The Jungles of Illinois

Amazingly, remnants of a 300 million year old jungle were recently found deep beneath the flat, blacksoil Illinois landscape not far from where I used to live (Champaign), in nextdoor Vermilion County.

Did you get that?

Remnants of a 300 million year old jungle were found by coal miners working no more than a 45 minute drive away from the University of Illinois.

"It covers about 15 square miles, all more than 200 feet below ground, and probably is the largest intact rain forest from that period ever studied, according to Scott Elrick of the Illinois State Geological Survey."

"'It's that scale that makes what lies just above the Riola and Vermilion Grove mines significant,' he said."

"'We never encountered one whole forest preserved in one shot like this,' Elrick said Monday. 'The fossils just didn't stop."

"It's common to find small pockets of fossilized plants just above coal mines, he said. But in this case, experts believe, a fault that runs through the area unleashed a major earthquake that quickly sank the forest beneath a deep layer of mud, preserving it."

Read the full article here, via the Discovery Channel.

Not Bad for My First Week: The True Story of Peltz & the Rhinoceros Auklet

It's been a month since my last post and needless to say I have now arrived in Southern California and am very happily settled in my new home along the Orange Coast: a cozy apartment in Monarch Beach (a community within the city of Dana Point). And my universe would be a completely perfect, sunny California one if only my wife were here with me...

I haven't posted in nearly a month. Here's a story I've been meaning to post--definitely Peltz At Hand-worthy for the month of January:

While walking along Aliso Beach at sundown (South Laguna), I stumbled upon an apparently sick bird, which from a distance I took to be a raven. Upon closer inspection, however, I realized this was not the case and was immediately bothered at not being able to identify it.

I did not have camera at hand (lesson now learned, of course!). I wanted to take in and remember its details, so that I could later look it up, so I quickly looked over its major features and helped myself remember them by giving each a short description in my head:

1. coloration: purely black on top, purely white on bottom--sharp divide between the two colors
2. body shape & size: about the same size as an adult Mallard duck. Shape is penguin or puffin-like.

3. feet: webbed, duck-like.

4. bill shape & size: tubular, almost gull-like--not broad like a puffin's bill.
5. distinctive features: It also had a fine, white feather filament on the side of the head--very distinct.

With the exception of the bill, I decided the bird was essentially very puffin-like, and that this might be very odd, given that to my knowledge there are no puffins along the Pacific Coast, much less in Orange County!

While standing there with the bird, using my cellphone, I called Laguna Beach Animal Control, and received an answering machine, so I left a message and gave them my thoughts on the bird's identity. They did not show up, but I had managed to flag down a passerby, and collectively, we attracted the attention of the owner of nearby house overlooking the Beach. He informed us of our precise location, which information I passed on to the Animal Control's answering machine--just in case they might receive the message later in the evening and try to act on it after dark.

Sitting with the bird for nearly an hour, I gave up in exasperation around 6:30pm, sensing full well the possible rarity of this bird.

That evening, I posted the details of this event, along with my description, to the Orange County Birding email list. I was delighted to receive, the very next day, the following message from someone on the list, who is also affiliated with the Laguna Beach Animal Control:

"We received a Rhinoceros auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata) from Laguna Beach animal control yesterday evening at 7:30pm. I believe that is the same bird that you saw. Unfortunately the bird did not make it. It will be going to Kimball Garrett at the Natural History Museum for their display."

It turns out that the Rhinoceros Auklet is one of three members of the Puffin family, and the only member to reside in the Pacific Ocean.

Did you get that? So in my first week of residence in Orange County, I used my budding knowledge of birds to correctly identify a somewhat rare bird for the county, which is going to be placed on display at the Orange County Natural History Museum.

I couldn't be more smitten with myself.

A native of the Pacific Northwest & Japan, the Rhinoceros Auklet comes to the Channel Islands to breed in winter, but not usually to the Orange County coast. So it is in fact somewhat rare--I think thus why the Natural History Museum would have an interest in obtaining it.

Below is an illustration of the bird--it's the only picture I could find in the public domain. (Note that the illustration refers to it by an older common name, the Horned-billed Guillemot):

It's Definitely Not a 'Fluke'

Dolphin Specimen Found with Likely "Remains" of Legs

(AP) TOKYO — Japanese researchers said Sunday that a bottlenose dolphin captured last month has an extra set of fins that could be the remains of hind legs, a discovery that may provide further evidence that ocean-dwelling mammals once lived on land.

"I believe the fins may be remains from the time when dolphins' ancient ancestors lived on land ... this is an unprecedented discovery," Seiji Osumi, an adviser at Tokyo's Institute of Cetacean Research, said at a news conference televised Sunday.


A freak mutation may have caused the ancient trait to reassert itself, Osumi said. The dolphin will be kept at the Taiji museum to undergo X-ray and DNA tests, according to Hayashi."


Read more... http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4311224.html


See the anatomy of a dolphin, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dolphin_anatomy.png


And read about the transitional fossil, Ambulocetus, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambulocetus

Human species 'may split in two'

This is hilarious. I wonder why the BBC is doing April's Fools pieces in October?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6057734.stm

"Spoiled by gadgets designed to meet their every need, [humans] could come to resemble domesticated animals."

Death Becomes Autumn

If you’re a fan of creatures and you live in a place that experiences winter—I mean real, lifeless, snowy abyss kind of winter—now is about the time of year when it starts to hit you that you’d better say your goodbyes. There is no better symbol of this time of year than the ambience of the Halloween holiday. For animals, the ominous stench of death is in the air. Plant food sources are going dormant, the night air freezes, and the most one can hope is that he has sufficiently fattened himself up in his previous months of (relatively) carefree existence.

The cloud of death sends amphibians scurrying for shelter under rocks, logs, and underground burrows. Some insects and spiders spin themselves in silken cocoons, perhaps desperately clinging to the belief that they are constructing insulation, not their coffins. Other insects simply give up, sitting patiently while the cloud of death descends upon them, assured by the sight of their eggs (which will weather the storm) that their existence till now has not been in vain.

I don’t here wish to be down on autumn or such “Halloween ambience”—the fact is, I love this time of year. (Along with spring, summer, and winter, autumn is my favorite season.) It’s hard not to love the thrill of the eeriness that accompanies the impending dormancy of life, since we all know that we don’t have to take it seriously—spring will come again.