The Magnificent Absurdity of the Echidna

Endless Wonders George Sranko

A couple of days ago we had the joy of watching these fascinating creatures snuffling through the Aussie bush, blowing dust from their nostrils like spiky vacuum cleaners with clogged filters. And the whole time I'm thinking: here's a creature that doesn't follow the rules.

Consider this; echidnas lay eggs. Mammals shouldn't lay eggs. Echidnas question a stupid rule like that, when they know eggs work perfectly well. Female echidnas lay a single leathery egg into a pouch that only appears when needed. A temporary pouch. Evolution was absolutely making things up as it went along. Ten days later, out comes a puggle (yes, that's what they're actually called), blind, hairless, about the size of a jellybean.

This puggle has to find its mother's milk. But here's the thing... no nipples. The mother just secretes milk through pores in her skin, and it pools in grooves in the pouch. Amazingly, this “makeshift “ design, has worked for 166 million years!

Now, consider the tongue. Imagine a thin, turbo-charged spaghetti noodle, covered in sticky mucus, rapidly flicking out, slurping up ants and termites. No teeth, no chewing: just that magnificent tongue and a horny pad on the roof of the mouth to crush and swallow prey.

They also have a beak-like snout, spines, fur, and the metabolism of a creature that couldn't be bothered with conventional mammalian enthusiasm. Their body temperature runs at 32C while other mammals are burning calories to maintain 37 to 38. Echidnas?? "No thanks, sounds expensive."

They split from other mammals during the Jurassic period, when dinosaurs were still the main event. While other mammals were tiny and terrified, hiding in burrows and trying not to get stepped on, the ancestors of echidnas were already doing their peculiar thing. They survived the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. They survived ice ages. They survived the arrival of humans, for Pete's sake!

Australia broke off from Gondwana and drifted away, taking the monotremes with it. Without competition from placental mammals, echidnas just... persisted. They filled their niche, asking nothing from the universe except a steady supply of invertebrates and to be left alone.

Don't call them living fossils! They're not unchanged relics. They've been busy innovating. That pointy snout is packed with electroreceptors that detect tiny electrical fields from moving invertebrates.

Those spines are modified hairs that turned into defensive weaponry. When threatened, an echidna digs straight down and wedges itself in place with spines pointing out. Good luck moving one.

They're not evolutionary time capsules. They're ancient body plans with millions of years of upgrades, still adapting, still evolving, still making no sense whatsoever while being brilliant at survival.

And there they are, shambling through the Australian bush, still laying eggs, and breaking all the rules.

Magnificent little weirdos, every single one.

Read more on my Substack "Endless Wonders"

 

 

The Godwits and Deep Time

13,000 kilometers in a single journey that takes seven to nine days

So here I am, nearly seventy-four years old, and I find myself thinking about time more than I used to. Not in the anxious way you might expect... more like a curious accountant who's discovered the books don't quite add up the way he thought they would.

When you're young, a year feels like an eternity. Summer vacation stretched out like the Sahara Desert. Now? Blink twice and it's Christmas again. The decades pile up like unopened mail, and you start to wonder what time actually is, besides the thing that makes your knees crack more than they used to.

Which brings me to the bar-tailed godwit, a bird I've been watching here in New Zealand during the southern summer. If you want to feel simultaneously inspired and insignificant, watch these birds for a while.

Every year, these modest-looking shorebirds... about the size of a small chicken, brownish, nothing you'd give a second glance at... fly from the Arctic to New Zealand. Without stops. They fly non-stop from Alaska across the entire Pacific Ocean, covering up to 13,000 kilometers in a single journey that takes seven to nine days. No breaks. No snacks.

To put this in perspective, imagine running a marathon. Now imagine running it 315 times in a row without stopping. Congratulations, you're thinking like a godwit.

They lose half their body weight during the flight. Their organs shrink to save energy. Their flight muscles expand. They are, essentially, turning themselves into the very essence of streamlined bones and muscle in flight. Then they arrive here, fatten up on New Zealand shellfish and marine worms (which sounds terrible but works for them), and eventually fly back to the Arctic to breed. Different route, mind you. They take the scenic path home through Asia. Because why not add a few thousand extra kilometers?

The question that haunts me, standing on a New Zealand beach watching these birds probe the mud for food, is this: How did they ever figure this out?

Here's what the scientists tell us, and I swear I'm not making this up. Bar-tailed godwits evolved their Arctic-to-New Zealand migration through gradual range expansion over the past 2-3 million years during Pleistocene glacial cycles, when ancestral shorebirds with progressively longer migration capabilities were naturally selected as shifting climates and sea levels repeatedly altered suitable breeding and wintering habitats across the Pacific flyway.

