Deep Jellyfishiness

[Higgins]

And some new species:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8231000/8231367.stm

[Fran]

Really beautiful, Higgins, thanks.

And you should win a prize for the word 'jellyfishiness'. I think it's fab :D.

[regdog]

One seanut butter and jellyfish jelly sammich please

[SHBueche]

Really beautiful, Higgins, thanks.

And you should win a prize for the word 'jellyfishiness'. I think it's fab :D. My thoughts exactly!

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46299000/jpg/_46299996_img8968bsm50.jpg

[dgiharris]

You know, even though I'm a big advocate of going to Mars and setting up space colonies and what naught

The true unexplored country is the Ocean.

IIRC, scientist estimates that we've only classified around 30% of the ocean's lifeforms. And even of the one's we've classified we hardly know anything about them.

In terms of biological properties, Ocean life seems to be more complex then that on land. The most poisonous stuff in the world is in the ocean.

The cure for cancer could literally be just a few miles of the coast of **insert country** for all we know.

IIRC, a few years ago, they found some dinosaur (yes dinosaur) that was still alive, something they thought was extinct X number of millions of years ago.

I wish I was a super billionaire. I would build a research colony out in the ocean and start an aggressive R&D project just experimenting with all the crap out there. So many marvels just waiting to be discovered that it is criminal we aren't more involved in its exploration. I mean, yes, we send a university team out there every now and then, but really, its peanuts compared to what we should be doing..

Mel...

[Fran]

IIRC, a few years ago, they found some dinosaur (yes dinosaur) that was still alive, something they thought was extinct X number of millions of years ago.


The coelacanth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coelacanth

I love how the Wiki entry says it's 'Worthless as a food'. Yeah... f'ing living fossils are totally worthless if they taste crap with chips :rolleyes:

[Higgins]

In terms of biological properties, Ocean life seems to be more complex then that on land. The most poisonous stuff in the world is in the ocean.

IIRC, a few years ago, they found some dinosaur (yes dinosaur) that was still alive, something they thought was extinct X number of millions of years ago.



I don't think any sea-going archaesaurs have been found. A number of more primitive surprises have turned up: segmented mollusks, rhipidistian crossoptergians, glass sponges spring to mind....all much more startlingly unlikely and archaic than archaeosaurs.

And some people are quite obsessed with looking at what is in the ocean, especially in terms of unlikely metabolic routes (eg, methane metabolisms). I was invited to to some bioprospecting under the Arctic Ocean this time last year, but I chickened out. It sounded pretty cold and I'm getting old.

Other biopropsectors:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1821058

http://www.plentymag.com/magazine/hitting_the_dna_jackpot.php

http://www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/publications.html?pub_id=91

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/2004/02/20/antartic_microbes.php

[Higgins]

I don't think any sea-going archaesaurs have been found. A number of more primitive surprises have turned up: segmented mollusks, rhipidistian crossoptergians, glass sponges spring to mind....all much more startlingly unlikely and archaic than archaeosaurs.

And some people are quite obsessed with looking at what is in the ocean, especially in terms of unlikely metabolic routes (eg, methane metabolisms). I was invited to to some bioprospecting under the Arctic Ocean this time last year, but I chickened out. It sounded pretty cold and I'm getting old.

Other biopropsectors:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1821058

http://www.plentymag.com/magazine/hitting_the_dna_jackpot.php

http://www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/publications.html?pub_id=91

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/2004/02/20/antartic_microbes.php

Or bio-pirates (see first link):

Last year, a Canadian-based non-governmental organisation—the Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration—dedicated to “the advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human rights” labelled Venter a “biopirate”, accusing him of “flagrant disregard for national sovereignty over

[Kurtz]

The coelacanth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coelacanth

I love how the Wiki entry says it's 'Worthless as a food'. Yeah... f'ing living fossils are totally worthless if they taste crap with chips :rolleyes:

The doscovery of the Coelacanth was more unlikely than finding an actual dinosaur living in the Amazonian jungle. It is that ancient.

I remember reading about this fisherman who had been catching them for thirty years without realising what they were, apparently he thought they were good eating. They aren't in short supply either, but my god are they as ugly as hell.

[Higgins]

I don't think any sea-going archaesaurs have been found. A number of more primitive surprises have turned up: segmented mollusks, rhipidistian crossoptergians, glass sponges spring to mind....all much more startlingly unlikely and archaic than archaeosaurs.

And some people are quite obsessed with looking at what is in the ocean, especially in terms of unlikely metabolic routes (eg, methane metabolisms). I was invited to to some bioprospecting under the Arctic Ocean this time last year, but I chickened out. It sounded pretty cold and I'm getting old.

Other biopropsectors:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1821058

http://www.plentymag.com/magazine/hitting_the_dna_jackpot.php

http://www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/publications.html?pub_id=91

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/2004/02/20/antartic_microbes.php

Ooops...not this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhipidistian

but that:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcopterygii

was found (Coelcanth).

[Higgins]

The doscovery of the Coelacanth was more unlikely than finding an actual dinosaur living in the Amazonian jungle. It is that ancient.

I remember reading about this fisherman who had been catching them for thirty years without realising what they were, apparently he thought they were good eating. They aren't in short supply either, but my god are they as ugly as hell.

More Ancient yet and found alive only in 1952:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoplacophora

[Higgins]

More Ancient yet and found alive only in 1952:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoplacophora

Phylum with only one named member -- Placozoans:

Discovered in the nineteenth century and re-discovered as a living never-yet fossil creature:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7207/full/nature07191.html

[Higgins]

Phylum with only one named member -- Placozoans:

Discovered in the nineteenth century and re-discovered as a living never-yet fossil creature:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7207/full/nature07191.html

Humans are 82% Placozoan according one of the genetic similarities in the above article.

[dgiharris]

I don't think any sea-going archaesaurs have been found. A number of more primitive surprises have turned up: segmented mollusks, rhipidistian crossoptergians, glass sponges spring to mind....all much more startlingly unlikely and archaic than archaeosaurs.

And some people are quite obsessed with looking at what is in the ocean, especially in terms of unlikely metabolic routes (eg, methane metabolisms). I was invited to to some bioprospecting under the Arctic Ocean this time last year, but I chickened out. It sounded pretty cold and I'm getting old.

Other biopropsectors:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1821058

http://www.plentymag.com/magazine/hitting_the_dna_jackpot.php

http://www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/publications.html?pub_id=91

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/2004/02/20/antartic_microbes.php

The doscovery of the Coelacanth was more unlikely than finding an actual dinosaur living in the Amazonian jungle. It is that ancient.

I remember reading about this fisherman who had been catching them for thirty years without realising what they were, apparently he thought they were good eating. They aren't in short supply either, but my god are they as ugly as hell.

Sorry, I'm just an ex-physicist.
If something is a few hundred million years old, I call it a dinosaur .. :Shrug:....:D

Of course I should have known i'd get spanked by Ross (from friends) :D
Mel...