Successes and Failures of the Bushtit Hunting Expedition

We saw plenty of bushtits, heard many more.  But failed our primary objective: locating a nest.  Blame multi-tasking.  The dog had his own agenda, primarily involving ground-squirrels.  And, I kept getting distracted by insects:

We did make some consolation discoveries at least.  Apparently the university is developing a special breed of semi-log horse.  Some limb-allometry project or something.  At least that’s what I heard.

We also managed to see some Killdeer sex so, you know, net plus overall.

Research Publication Title Of the Week

Barnacle (Chthamalus?) colony on Purple Shore Crab (Hemigrapsus nudus)

ADAPTIVE PLASTICITY OF THE PENIS IN A SIMULTANEOUS HERMAPHRODITE – J. Matthew Hoch, Evolution 2009

DOI: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00668.x

Abstract: Acorn barnacles are important model organisms for the study of sex allocation. They are sessile, nonselfing hermaphrodites that copulate with penises that have been suggested to be phenotypically plastic. On wave-exposed shores, Semibalanus balanoides develop penises with relatively greater diameter whereas in wave-protected sites they are thinner. A reciprocal transplant experiment between wave-exposed and protected sites tested whether these exposure-specific morphologies have adaptive value. Mating success was compared over a range of distances to compare the ability of barnacles to reach mates. Barnacles that grew in the wave-protected site and mated in the wave-protected site fertilized more broods at increasing distances than those transplanted to the wave-exposed site. For barnacles that developed in the wave-exposed site, there was no difference in the ability to fertilize neighbors between sites of differing exposure. This study demonstrates the adaptive value of plasticity in penis morphology. The results suggest a trade-off between development of a penis adapted to wave exposure and the ability to fertilize distant mates. Barnacles in different physical environments are limited by different factors, which may limit numbers of potential mates, constrain optimal sex allocation strategies and alter reproductive behavior.

Darwin would be doubly proud I think!

POSTSCRIPTO:

Sadly, I  just noticed that Hoch buried the lead: a simultaneous hermaphrodite with a plastic penis that’s non-selfing!?  What, do barnacles not have the internet or something?

On cats

Sure dogs.  Clyde rooted around the compost heap to the curious digust of other barbecuers and I obnoxiously riffed, “but, you know the dog story right?”

So what’s the cat story?  Well, long story short:

Chinese Mountain Cat Felis silvestris bieti "looking mean" from Wikimedia licensed, perhaps dubiously, Creative Commons-ShareAlike 3.0

Close wild relatives of the domestic cat include appropriately enough the “wildcat” Felis silvestris complex of numerous nominative subspecies scattered across Eurasia and Africa, including the Chinese desert or mountain cat Felis silvestris bieti sometimes considered a distinct species, Felis bieti. More distant relatives include the sand cat (Felis magarita), jungle cat (Felis chaus), black-footed cat (Felis nigripes), and the riculously adorable Pallas’ cat (Felis manul).

Pumas, ocelots, margays and caracals, previously placed in Felis are these days being placed outside the genus, despite some interfertility among various combinations of these species in capitivity.  Bom chika wow wow.

A recent analysis of mitochondrial DNA (Driscoll et al. 2007) suggested that modern domestic cats are derived from the North African/Middle Eastern subspecies Felis silvestris lybica consistent with a “fertile crescent” domestication scenario.  The going narrative speculates that grain surplusses associated with grass (co)domestication and the construction of granaries (you know, that whole “birth of civilization” thing) led to standing crops of commensal rodents and hence: cats.  All of this seems pretty plausable, especially in light of Towser.

"Grain-counter" Nebamun, wife, daughters and cat, slaughter fowl...give it a while

The cat in the photo at top is a resident of Eatwell Farm in Dixon, CA, and has undoubtedly “moused” a few rodents in her day

The Driscoll et al. (2007) study also revealed (unsurprisingly) substantial introgression among domestic cats and the various wildcats.  Bom chika wow wow, indeed.  As with dogs, and probably many other human hypercommensals, this genetic “gray-zone” suggests that a) no living population of putative wild ancestor necessarily  provides a precise portrait of what the “wild type” was really like and b) “artificial selection” shouldn’t necessarily be regarded as the only engine of diversity of “domestic animals.”