Which is a fancy way of saying: They didn't figure it out. Time figured it out for them.

This is where we need to talk about deep time, a concept that should be taught in schools right after addition and before heartbreak.

Charles Lyell, a geologist with magnificent sideburns (this was the 1830s, when facial hair seemed to boost mental faculties), was one of the first people to really understand deep time. Before Lyell, most people thought Earth was maybe 6,000 years old. Lyell looked at rock layers and inexplicable fossils and said, basically, "Folks, we're going to need a bigger calendar."

He proposed that Earth was shaped not by sudden catastrophes (though those happen too), but mainly by slow, steady processes operating over unimaginable stretches of time. Just like today. Water wearing down mountains. Sediment piling up. Entire continents drifting like very slow, very large ships. (I'll dig into plate tectonics some other time.)

Deep time is the kind of time that makes human history look like a sneeze. We're talking millions and billions of years. Time so long that mountains rise up and wear down again. Seas come and go. Species appear, flourish, and vanish like mayflies. 99% no longer exist.

Try to picture a million years. Go ahead, I'll wait.

You can't, can you? Neither can I. Our brains didn't evolve to comprehend that kind of duration. We can say "a million years" but we can't feel it. It's like trying to imagine the size of the universe or understanding why anyone would supersize their burgers.

If you really want to wrap your mind around Earth's 4.5 billion year history, there's an NPR video called "Earth's Entire History (Visualized On A Football Field)" that does it better than anything I've come across. They map the entire timeline onto a 100-yard football field, where every inch represents about 1.3 million years. I strongly encourage everyone to view this to gain a better understanding of how life has evolved on Earth.

Spoiler alert: humans don't show up until you're nearly at the goal line. All of recorded history happens in the width of a blade of grass. It's humbling in the best possible way.

Deep time is everywhere if you know how to look for it. It's in the fossils pressed into the rocks. It's in the DNA of every living thing, which carries a record of ancestry stretching back to the first cells that figured out how to copy themselves. It's in the migration routes of birds who are following paths carved out by glaciers that melted before humans invented writing, agriculture, or arguing about politics on the internet.

The godwits' migration didn't happen because one clever bird discovered New Zealand and told its friends. It happened because over millions of years, thousands of generations, the birds that could fly a little farther survived better. Maybe they found food sources others missed. Maybe they avoided predators. Gradually, impossibly, the route extended. Alaska to Russia. Russia to Japan. Japan to Australia. Australia to New Zealand.

Each generation slightly better adapted than the last. Small changes accumulating like compound interest in a savings account you forgot you had. Except instead of money, you get the ability to fly across an ocean without stopping.

This is natural selection, Darwin's beautiful and slightly disturbing idea. Beautiful because it explains the magnificent complexity of life without requiring a committee meeting. Disturbing because it runs on failure and death. The birds that couldn't make the journey didn't get to pass on their genes. Evolution is an artist that works in extinction.

Sitting on a beach, watching these birds, I'm struck by the layers of time involved. There's my time... seventy-four years, feeling longer and shorter than it should. There's the godwit's time... the annual cycle of migration, timed to seasons with absolute precision. There's evolutionary time... the 2-3 million years it took to develop this migration route. And there's geological time... the hundreds of millions of years that created the Pacific Ocean these birds now cross in one shot.

We share this planet with creatures whose stories make ours look like footnotes. The coelacanth, a fish thought extinct for 66 million years until someone caught one in 1938 (I remember staring in awe at the original specimen in East London Museum, South Africa). Horseshoe crabs have been scuttling around largely unchanged for 450 million years. They've survived multiple mass extinctions. They've seen mountains rise and fall. They've outlasted dinosaurs, ice ages, and disco.

And yet, here we are, humans, been around in our current form for maybe 300,000 years (a cosmic eyeblink), and we think we own the place. We've named everything, catalogued everything, stuck everything in categories like we're organizing a really complicated closet. It's very sweet, really. Like a toddler organizing blocks by color and thinking they've discovered order in the universe.

The truth is, we're newcomers at a very old party. The planet was doing just fine before we showed up with our cities and our smartphones and our strong opinions about which way the toilet paper should hang. It will do fine after we're gone, too, though hopefully that's a long way off (not that we're doing much to improve our odds).

Understanding deep time changes how you see everything. That mountain isn't permanent... it's just slow. The coastline isn't fixed... it's just patient. The species around us aren't finished products... they're works in progress, drafts being edited by the very patient hand of natural selection.

