Scientific Illustration

biomedicalephemera:

Giant Golden Mole - Chrysochloris trevelyani [now Chrysospalax trevelyani]

If there were ever a mammal worthy of being given the common name of “Blorp”, this would be it. But no, they get to be called the “giant golden mole”, despite not being all that giant, or all that golden. I’m still calling them Blorps.

These pudgers are ancient, mostly-desert-dwelling Gondwanan creatures which are remarkably well adapted to climates with significant thermal shifts. During times of extreme heat or cold, their bodies can go into a state of torpor, almost stalling their basal metabolism rate, and completely turning off their internal thermoregulation until the temperature returns to a more amicable range.

The family of golden moles, Chrysochloridae, is not related to the “true moles” (Talpidae), but get their common name from their similar appearance, which developed through convergent evolution. Most scientists agree that the golden moles are more closely related to hedgehogs and shrews than to true moles, though some theories group them with the tenrecs. Until full genetic profiles are established for the Insectivoridae, we probably won’t have a definitive answer.

Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1875.

(via mudwerks)

biomedicalephemera:

Graceful small-headed sea snake - Hydrophis gracilis [now Microcephalophis gracilis]

The graceful small-headed sea snake, or slender sea snake, is one of the members of the Hydrophiidae, a family of highly-venomous seafaring reptiles. Though they can function on land, many members of this species spend effectively their entire life at sea. Their habitat - the Indian Ocean, South China Sea, and Persian Gulf - has an average water temperature high enough to allow these snakes to not need any time “sunning” themselves.

Despite their highly venomous nature, most sea snakes (including this species) are very placid. They rarely bite, even when threatened - not that I’d advocate you approaching one! - but as they must hunt fish that are faster than them in the water, their venom is potent enough to immediately immobilize and kill even their largest prey.

Transactions of the scientific meetings of the Zoological Society of London. 1841.

biomedicalephemera:

Faces of Lorises

1. Nycticebus tardigradus malayanus (Nycticebus coucang spp.- Sunda slow loris. Note: possibly Nycticebus javanicus - the Javan slow loris)
2. Nycticebus tardigradus hilleri (Nycticebus coucang coucang - the Sunda slow loris, type species)
3. Loris gracilis typicus (Loris lydekkerianus lydekkerianus - Gray slender loris)
4. Loris gracilis zeylanicus (Loris tardigradus - Red slender loris)

All lorises are endangered or vulnerable due to the pet trade and their use in traditional “medicine”. While these small and nocturnal critters tend to be much more adaptable when humans encroach upon their habitat than other species of primate (making due in the trees humans transplant as opposed to their native foliage, and dealing with the human presence in stride, for example), they’re still all too often thought to “cure” various ailments with their body parts (especially the slow lorises), and traded as pets throughout their native habitat of Southeast Asia, and when they’re successfully smuggled to the rest of the world.

Seriously, people. Their cuteness is so much cuter in the wild. Lorises are freaking adorable, and the hunting strategies of the various species and subspecies are so varied and fascinating that they deserve to stay in a protected natural habitat. I mean, among other reasons to preserve them, obviously…they’re just such cool little omnivores!

Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1904.

biomedicalephemera:

Uromastix benti - Bent’s Mastigure

Spiny-tailed lizards are more often called “uromastix” in the pet trade, and the name uromastix comes from Greek - Uro- being the root meaning “tail”, and -mastigo being the root meaning “scourge”. Given that all members of this genus have a thick tail covered in sharp spines, the name is quite fitting.

Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1901.

biomedicalephemera:

Ornithoptera victoriae - Queen Victoria’s Birdwing - Adult, Caterpillar, and Egg

This butterfly is a close relative to the largest butterfly in the world, Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing. The birdwing genres are noted for their bird-like flight, angular wings, bright colors, and exceptional size.

Like many Lepidoptera (the order containing moths and butterflies), their caterpillars are toxic, owing to the plants they consume, and are not commonly  eaten in their natural habitat. The butterflies retain this toxicity through adulthood.

Proceedings of the General Meetings for Scientific Business of the Zoological Society of London. 1888.

biomedicalephemera:

Skull of Gorilla gorilla - The Western Gorilla. Front view.

Unlike many of the other Great Apes, gorillas rarely (if ever) consume non-insect meats, and even insects are a rarity in their diets. The majority of their required proteins are found in tiny quantities in their other foods, but given that an adult gorilla can consume up to 18 kg of food a day, it adds up quickly.

