Coolthin.gs

Bruno weighs in at 21 pounds; the average lamb is 7.

Meet Bruno, who is currently the largest know lamb to ever be born.

He three times the size of the other newborn lambs he is a pretty darn big lamb.

Sure you could eat him and he would make a lot of lamb gyros, but wouldn’t be cooler to let him grow as large as possible and try and create a new breed of super giant sheep? Sheep the size of cows making enough wool for everybody. But wouldn’t it be cooler to ride a giant sheep? Imagine sheep replacing cars as I number one source of transportation!

Okay that will never happen but his is a pretty big lamb.

[Source: Daily Mail]

Well it seems that I’m posting a lot of things about animals right now but I could not pass this up.

A rare albino elephant found in Botswana.

A baby pink elephant was sighted in  Botswana on Friday by a filmmaker for the BBC as he was filming for a wildlife documentary. According to experts, it is most likely an albino, an occurrence that is very rare among African elephants. Basically this little elephant is one of the rarest animals on earth. Perhaps the onlything more rare would be some sort of albino sperm whale.

[Source: BBC News]

In about one of the coolest things I have ever read a man bound to a wheelchair for 20 years is now walking again thanks to a bite from an Brown Recluse spider.

A Brown Recluse spider; just like the ones that are probably in your home

The Brown Recluse spider or the “fiddleback” in my native Oklahoma is infamous for its small size, how common it is, and its remarkable toxic venom. While most bites attributed to the Brown Recluse are most likely misdiagnosed because of the high chance of one being around, bites that are confirmed often exhibit bizarre symptoms. Mild symptoms include nausea, vomiting, fever, rashes, and muscle and joint pain. Rarely more severe symptoms occur including hemolysis, thrombocytopenia, and disseminated intravascular coagulation.

But the most bizarre symptom of all, walking in paralyzed patients. David Blancarte a paraplegic injured in a motorcycle crash 21 years ago can walk today thanks to a bite from a Brown Recluse. There is plenty of speculation on what exactly happened but a nurse noticed leg spasms and after a few electric shock tests it became clear, David had regained feeling in his legs; five days later he was walking.

Venom from animals has long been suspected of having medical uses; the South Sea Cone Shell snail has the most dangerous venom in the world but scientists are working on way of developing it into a pain killer. Curing forms paralysis with Brown Recluse venom could be an even more remarkable use of nature’s dangerous weapons.

Too bad David was arrested a few days later on an outstanding domestic abuse charge.

[Source: CBS13 news]

Is this a form of cat communication?

I once sat is an anthropology lecture with the teacher talking about how cats have a specific meow for humans that they don’t use for other cats. My family owns four cats and this idea intrieged me so much that on the next winter break I spent alot of time watching my cats; low and behold the do not use the human meow to eachother.

Well today I was looking at digg and I found a cool page all about cat communication and cat vocalization. While a pretty long but cool read about cat behaviour if you’re only a little bit interested there are pictures to glance through.

four-foot-long giant reef worm

You know how when you’re aquarium is dying and you automatically suspect that you’re being plague by giant reef worms? Actually no you don’t but neither did the staff at the  Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay (which is somewhere in the UK).

Coral in their reef exhibits had been dying and even being physically destroyed by something mysterious so the staff started to completely take apart the exhibit. They then found and giant carnivourous reef worm (pictured).

The curator of the aquarium had this to say…

“It really does look like something out of a horror movie! It’s over four feet long with these bizarre-looking jaws. Having done some research we also discovered that it is covered with thousands of bristles which are capable of inflicting a sting resulting in permanent numbness’.”

I have long had a disgust and fasination with worms but this one takes the cake untill I sit through another show about tape worms.

[Source: www.thisisthewestcountry.co.uk]

(Image: Science/AAAS)

Everyone knows ancient arthropod predators are cool and here is the coolest of them all, Hurdia victoria. After many years of having it’s body parts miss classified and given to other animals has finally been given it’s due.

I for one who like to see Hurdia victoria resurrected in some sort of prehistoric sea world, and of course that includes it’s escape and rampage of destruction.  Hurdia Victoria “….was initially described as a crustacean by American palaeontologist Charles Walcott in 1912. But its bizarre appearance and the discovery of numerous partial fossils led to it being misclassified variously as a species of jellyfish, sea cucumber and its close relative Anomalocaris.”

For more information check out NewScientist.