It should make us humble, this knowledge. It mostly doesn't, but it should.

I think about my own seventy-four years differently now. Each year felt significant when I was living it. First day of school. First kiss. First job. Marriage. My child. Loss. Joy. The usual human business of being alive and conscious and worried about it.

But in deep time, my entire life... everyone's entire life... is less than a breath. All of human civilization, from the first cities to space stations, is a thin layer in the geological record. Future paleontologists (or robots?) might find a layer rich in plastic and concrete and plutonium and wonder what we were thinking.

Does this make life meaningless? Some people think so. I don't. The godwit's migration doesn't mean less because it took millions of years to evolve. It means more. Every improbable thing that had to happen led to this: a bird that can cross an ocean on willpower and precious fat.

My seventy-four years matter because I'm here to experience them. To watch godwits. To wonder about time. To write these words that you're reading now, which is a small miracle when you think about it.

The godwits don't know about deep time. They don't need to. They're too busy being perfect flying machines, doing what millions of years of evolution designed them to do. They don't wonder about meaning or purpose. They just fly.

There's ageless wisdom in that.

And meaning: standing on a beach, nearly seventy-four years old, watching a bird that can amazingly accomplish something impossible, and feeling grateful to be alive in this particular moment of Earth's long, strange story.

The godwits will be here next year, if we let them. And I plan to be around thinking about deep time and my time and the brief, strange overlap between them.

It's enough to make you believe in mystery. Beauty, maybe. Persistence. The awesomeness of life on our planet… billions of years old and filled with endless wonders.

The Godwits and Deep Time by Endless Wonders George Sranko

Read on Substack

Endless Wonders by George Sranko

When Time Slowed Down

I recorded myself telling these near death stories and then fed the transcript to AI. Using a custom series of prompts from my latest book, it used my words to create a cautionary tale that is true to my own unique voice.

I’ve had a couple of experiences in my life where everything suddenly shifted… where time slowed down and something inside me just took over. They happened years apart, in completely different situations, but they both taught me the same thing: when survival is on the line, the human brain can do remarkable things.

The first one happened when I was still at UBC, driving my old 1962 Dodge Dart. That car was a piece of work. My dad bought it for me for $200 after it had been rammed by a garbage truck. It had a slant-6 engine that just ran forever and a push-button automatic transmission, which I thought was the cat’s meow. That car got me everywhere… out to the field sites for my thesis, around the city, back and forth to the mountains. It was reliable, until the day it wasn’t.

I’d been out at the beach near Tsawwassen doing fieldwork with my friend Dan. We were working on our undergrad thesis about the feeding calls of glaucous-winged seagulls. We would set up a speaker system running off the car battery and drive out to various spots to play the recordings and count how many gulls showed up. These spots usually involved a city dump with lots of resident seagulls. It was good science, but it was also a bit of an adventure.

One time, we took the Dart out onto this sandy beach with small dunes. The sand turned out to be way too loose, and we got bogged down. We actually had to build a set of tracks out of driftwood… spaced exactly the width of the tires… and I drove the car out along those makeshift rails. It worked, but in the process, I pushed too hard on the emergency brake and the cable snapped. So after that, I didn’t have an emergency brake. I figured I’d get it fixed eventually. I just didn’t realize how soon I’d need it.

A few days later, I was driving home from UBC, heading down E 12th Avenue toward Kingsway. It was a busy afternoon. Traffic was heavy. I came up to the intersection and there was a red light. All the cars were stopped ahead of me, lined up and waiting.

I pushed on the brake.

Nothing.

I pushed again. Still nothing. No resistance. No slowing. The pedal just went to the floor.

And that’s when everything changed.

It was the most amazing sensation. Time didn’t speed up… it slowed way down. I was still moving, still rolling toward that line of stopped cars, but I could see everything with perfect clarity. My mind was working fast, but the world around me felt like it was moving through honey.

I remember thinking, *I can’t crash into those cars.* That was the first decision. I looked to the right and saw a street lamp pole on the sidewalk. I thought, *I could aim for that.* But as I got closer, I realized I could just barely squeeze past it if I went up onto the sidewalk.

I must have seen that there were no pedestrians, because what I did next would have been insane otherwise. I steered up onto the sidewalk, threaded the car past the pole, turned right onto Kingsway, and rubbed my tires hard against the curb until the car came to a stop.

I sat there for a moment, shaking. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I hadn’t crashed. I hadn’t hit anyone. I hadn’t killed anyone. It all felt surreal.