“quotes”

I grew up with cats, many cats, Banner, Ritter, Barney, Shady(Momma), Max, Sadie, Sonic, Vega, Beamer, Metro, Anastasia, Squirrel; I but haven’t actually lived with them in years.  At “cat corner” tonight Jessica counted 13, these perfect predators in our midst.

Refs

Driscoll, C. A. et al. 2007.  The Near Eastern Origin of Cat Domestication.  Science 317: 519-523.

Detail of tomb painting shown above

Bear Flag Republic

Don’t know about you, but I find it terribly difficult to stay on task while visiting museum collections.  Sure, I’ve got the 20 page print-out of specimens I’m supposed to measure.  And, sure I deeply want to look at Lobodon and Kogia and Lissodelphis and Hydrodamalis. I mean, truthfully, I really want to bring the sea cow skull down to the table and well, you know, cuddle for a while.

All of which I did, except for the whole sketchy sirenian molestation bit.  But…I also, of course, peeked at the babirusa and popped open the giraffe braincase (hey, it was already sectioned man).

And I couldn’t help but admire the shelf of California grizzlies, several of which had interesting dates attached to them but that’s another story.

Note the bullet hole.  See you after the wedding.

The Idles of March

Looks like another slow march around these parts, well, more of dirge really.  Hence the carrion which seems as reasonable a metaphor for the rancid stench that’s been lately gathering on the blog (except for the jumping spider of course, that was delightful!)

Believe it or don’t there is some inspiration here actually: Dr. Vector’s hilarious post about the curious case of a snapping turtle carcass, which in turn was inspired by Darren’s incredibly informative tutorial on the fine art of skeletonization.

All of which recalled this large Geochelone (probably G. sulcata) tortoise I stumbled upon last year in the hills above greater Los Angeles.  How the poor bloke wound up like this I suppose I will never know although most likely somebody dumped it, hopefully post-mortem.  It would have been nice to salvage the thing (Matt’s suggestion of strapping it to the university van roof would have made for an entertaining spectacle), or perhaps I could have buried it on the spot and retrieved it later but, no such luck.

C’est la mort, I suppose.

Saturday Insexology – Valentine’s Day Edition

I have somethings I need to tell you

about marmots (woodchucks &c.):

• marmots are basically squirrels with a weight problem
• “wuchak” is a Cree word whose corruption is supposed to have given rise to the English “woodchuck.”  However, “wuchak” apparently means “fisherman” in Cree and the name originally applied to the fisher (“Martes” pennamti), a large weasel that bears almost no resemblance whatsoever to a woodchuck/groundhog/marmot aside from being furry and brown.  Except, hold on a minute, the name “fisher” has nothing to do with “fishermen” in the first place, it’s supposedly a corruption of the French word for a polecat pelt “Fichet.”  So it’s not entirely clear why the Cree word for “fisherman” should be used for either animal.  So, WTF?  “Wuchak”?
• Marmota monax is more closely related to Eurasian marmots than the mountain marmots of the American west, suggesting that a band of intrepid groundhogs once (or perhaps more than once) crossed Beringia and invaded Eurasia, although some other scenarios are possible.
• awesomely, wikipedia has six suggested responses to the old “how much wood…” tongue-twister, three of which are properly referenced with footnotes.  Astonishingly, the response I learned as a child “A woodchuck would chuck lots of wood if a woodchuck could chuck wood” is absent although, admittedly, it’s not very imaginative compared to, say “42 pounds.”  Still, any wikipedia editors out there, feel free to cite microecos on that one.
• here is a recipe for fried woodchuck, from this very useful site.  I would bet this recipe could be adapted for any medium – large rodent, you might want to adjust the cooking time:

  Fried Woodchuck
  1 woodchuck
  1 tbsp salt
  1 cup flour
  2 tbsp fat

  Clean woodchuck; remove glands; cut into 6 or 7 pieces. Parboil in salted water for 1 hour. Remove from broth; roll in flour and fry in hot fat (deep fat may be used) until brown. Serves 6.

• More over at Oryctology.