Entomologist discovers millipede that comes in more color combinations than any other

Date:  January 26, 2018

Source:  Virginia Tech

Summary:

The thumb-sized millipede that crawls around the forest floor of Southwest Virginia's Cumberland Mountains has more color combinations than any other millipede discovered.

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100 Million Year Old Seawater Discovered Under Chesapeake Bay

November 22, 2013

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

US Geological Survey (USGS) hydrologists drilling into the largest crater in the country have stumbled across an amazing discovery – the oldest body of seawater ever unearthed.

The water, which according to Discovery News is at least 100 million years old, was found over one kilometer beneath Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. The seawater is believed to have come from the earliest days of the Atlantic Ocean and was hidden beneath a more recent, 56-mile-wide impact crater near the bay’s entrance.

The USGS investigators did not realize how old the water was until they completed an analysis of the chemicals it contained. As it turns out, the water held forms of chloride and bromide, as well as other chemicals that helped them determine that the liquid is, in fact, from the Early Cretaceous Period. While older water has been discovered in Canada, the newly discovered crater is now officially the oldest large body of water on Earth.

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Turtle's paint job puts it in danger

Glitter and nail polish aren't glamorous for a Eastern box turtle found in Augusta County, Virginia.

Someone painted the turtle's shell with multiple shades of polish and glitter. The name "Sheldon" was written on the shell with silver glitter, along with the initials "SKR" and "BMD", said Randy Huwa, executive vice president of the Wildlife Center of Virginia.

Amanda Nicholson with the wildlife centre said the paint job makes the turtle a target for predators.

"Box turtles have this great natural camouflage that just allows them to blend into their environment," Nicholson told The Daily News Leader. "And this is really sending a message to the world of, 'hey, look at me.'"

But that's not the only problem.

Read more:

http://www.3news.co.nz/Turtles-paint-job-puts-it-in-danger/tabid/1160/articleID/301464/Default.aspx#ixzz2WNoBTMPZ

Dog groomed to look like a lion sparks big cat police panic

A harmless Labradoodle sparked fears of a big cat on the loose in the US after being mistaken by members of the public for a lion.

US police responded to calls from panicked residents in Norfolk, Virginia, who rang 911 claiming a fearsome jungle cat was wandering the streets.

Officers checked with Virginia Zoo to make sure all their lions were accounted for before launching an investigation into the claims.

Blind panic was soon replaced by laughter however when it emerged the ‘big cat on the loose’ was in fact a local celebrity canine named Charles the Monarch.

A cross between a Labrador retriever and a poodle, Charles has been shaved to look like the mascot of nearby Old Dominion University by his fanatical football fan owner  Daniel Painter.

Mr Painter said his pet dog, who has more than 2,000 friends on Facebook, is often mistaken for a lion thanks to his furry mane.

‘I tell people he’s a Lab-a-lion, and half the people believe that,’ he told The Virginian Pilot.

In England, several sightings of an elusive Essex lion sparked a major police operation before it was eventually called off after authorities admitted ‘it was probably a big pet cat’.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/01/09/dog-groomed-to-look-like-a-lion-sparks-big-cat-police-panic-3345514/

Virginia Proposes Expanding List Of Animals Banned As Pets

HENRICO, Va. -- Time could be running out for you to get that special gorilla or rhino for your home.

A state panel on Wednesday proposed expanding the list of animals Virginia doesn't allow as pets.

The list, maintained by the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, already includes animals such as big cats and bears.

The panel, which is studying whether to tighten rules on keeping dangerous animals, proposed adding to the list creatures such as chimps, rhinos, orangutans, hippos, baboons, powerful Cape buffaloes and giant lizards called Komodo dragons.

While everyone seemed to agree the animals are dangerous, it was unclear how much restricting their ownership would protect the public. After all, how many Virginians own gorillas or Komodo dragons?

"That's one of the unknowns that we have," said Ed Steinkoenig, the game department's permits manager. "We simply don't know what is out there."