Then I got out of the car, still trembling, and there were these kids sitting at the bus stop. They looked at me and said, “Hey, you can’t stop there. That’s a bus stop.”

I just stared at them. I couldn’t believe it. That was the last thing I was worried about. I’d just survived a near-death experience, and these kids were complaining that I’d pulled over in the bus stop.

I don’t remember what I said to them. Something like, “Don’t bother me. I just barely made it around that corner.” I was too shaken to care.

But what stuck with me wasn’t the kids or the broken brake… it was that moment when time slowed down. When my mind shifted into a different mode and I could suddenly see options I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. It was like a switch flipped, and survival took over.

From conversation to legacy book

Introducing my new book: 

I Want to Hear Your Story: The Easy AI Method to Capture and Share Your Loved One’s Life Story in a Book - No Writing Required! by George Sranko 

Turn a simple conversation into a beautiful published legacy book. 

My system, "From Voice to Book," gives you a clear, repeatable workflow to record a guided interview, auto‑transcribe it, and let AI do the heavy lifting to craft a polished life story you can publish on Amazon KDP. No writing required. 

Why this book beats the fill‑in‑the‑blanks style workbook 

Traditional “Mom, I want to hear your story” workbooks often become make‑work projects for seniors. The space for answers is tiny, there isn’t enough room for an engaging story, and finishing the book can feel like a massive assignment for the person receiving the “gift.” 

The result is usually a few clipped notes—not a life in full voice. 

This book flips the script: a relaxed conversation or two captures real voice, humor, and detail. A few weeks later, the senior receives a true gift—her life story presented as engaging vignettes and moments the whole family can read and share.

I'm looking for readers for Advanced Review Copies. 

To receive your own free copy of the PDF, send me an email at gsranko@gmail.com titled "I want to hear your story." If you find the book valuable, I would really appreciate a positive review on Amazon.

Stop wishing you had their life story.

Traditional "fill-in-the-blank" workbooks often become a burden, leaving precious memories unshared. 

This book offers a revolutionary, AI-powered process to transform a casual conversation into a beautiful, published legacy book.

Record their voice: Simple guided interviews capture authentic stories.

AI does the heavy lifting: Transcripts become engaging chapters, effortlessly.

Publish with ease: Step-by-step guide to a finished book on Amazon KDP.

Use Amazon as your low-cost worldwide distribution network.

Create a true family treasure: A lasting keepsake, in their own words.

I really urge everyone to record their stories! With today's technology it is a straightforward process using a smart phone. Once you have a recording, it is just a matter of using the right prompts -- as shown in my book -- to turn the transcript into a beautiful legacy book for the kids and grandkids.

Email me now for your own free PDF Advance Review Copy - gsranko@gmail.com

The Fantastical Ballet of Sexual Selection: Nature's Dating Game

Watch my lively presentation on Mating Rituals on YouTube

Only the winners get to pass on their genes

Here's a thought that might keep you up at night: everything beautiful in nature probably exists just so some plant or animal can reproduce. That tail, that song, those bright blue feet? All elaborate pickup lines in the grand singles bar of evolution.

The Reproductive Arms Race

Animals find mates through what amounts to nature's most desperate marketing campaign. Sexual selection, natural selection's flashier and slightly unhinged cousin, has driven creatures to develop traits so ridiculous they make human dating apps seem rational by comparison. The peacock's tail is basically a giant neon sign flashing "GENETIC JACKPOT" while simultaneously telegraphing "EASY MEAL HERE" to every predator within eyeshot.

Sex makes the evolutionary world go round, which explains quite a lot when you think about it. Why does the natural world resemble a combination of America's Got Talent, a fashion runway, and occasionally WrestleMania? Because only the contestants who win get to pass their genetic material forward in time. The rest become evolutionary dead ends, their fancy genes buried with them like so many unsold tickets to a canceled concert.

The Remarkable Price of Beauty

Darwin himself, that pillar of Victorian scientific exploration and understanding, was so confounded by the peacock's tail that in April 1860, he admitted that just the sight of a peacock feather "makes me sick!" Picture the scene: a brilliant man develops a comprehensive theory explaining all of life, only to be thoroughly flummoxed by what is essentially a bird's extravagant butt fan.

Peacock by flor ortega on Unsplash

Why would any creature evolve a feature so impractical that it essentially paints a target on its back? The answer lies in what Darwin eventually realized was the difference between natural selection (the "struggle for existence") and... continue to read 

 

Free Booklet "Life Through the Eyes of a Biologist"

 

Hello friends, 

I've written a short booklet Life Through the Eyes of a Biologist that I think you might enjoy as a freebie download. 

