Weekly beastie fix

Plate 66, Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur
Wikipedia commons

Looks like this week's linkfest will be all creepy-crawlies. And I am glad; for the last week, I've had no tiny visitors. It's been cold enough to send even the spiders into hiding. There is not a web in sight out my back door.

It's the birds' turn. The juncos are back, in force. A tiny brown wren came right up to my door, looking for crumbs. A pair of flickers skirts the edges of the row of evergreens. And the chickadees are as bold and busy as they have ever been.

Still, ... the tiny ones. I miss them.

So, here are the creatures I've picked up on the web this week. Enjoy!

From DailyKos, an essay about a marine worm. And what a worm! Named Aphrodite; for reasons that will be obvious when you click on the link. By the way, did you know there is a species of worm called Bobbit because of the female's habit of feeding the male's penis to her young? (HT to Mark.)

From Deep Sea News: a marine snail covered with scales. Iron sulfide (fool's gold) scales. Talk about armour! "The coolest invertebrate ever", says a commenter.

One more underwater find: the oldest living animal on record. A quahog clam. Unfortunately deceased shortly after the find.

"Researchers from the University of Bangor recently discovered the oldest known animal on record, a 405 year-old clam, while dredging at the bottom of the North Atlantic above Iceland. Then they killed it."
Zoologix

Benny writes tongue-in-cheek. More accurate info at Milk River Blog. But Benny has the better photo.

And on to land ...

"This is so cool. A one-millimeter long spider (Cenotextricella simoni) encased in amber gets "digitally dissected" using Very High Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography."
From John Lynch at Stranger Fruit. Excellent photos here.

And a good write-up on the same spider, at Richard Dawkins. No photo; good thing John had them!

That was then. And now, we have a Hallowe'en Battle, spider vs. centipede. From Niches.

And "Follow the Leader": spiderlings on a tight-rope. From jciv's Flickr album.

And, in case you haven't had enough, here's Circus of the Spineless # 26. Lots of photos, more great articles!

And I'm going back to browse that Flickr album. See you tomorrow!