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Post by Infinity Blade on Oct 19, 2021 10:09:53 GMT 5
TIL that early in the American Civil War, uniforms were not as standardized as they would be later on in the war. Initially, men could wear what they had at home or from local militias. This meant that, oddly enough, you could find Union soldiers wearing grey, and Confederate soldiers wearing blue ( link). In fact, there was an incident where a U.S. captain ended up getting a lot of his men killed by Confederate soldiers when he confused them (a Virginia regiment) for the 1st Wisconsin ( link). (For non-Americans here who aren't familiar, blue and grey are strongly associated with the Union and Confederate armies, respectively, since these were indeed the primary, and later standardized, uniform colors. I just find it a little interesting that early on in the war, this wasn't entirely the case.) |
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Post by Supercommunist on Oct 21, 2021 4:38:06 GMT 5
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Post by Infinity Blade on Oct 31, 2021 22:31:27 GMT 5
TIL that Jurassic Fight Club was planning episodes with Giganotosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus ( here's concept art->). The former was supposed to be pitted against T. rex in a purely hypothetical battle, deviating from most other episodes (not sure about Carcharodontosaurus). George Blasing was really determined to make this episode, but the network was reluctant because it wanted all its episodes to be based on actual fossil evidence. They were close to giving in after months of asking, but then cut it at the last minute. davidsamateurpalaeo.blogspot.com/2014/02/documentary-review-jurassic-fight-club.html |
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Post by Infinity Blade on Dec 6, 2021 1:37:42 GMT 5
TIL that the Bhagavad Gita implies that the Earth was created 4.32 billion years ago. Way to be accidentally, nearly correct.
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Post by Supercommunist on Dec 15, 2021 23:26:35 GMT 5
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Post by creature386 on Dec 27, 2021 22:42:39 GMT 5
TIL that E.O. Wilson died yesterday:
I guess it had to happen eventually, given how old he is, but it still caught me by surprise.
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Post by Infinity Blade on Dec 27, 2021 23:27:13 GMT 5
I first heard of him (and I think even read some of his works) when I began college. So sad to hear that he's now gone.
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Post by Infinity Blade on Jan 3, 2022 2:35:59 GMT 5
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Post by Infinity Blade on Jan 3, 2022 8:56:20 GMT 5
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Post by Infinity Blade on Jan 5, 2022 21:17:24 GMT 5
TIL that there was one battle in human history where African and Asian elephants faced each other. In this battle, Ptolemy IV faced off against Antiochus III; these men were equipped with 73 African elephants and 102 Asian elephants, respectively. While Ptolemy ended up winning the battle, the Greek historian Polybius says that the Ptolemaic war elephants underperformed in comparison to their Seleucid counterparts. He claimed the African elephants were smaller and weaker than their Asian counterparts*, and in any case, they weren't as well trained or equipped. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Raphiawww.cenozoic-press.com/articles/empires-and-animals-war-elephants-in-the-mediterranean*It's possible that this claim was either BS or Ptolemy's African elephants were female. Asian elephants trained for warfare were male due to their size and aggression, while females were used for logistics. If Ptolemy's war elephants were, in fact, female bush elephants, that could explain their smaller size.  |
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Post by Infinity Blade on Jan 13, 2022 0:22:22 GMT 5
TIL that the reason marine iguanas have white faces is that they sneeze in order to expel excessive salt from their bodies. This sprays salt around, some of which gets on their faces.
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Post by Infinity Blade on Jan 15, 2022 2:35:15 GMT 5
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Post by Infinity Blade on Jan 16, 2022 2:03:50 GMT 5
TIL that horn sharks have spiral egg cases. This shape allows the eggs to be secured inside crevices ( image source->).  |
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Post by Supercommunist on Jan 17, 2022 2:00:24 GMT 5
I had no idea that whale sharks came from eggs. Thought they were live birthed like great whites:
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Post by Infinity Blade on Jan 30, 2022 9:44:37 GMT 5
After much initial confusion TIL about the Cuban greater funnel-eared bat ( Natalus primus). Here's how. So, today I was looking at scans of an old book about recently extinct animals that I remember reading as a kid (it's called Gone Forever! An Alphabet of Extinct Animals, written in 1998). One of the entries was a creature called the "Cuban Yellow Bat" ( link->). I decided to look this bat up to learn more about it. But when I googled "cuban yellow bat", I learned that there is a species of bat with the same name...but it's still alive (vulnerable, but not extinct). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_yellow_batNeedless to say, I was really confused. So I used the little information this old children's book had about this bat to look further and find out what happened here. A bat only known from fossil remains known from a cave near Daiquiri, Cuba (this cave later turned out to be named Cueva de los Indios). Slender-legged with funnel-shaped ears, based on its living relatives, yet larger and more heavily built. Extinct in the 1800s. Hmmm... I went over to Google Books to see if it had any further info on this "Cuban yellow bat". I ended up coming across an old book called The Doomsday Book of Animals (or alternatively, The Encyclopedia of Vanished Species). Through snippet view, I knew it said something about some extinct bat called the "Cuban yellow bat" whose fossils are known from Daiquiri. I went to see if the full book was available on Internet Archive; lo and behold, it was ( link->). And this is what it said.  Much of the info about this bat was consistent with what the children's book above said. It was so-named based on inference from its living relatives. I also found the following description from a paper published in 1980 ( Hoyt & Baker, 1980), which is also consistent with what the "doomsday book" said. Looks like I found my creature. Its true binomial name was Natalus primus, and was in a completely different family (Natalidae) from the real Cuban yellow bat ( Dasypterus insularis; Vespertilionidae). Only one small thing: Natalus primus is also still alive (and is now known to us as the Cuban greater funnel-eared bat)!  Image source->So...what the hell was going on? You see, while it was originally known only from fossil remains and was presumed to be extinct, a living population was found in 1992 (so the first book I mentioned had outdated info even for the time). It is now known to live in Cueva la Barca (its only known modern refuge). Sure enough, the bat is indeed yellow and funnel-eared like its relatives. But while we don't know much about its ecology, it doesn't seem to be a fruit specialist at all like the first book claimed (instead, it seems to feed on invertebrates). Unfortunately, while it's not extinct, it is vulnerable ( link 1, link 2). It was downgraded from critically endangered to vulnerable in 2016 by the IUCN, but there are fears that it might become extinct due to inadequate conservation action. |
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