I really believe that by keeping our curiosity alive, especially in cultivating a fascination with nature, we can go a long way towards maintaining our balance and perspective during the crazy times we live in. 

Here's the new theme song I've created (with the help of AI) for my presentations,  designed to play as I walk up on stage "Are you ready for a Wild Time?" 

Let me know what you think!

Wishing you Happy Holidays and the most wonderful year ahead filled with travel and fun adventures. 

George

We have several cruises scheduled (see below or visit my website georgesranko.com). It would be a great pleasure to meet up again.

Viking World Cruise 2025 2025 January 5 – February 22 * Los Angeles to Bali *

Viking Saturn Into the Midnight Sun 2025 July 28 – August 11 * Bergen to London * 

Viking Saturn British Isles Explorer 2025 August 11 – August 25 * London to Bergen * 

Viking Saturn Iceland’s Majestic Landscapes 2025 August 25 – September 6 * Bergen to Reykjavik *

Viking Venus Australia & New Zealand 2026 January 25 – February 8 * Sydney to Auckland *

Viking Venus Australia & New Zealand 2026 February 8 – February 22 * Auckland to Sydney *

--

George Sranko

GeorgeSranko.com

AnimalsFYI.com

Why I write books under the pen name BB Brilliant

How Do Plants Communicate?

Deep beneath the forest floor and high in the canopy, plants engage in a silent but sophisticated dialogue, sharing secrets and warnings through chemical signals, electrical impulses, and underground fungal networks.

Imagine walking through a forest, feeling the cool breeze and hearing the rustle of leaves. You might think the trees and plants around you are silent, but they are actually having their own conversations. 

How do they do this? Let's dive into the hidden world of plant communication, where plants talk to each other in some amazing ways!

First, let's talk about how plants send signals through the air. When a plant is being eaten by insects, it can release special chemicals called volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Imagine a caterpillar munching on a leaf. The plant senses this attack and sends out VOCs into the air, like invisible smoke signals. These chemicals float over to nearby plants, warning them about the danger. The other plants then start making their own chemicals to defend themselves, making their leaves taste bad or even poisonous to the insects. It’s like a neighborhood warning system!

But plants don't just talk above ground. Beneath our feet, there’s a secret underground network made of roots and tiny fungi called mycorrhizae. These fungi connect the roots of different plants, forming a web-like structure. Through this network, plants can share nutrients and information. For example, if one tree is thirsty, it can send a message through the mycorrhizae to other trees, telling them to conserve water. It’s like the internet for plants!

Now, here’s something really cool: plants can also send electrical signals. When part of a plant gets damaged, it sends quick electrical impulses through its tissues, similar to how our nerves send messages in our bodies. These electrical signals can trigger other parts of the plant to start defending themselves. It’s as if the plant is sending an emergency alert to its own branches and leaves.

One of the most fascinating discoveries is that plants can make sounds, specifically ultrasonic clicks. Scientists found that when plants are stressed, like if they don’t have enough water, they produce tiny popping sounds. These sounds are too high-pitched for us to hear, but special microphones can pick them up. The exact mechanism isn’t fully understood, but it’s believed that these sounds come from tiny bubbles forming and bursting inside the plant’s water channels. It’s like the plant is crying out for help!

And yes, plants also use mycelia, which are the thread-like parts of fungi, to communicate. Mycelia connect different plants and trees, allowing them to send signals and share resources. This network helps plants warn each other about dangers like insect attacks or droughts. Think of mycelia as the underground cables that connect computers in a network, allowing plants to "talk" to each other even when they are far apart.

Learn more about fascinating science facts - click here.

Let’s dive deeper into how this underground communication works. When a plant is under attack by pests or facing a shortage of nutrients, it can release chemical signals into the soil. These signals are picked up by the mycelia, which then transport the information to other connected plants. The receiving plants can then prepare themselves by boosting their defenses or adjusting their nutrient intake. This cooperation helps the whole plant community stay healthy and resilient.

A real-life example of this can be seen in forests where trees of different species help each other out. For instance, older, larger trees, often called "mother trees," can supply younger saplings with nutrients through the mycelial network. This support is crucial for the survival of the younger trees, especially in challenging conditions like droughts or poor soil quality.

Another fascinating aspect of plant communication involves their roots. Plants can release chemicals into the soil that affect the growth and behavior of neighboring plants. Some plants release allelopathic chemicals that inhibit the growth of potential competitors, ensuring they have enough resources for themselves. 

On the other hand, some plants release chemicals that attract beneficial microbes or fungi, which help them absorb nutrients more efficiently.

