blogut: Sinfonia di colori nel bosco by Alessandro Andreuccetti

blogut:

Sinfonia di colori nel bosco by Alessandro Andreuccetti

reuters: Researchers dressed in panda costumes carry a cage as they transfer giant panda Tao Tao to a new living environment at the Hetaoping Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong National Nature Reserve, Sichuan province May 3, 2012.  Tao Tao, 21-months-old, and its mother Cao Cao are being transferred to a bigger living environment with a higher altitude and a more complicated terrain, which marks the beginning of the third phase of its training to be reintroduced to the wild. Researchers wear panda costumes to ensure that the cub’s environment is devoid of human influence, according to local media. [REUTERS/China Daily] PHOTOS: The best Reuters images from the past 24 hours

reuters:

Researchers dressed in panda costumes carry a cage as they transfer giant panda Tao Tao to a new living environment at the Hetaoping Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong National Nature Reserve, Sichuan province May 3, 2012. 

Tao Tao, 21-months-old, and its mother Cao Cao are being transferred to a bigger living environment with a higher altitude and a more complicated terrain, which marks the beginning of the third phase of its training to be reintroduced to the wild. Researchers wear panda costumes to ensure that the cub’s environment is devoid of human influence, according to local media. [REUTERS/China Daily]

PHOTOS: The best Reuters images from the past 24 hours

(Source: icanread)

biomedicalephemera:

Top to Bottom:

  • Ambystoma mexicanum - The Axolotl
  • Necturus lateralis [now Necturus maculosus] - Common Mudpuppy
  • Hypochthon laurenlii [now Proteus anguinus] - The Olm or Proteus
  • Siren lacertina - Greater Siren

These four amphibians all have one major trait in common - neoteny, or the retention of juvenile traits in the otherwise-adult form. External gills are seen in many amphibious species as juveniles, but they almost always develop into internal gills that rely heavily on the lungs as adults.

However, in some environments, internal gills and gas exchange through porous skin doesn’t deliver enough oxygen to the animal, and the retention of the juvenile’s external gills is one of the ways amphibians have evolved to deal with this situation.

Axolotls, sirens, and mudpuppies are all North American species, with mudpuppies being endemic to the Mississippi valley and Deep South, sirens living along the East Coast, and Axolotls being highly endangered in the wild in Mexico (especially in caves around Mexico City). Olms are significantly more adapted to low-oxygen and light-free life compared to other neotenous salamanders, living in caves in the Central and Eastern European regions. They have no eyesight, and have chemo-, electro-, and mechanoreceptors on their broad and flattened snout.

Bilder-atlas zur wissenschaftlich popularen. Leopold Fitzinger, 1867.