Though they tend to be innate conservationists in that they don’t consume enough to over-exploit an area before moving on (if they did that, it would not produce more food, and what’s the good in that?), the adult males have been observed many times completely tearing apart full-grown banana trees with their immense strength and vicious jaws, just to get at the juicy pith of the trunk. Juicy, juicy pith. Nom. 

Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1904.

biomedicalephemera:

Okapia johnstoni - The Okapi

Though it has the same general body shape of the giraffe, okapis have much shorter necks, and their type body evolved long before the giraffes. However, their significantly striped necks and legs did not evolve to what we know today until the species split off into forest-dwelling and grassland types.

Like the giraffe, the okapi has a very long, blue, muscular tongue. It uses this part of its body to groom itself more thoroughly than would otherwise be possible, and to strip the leaves off of bush branches. It also has the cloven hooves and digestive tract of the giraffidae family.

Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1902.

biomedicalephemera:

Galago alleni -Bioko Allen’s Bushbaby

This lesser bushbaby is a member of the Galagidae family, and is closely related to the greater galagos and lorises. Unlike lorises, galagos are very nimble and quick, and hunt insects using speed, rather than stealth. Physiologically, however, they’ve very similar. One of the primary adaptations of the galagos is the flattened discs on the hands and feet, which allow for much easier grip of tree limbs.

The huge eyes facilitate nighttime foraging in deep forests, and the consumption of human souls.

Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1861.

biomedicalephemera:

Mus muscalis var. nudo plicatus. - “Rhinocerous mouse”

The rhinocerous mouse is a common mouse with a variant on the same gene that’s known to cause “standard” hairless mutation (without all the wrinkles). This variant has given us a lot of insight into various aspects of the skin, as the wrinkled and hairless skin is highly susceptible to skin conditions, and they have little-to-no strong bonding between the subdermal tissues and the dermis.

Modern lab mice aside, these guys are really cool on their own - especially since they were discovered in 1854! Despite the mutation causing significant health defects (such as long nails, cysts, and glandular problems, especially with the thymus), the average life-span of rhinoceros mice is still long enough to produce several litters of offspring, each bearing the same genes and of the same mutated phenotype. The naturalist John S. Gaskoin secured several individuals of this appearance, which were living wild behind the paper mills of Maidenhead Bridge, England. When the female gave birth to a litter of pups all resembling her mutation, he remarked that unlike solitary mutations seen previously (such as albino crows, born from and producing black crows), this collection of individuals was remarkable in that it clearly demonstrated the adage “like begets like”.

Bear in mind, this was before Gregor Mendel’s works on heritability were “re-discovered” in the 1880s. The theories of genetics, inheritance, and parental influence on offspring appearance, especially in mutation cases, were not understood, and the adage of “like begets like” was not necessarily thought to have anything to do with the unchangeable characteristics of the parents.

John S. Gaskoin went on in a later paper to propose that “like begets like” only applied to what something was like at infancy - since these mice were all born wrinkly and nude, they gave birth to wrinkly and nude. While still far from what we know today, it was certainly a big step forward from the common assumptions of the day - for example, if a man was buffed-up and muscular when he impregnated a woman, the offspring would automatically be more muscular because of that.

But these wild-living wrinkly nudist mice, which were so obviously Mus musculus, yet so obviously completely different from normal common mice, were one of the first solid bricks in our wall of genetic knowledge, over half a century before we even started getting a grasp on the mechanics of DNA, and what makes our offspring look the way they do.

Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. John S. Gaskoin, 1854.

biomedicalephemera:

Mus macleari [now Rattus macleari]- Maclear’s Rat

This extinct indigenous rat of Christmas Island is thought to have been the primary population control for the local crab species, along with the also-extinct bulldog rat. Between those two rodents, and the local Christmas Island shrew (not sighted since 1908 and presumed extinct), the Christmas Island red crabs that provide a somewhat-unnerving migration spectacle, were kept at a level thought to be about one-half what they were at their height. These days, the aptly-named “yellow crazy ant” that was inadvertently introduced from Australia, has cut the red crab population by a third, but unlike Maclear’s and the bulldog rat, the yellow crazy ant has no population control of its own, and may one day entirely wipe out the red crabs.

The Maclear’s rat is thought to have gone extinct both due to humans killing them, and the introduction of black rats to the island, when the Challenger expedition landed there in 1876. The black rats carried a trypanosome which affected them to a mild degree, but would have wiped out any non-acclimated species that acquired it in large numbers.

Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London. 1887.