In addition to these chemical and electrical signals, plants also respond to physical stimuli. For example, when a vine touches a surface, it can sense the contact and start wrapping around the object for support. This touch-sensitive behavior is another way plants interact with their environment.

So, the next time you walk through a forest or garden, remember that the plants around you are far from being passive, silent organisms. They are actively communicating, sharing resources, and responding to their environment in complex and fascinating ways. Whether through chemical signals in the air, electrical impulses within their tissues, or the intricate mycelial networks underground, plants are constantly engaged in a dynamic dialogue that helps them survive and thrive. 

Isn't it amazing to think that the green world around us is so alive with hidden conversations?

Do you enjoy true science stories? 

See my Book Series on true science stories and fascinating facts

Discover more like this in my most recent book "Interesting Fun Facts You Need to Know."

Thanks for reading,

George 

Questions or comments: email me at gsranko@gmail.com

Inspiring Young People in Our Lives

How do we inspire the Young People in Our Lives?

I've been reflecting a lot on this as we come towards the end of our time on the Viking World Cruise. 

Our lives have been filled with so many awesome experiences, stories and photos! 
What are the messages we want to convey to our friends and family?

My wife Jan reminds me that we owe our young ones the favor of transmitting hope for the future rather than despair over the state of the world... especially the natural world.

I believe kids love fascinating facts and stories about animals because they can easily engender a sense of awe and wonder about the natural world. When I was a youngster I couldn't get enough of the stories of nature and travel by authors like Gerald Durrell, Mark Twain, Loren Eiseley, and Edward Abbey.

I'm in the process of gathering some of the most fascinating facts I can discover about animals and collecting them in a book under the pen name of B. B. Brilliant.  You can download a completely free preview here.

Here's my goal for writing these Brilliant books:

I write books designed to “Spark Imagination and Brighten Minds” under the pen name B.B. Brilliant, I believe strongly in the transformative power of storytelling to inspire young readers to explore the boundless realms of creativity and knowledge.

By crafting enchanting books filled with fun facts, adventure, and valuable life lessons, B.B. Brilliant aims to ignite the spark of imagination within each child, encouraging them to dream big, think creatively, and embrace their unique brilliance. Through his books, B.B. Brilliant seeks to provide a gateway to a world where young minds can delve into the wonders of imagination, learn important values, and ultimately emerge with a brighter outlook on life and an insatiable thirst for discovery and nature.

I believe books by B. B. Brilliant have a bright future!  My hope is that they will inspire many young people for decades to come!

History of Life on Our Planet over 4.5 Billion Years

How Do You Represent Billions of Years of Life on Our Planet?

4.5 Billion Years of Earth History as a Football Field

As a biologist one of the key concepts I like to convey to audiences is what we call Deep Time.  We can talk about 300,000 million years, for example, but what does this number really mean?  How can we get our heads around such vast periods of time?

This is super important because it is key to understanding the power of evolution through natural selection over the eons.  Tiny changes over millions of years add up as species adapt to changing climates, geographic isolation, new predators, loss of food resources, etc.

One of the best depictions of Deep Time that I've run across is the metaphor of a football field to represent the full 4.5 Billion Years of Earth history.  In my presentations, I use an excellent video that I've discovered.

You can see this 4 minute video on my website.

All the best from the Indian Ocean, one day from Port Louis on the island of Mauritius.

George

Animals.fyi

 

We just joined the Viking World Cruise in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. 

We will be on board the Viking Sky for the cruise around Africa and disembarking in Lisbon.  

My lectures will introduce guests to some of the unique ecosystems and wildlife of SE Asia, Mauritius, and continental Africa. Here's a sampling of my lecture topics:

"Dodos to Lemurs: Contrasting Creatures of Mauritius & Madagascar" Explore the evolutionary marvels of Mauritius and Madagascar, where isolation in the same sea has sculpted wildly distinct wildlife wonders from dodos to lemurs." 

 

“African Wildlife Up Close & Personal.” Experience the rich ecosystems of the Okavango Delta and Kruger National Park through a photo safari. 

 

"Apex Predators of Africa" Discover the fascinating role of the largest carnivores in Africa… and their valuable ecological roles in “top-down” structuring of the ecosystem. Without Lions, would their prey survive? 

 

“Southern Coast of Africa—Where the Sea Saved Humanity.” Gain insight into how modern humans survived on this coast more than 100,000 years ago. 

 

“In the Realm of the Great White Shark.” Explore the fascinating lives of these top marine predators and the ecosystems they help create. 