The proposal to expand the no-pet list would require a change in state regulations, which would call for more discussion and public comment. Under current rules, animals like big cats and bears can't be kept as pets, but zoos and educational organizations can own them.

Some of the panel's hardest work remains -- figuring out what, if anything, to do about the keeping of monkeys, big constricting snakes like pythons, and venomous snakes like cobras.

Continued:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/25/va-animal-bans_n_2015396.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-animals

Unusual bird flock returns to Shockoe Bottom

RICHMOND, Va. --
Acrobatic birds called purple martins are flocking to Shockoe Bottom by the thousands for an unusual ritual that fascinates viewers and experts.

The birds form tornadoes in the sky before breaking up into squadrons that land at dusk in 18 weathered trees just north of the 17th Street Farmers' Market.

Volunteers are leading free walks to see the martins on Sundays and Wednesdays through Aug. 1. And the fifth annual Gone to the Birds festival, highlighted by that evening's fly-in, is scheduled for Aug. 4 from 6 to 9 p.m.

"It is a remarkable roost, and it is a nice thing to see, no doubt about it," said Mike Wilson, a biologist with the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary and Virginia Commonwealth University.

The chatty, gunmetal blue birds come to Richmond, probably from local areas and other states, in July and August to build their numbers before leaving in late August to migrate to Brazil.

The flock is growing, from an estimated 10,000 in 2008, to 15,000 in 2010, to 27,000 last summer.

Migrating martins spot the Richmond flock from the air and join in, Wilson said.

"In laymen's terms, (Richmond) has become more popular. It just keeps building year after year."

A few years ago, Wilson saw 5,000 martins flying into the old Bradford pear trees along 17th Street, and the birds were tightly packed.

"I was blown away with 27,000 birds there last year," Wilson said. "It's amazing that they can fit into those trees."

Wilson said martins roost in Houston and other urban areas, but he's not aware of another place where they get so close to the public.

People walk and park right under the roost trees, and the birds often fly by viewers' heads before zipping into the trees.

Adding to the show, a hawk or a rare peregrine falcon often shows up to snatch a martin to eat.

Adolph White, a retired Richmond schoolteacher, said he appreciates the way the martins call to each other when a predator is around and the way they maneuver to avoid a hawk.

"They have great survival skills," White said.

People first noticed the Bottom birds in 2007. No one knows what first drew them there.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/jul/21/tdmet03-unusual-bird-flock-returns-to-shockoe-bott-ar-2072979/

Doubts about Bigfoot in Saltville

ABINGDON, Va. -The news spread like the proverbial wildfire recently. There allegedly had been a sighting of a Bigfoot near Saltville and some of the pros were coming to hunt the critter and film a TV program about it. The beast was the buzz of local gossip.

For anyone unaware of what a Bigfoot is let me set the record straight. No, I am not talking about my youngest brother, Ron, nor either of my cousins Buzz or Wayne Smith. Nor am I referring to either Gregg or Tim Sholes, all five of whom take about a whole steer hide to make them a pair of shoes. I am referring to the mysterious man-like beast referred to by numerous names in numerous cultures throughout much of North America and in the rest of the world as well. In the mountainous regions of Asia a similar creature supposedly exists in the Himalayan mountains where it is called the Yeti or Abominable Snowman.

The folks coming to hunt the critter were from Animal Planet. Generally I enjoy Animal Planet programs. They normally are professionally produced and scientifically backed. They tend to be well done educational programs about various types of animals inhabiting our planet. For that reason alone I was looking forward to the Animal Planet crew coming to Saltville to investigate a supposed "Bigfoot" sighting in the Saltville area. I had not really heard much about it, just that someone, somewhere in the Saltville area had allegedly seen what they believed to be a Bigfoot, the mysterious ape-like animal that turns up here and there. I had heard from someone that the critter was seen on Flat Top Mountain near what is called Aistrop Hollow. Flat Top Mountain has (I believe) 50,000 plus acres of wilderness. So it would perhaps be a suitable hiding place.

