals look like that if you brought along your own specialized lighting equipment.
It’s a shame our eyes aren’t (meaningfully) sensitive in the UV and infrared, because there’s an awful lot of really interesting things going on in that part of the spectrum and it wouldn’t be that big a biological stretch to accomplish. And I should hasten to add: the effects we’re seeing here are entirely in the visible spectrum; it’s just fluorescence at work, with the objects absorbing UV light and re-emitting it in the visible spectrum. But the fact that some parts absorb UV light and re-emit it and others don’t tells you that there’s some sort of “visible” contrast in the UV part of the spectrum itself, and that’s the part we’re missing out on….
Cheers,
b&
I feel very hard done by that I can’t see in ultra violet like so many other animals. Damn our nocturnal ancestors I say for losing their colour vision!
I am not sure of the 1st animal, which was a close up of skin, but probably was the skin of the starfish that followed. After that I felt I could identify everything pretty well. Mostly soft corals, an occasional anemone and feather duster worm.
Wonderful video.
pol
On Sun, Feb 22, 2015 at 9:40 AM, Why Evolution Is True wrote:
> whyevolutionistrue posted: “by Matthew Cobb Watch this video > (preferably on fullscreen), and name those species (down to class level, > please. This test will count towards your final mark). >
From Earth’s point of view, these aren’t the > aliens – it’s”
I was just visiting my sister and her husband and they turned up a National Geographic video with similar themes. Apparently we are still discovering many deep sea species – and destroying them too, with fishing trawlers.