 

“Namib & Kalahari Deserts—Ecosystems & Adaptations.” Find out how wildlife—elephants, lions, oryx and more—and the first affluent human culture evolved. 

"Sun, Wind, and Water: Africa's Green Energy Safari" Embark on a thrilling safari through Africa's renewable landscape, where the power of sun, wind, and water is driving an energy revolution. 

 

"Some of the Most Fascinating Creatures from Our Travels!" Embark on an exciting journey with our real-life wildlife adventures. Discover fascinating facts about egg-laying mammals, the world's most perilous birds, massive sea-going reptiles, and much more. 

“The Remarkable Story of How We Cracked Open Planet Earth.” Learn how one remarkable woman mapped the seafloor, helping to reveal surprising scientific secrets about Earth’s dynamic crust. 

"Canary Islands: Remarkable Ecosystems and Adaptations" Dive into the natural tapestry of the Canary Islands, where volcanic origins have given rise to ecosystems and cultures as unique and dynamic as the islands themselves.

You can follow along on our journey! Visit AnimalsFYI.com and follow the links.

Happy Travels!  Go Wild!

George

World Explorations Speaker

How Many Brains does an Octopus Have?

 

Good question!!  Probably a lot more than you think.  

Octopus waving its arm...and mini-brain!

Here's a clue: each arm has its own mini-brain!  Now we're getting into some serious math.  8 arms X 1 mini-brain = 8 brains...but WAIT!!

There's also the central brain so that makes 9 brains in TOTAL!  WOW, talk about a lot of brain power.

For a lot more fascinating info on octopus brains check out my in-depth article "Why do Octopus have 3 Hearts and 9 Brains?"

For some additional brain-benders on Octopuses, take a look at my entire series of articles:

How Smart are Octopuses?  As Intelligent as Your Dog?

How do Octopuses Reproduce?  Detachable Penis!?

Can Octopus Arms Grow Back?  As Good as New?

Shocking Ability of Sharks to Sense Electricity

Sharks possess an amazing sense called electroreception.  The ability to sense tiny electrical currents is outside of our range of abilities and may not seem all that useful.  But I think you'll be surprised at how remarkably handy this sense can be if you are a shark searching for food in the vast ocean realms. 

The electro-sensory system of a shark is so sensitive that it can detect the tiny electrical currents generated by the muscles of a fish swimming nearby, a great advantage for those trying to find prey in the pitch-black.  This ability would be like a magic sixth sense to us, considering that a shark can detect the electrical signals given off by the beating of a fish’s heart (or human’s heart for that matter). 

Consider the implications!  As soon as you jump into the ocean, every shark in the vicinity knows you are there.  There’s no hiding behind a boat or chunk of coral.  If your heart is beating or your muscles are twitching, sharks will sense the electrical current. 

Sharks have by far the highest level of electrical sensitivity of any animal on the planet.  

Electroreception is based on a system of sensory organs called the ampullae of Lorenzini (see my article to learn more).

Electroreceptor pores on the snout of a Leopard Shark. Photo by Albert Kok on Wikimedia CC-by-03

The electrical sensitivity of a shark is equivalent to being able to detect the electric field of a flashlight battery connected to electrodes placed 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometres) apart in the ocean.  Seems like a stretch, doesn’t it! Believe me, this is based on extensive research.

How many senses do sharks have?  How does electroreception work?  What are the lateral lines used for?

If you want to learn how electroreception works and about all seven of the amazing senses that sharks possess, check out my recent article on biogeoplanet.com.

Merry Fishy Christmas!!

Happy Holidays!! Even ugly fish like to celebrate!

Of course, ugliness is in the eye of the beholder! 

Check out my recent article Why are Deep Sea Creatures so Weird and Ugly? to learn more about the fascinating adaptations that allow these creatures to survive and flourish in the cold, dark depths of the deep sea.

Viperfish are uniquely adapted to hanging onto prey with needle-sharp teeth.

Deep sea creatures have some unique adaptations for living in the icy cold, pitch black depths of the oceans far below the photic zone where light penetrates.  They can have fishing lures that glow in the dark, immense teeth to hold onto prey, and giant stomachs. We may consider these adaptations weird and ugly, but they can be key to survival in the oceans depths of the world.

There’s a certain beauty to adaptations that allow these creatures to survive and thrive in the extreme conditions of the deep sea.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with joy and fulfillment.  And less Covid too!

 George

Hello again! Introducing Biogeoplanet.com

Hello ... it has been a long time!  Don't these Hatchetfish have exactly the right expression during this Covid pandemic!!?  Haha!  Hope you are keeping safe!