Read on:  http://www2.swvatoday.com/news/2012/feb/17/doubts-about-bigfoot-saltville-ar-1697601/

Alien Bryozoan Blob

Mysterious Lake Blob Identified as Alien Bryozoan A bizarre brown and yellow blob discovered in a man-made lake in Newport News, Va., last week set off wild speculation.

Some people thought the 4-foot blob was a leftover Halloween prank, perhaps a fake lake monster. Others thought it might be an alien cocoon pod, such as those seen in films like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Still others guessed that it might be the bloated corpse of a large snake or other animal.

One of the men who found it, Charlie Schmuck, was immediately intrigued: "We took a stick and poked at it, and it was spongy and squishy. And that's kind of weird... The texture appears to be that of a rock with algae spots on it — it is brown and yellow, with a pattern of some type.”

Zoologists from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science were asked to examine the unidentified floating object, and quickly concluded that it was a stellar specimen of Pectinatella magnifica. That is, a bryozoan — a creature (actually a colony of tiny creatures) that filters and consumes algae from the water.

The talk of aliens, as it turned out, was actually fairly accurate. The bryozoan is indeed alien — to that freshwater lake anyway. Bryozoans are common in salt water, but relatively rare in freshwater. Scientists speculated that the animal had been introduced to the lake from mud on a migrating bird's foot.

http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/mysterious-lake-blob-identified-101108.html

Strange, blobaceous 'alien pod' lifeform found in Virginian lake

Baffled passers-by have discovered a large, bizarre, blob-like lifeform floating in an artificial lake in Virginia. As there appeared no way in which the slow-moving, four-foot "mysterious blob" could have got into the lake naturally, the thing's discoverers - theorising that it must have come from above - have dubbed it the "alien pod".

Biotech-based interstellar transport blob podule?

Reportedly the "pod" was discovered by office worker Tracy Collier while out walking her boss's dog by the manmade lake in City Center at Oyster Point, a development in Newport News, Virginia.


“The lake is behind our office," says Collier's excellently-named colleague Charles Schmuck. "Tracy was walking by the lake, saw the object, and asked everyone else to come out and take a look.”

It was another colleague, Dale Leonart, who came up with the extra-terrestrial angle on seeing the lifeform.

"It has to be an alien pod," he stated authoritatively - though later reportedly adding that alternatively the thing might be "some type of sponge".

The puzzled office workers decided to call in expert help from boffins at the local Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences (VIMS). They sent an email with photos attached (see above) which read in part:

The object is about 4 feet in diameter. It has moved about 6 feet down the shoreline in the last 24 hours. It 'jiggles' when the waves in the lake hit it… when we prod it, it seems to be spongy feeling… The texture appears to be that of a rock with algae spots on it — it is brown and yellow, with a pattern of some type.

Sadly the VIMS experts pooh-poohed the alien landing theory. After a heated internal debate, they identified the blobaceous lakeside intruder as a very large colony of Pectinatella magnifica — aka the "magnificent bryozoan".

According to the boffins' description:

Colonies of Pectinatella magnifica feature a surface layer of adjoining "rosettes" — each with 12-18 animals or "zooids" — around a central jelly-like mass that is 99% water. The colonies can be free floating or attached to a piling or other submerged object. One study even showed that young colonies of P magnifica can actually move on their own by coordinated pulsing of the individual animals.

VIMS prof Carl Hershner says that the blobby hive-jelly creature eats algae and thus is “actually a good thing to have around, despite its looks. It's not a sign of bad water quality, and it doesn't hurt fish. It can clog pipes, though, and it will be smelly if it’s removed from the water.”

The VIMS boffins add that they are always glad to receive reports of UFOs ("unidentified fishy objects") on their patch - Chesapeake Bay and surrounding waters.
By Lewis Page