As you would expect, we have not taken any cruises in 2020! Seems like a safer option during these Covid times. I do have several upcoming cruises scheduled for 2021-22 - you can see them listed here.  My wife and I have been busy preparing articles for our new website biogeoplanet.com

You might be interested in some of these articles -- I've learned a lot in researching them, even after 13 years of providing science lectures to thousands of people.

OK - did you know that octopuses can get an erection?  In fact they are the only non-mammalian species able to do so (that we know about).  Pays to have erectile tissue in the hectocotylus!  The same article describes how the Argonaut octopus has a detachable penis!!  

I believe you might find that my article on Irukandji jellyfish is one of the best sources of  up-to-date information available on this tiny yet life-threatening species.  I also delve into the fascinating subject of what it takes to succeed without a brain. 

Read about Leaf-cutter ants, some of our favorite insects.  They are so cheery and colorful as they go about their work with their parasol leaves held up high.  I was fascinated to learn that their jaws can vibrate up 1,000 times a second as they cut through leaves.  It is not a fair society!  The workers that toil away in the dump are ostracized and attacked if they try to come too close to the nest.

Check out my 360 degree video on taking the cable car to the top of Table Mountain overlooking Cape Town, South Africa.  This is one of the most scenic spots we've ever explored in all our years of travelling the world.

I have tons more fascinating articles up on Biogeoplanet.com - please take a minute to check them out.

Wishing you all the best,

George 

PS: My article on the most dangerous bird in the world is a hoot!!  Or squawk?

OK, I can't forget my encounter with a bullet ant - world's most painful stinging insect!

  

Excellent Snorkeling in the Andaman Sea

On our recent trip we flew from Singapore to Phuket, Thailand to go on an exciting 4d/3n snorkel cruise to the Similan and Surin islands in the Andaman Sea.  Here's a short 6 min video showing some of the highlights.

This was an amazing trip on a liveaboard boat with some of the best coral we've seen in the past 20 years of snorkeling throughout the world.  Owner/operator Ralf does a great job of finding hidden snorkel spots with plenty of colourful coral and fish but without masses of people.  Highly recommended - but definitely not for softies (the exercise mats on the bunk beds take a bit of getting used to).  

The Similan and Surin islands are treasures that need to be protected for all time -- we were gratified to learn that Thailand has protected many of these islands and amazing reefs in National Parks - see Similan Islands and Surin Islands.  If you are using the Chrome browser, you can also check out this Google Earth link for a splendid 3D view of the Surin islands from above.

Unfortunately, the islands are suffering from too many tourists. At one point there were up to 7,000 visitors per day.  The problem of overuse has prompted park authorities to limit the number of tourists in the Similan Islands to 3,325 people a day. 

The ideal time to visit these Islands is December to April when it is the dryer with clear waters making it best time for scuba diving and snorkeling.  You can even stay overnight in one of the campsites with tents and bungalows on Surin Nuea Island.

Thanks for visiting and happy travels!
Cheers, George

Enhance Your Presentations - Google Earth Updates

Wiluna, WA, Australia - Google Earth View

As many of you know, I'm a frequent user of Google Earth to help enrich my presentations.  The folks at Google Earth have added a lot of tools and enhancements over the past few months to make it even easier to add content.  How many times have you watched a travel video wishing they'd included a map to provide context? -- especially in these days of exploding numbers of YouTube travel vloggers! Well, there's no excuse as far as I'm concerned, now that these excellent tools are so readily available.  (These are tools that we could have only dreamed of when I first started giving slide presentations - back then a dissolve unit between two slide projectors was a BIG deal!)

Here's an intro to an excellent series of videos on a simple approach to incorporating satellite images into your own presentations:


Google has also added a new way of producing animated fly-overs using Google Earth Studio, which works directly in the Chrome browser.  Here's a quick video introduction, the first of a series on using Studio.  In my work, I still prefer to use Google Earth Pro which is a stand alone program that I'm more familiar with.  Pro is a free download, so cost is not an issue.


Here's an excellent intro to Studio from Tava, showing some of the more sophisticated Hollywood affects you can add if you really want to have some fun!


For the simple joy of exploration from your easy chair it is hard to beat Google Earth View.  For a quick intro check out this video:


Google Earth View is also an excellent source for wallpaper, with over 2,000 images to choose from.  But not only do these satellite images make great wallpaper for your computer screen, they can make great full frame slides to use in our presentations!  Check it out!

Niagara Falls, Canada - Google Earth View

Thanks for visiting!