Adventure Ausrama Blog

The common Sydney octopus does not look like a happy chappy, but he always looks gloomy. It is just the way he is. Not doing so well in the sea around New South Wales he has moved down to the cooler waters off Tasmania. Because they increased in number from a few early arrivals their genetic diversity is less than those on the east coast. More are arriving from NSW and Victoria so things are improving. The exodus began in the mid-2000s. A joint project between James Cook University, the Centre for Marine Socioecology (CMS) at the University of Tasmania and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) is researching the genetics of the species. Gloomy octopuses have been found as far south as the waters near Hobart. A new study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, suggests the species is thriving in Tasmanian waters with a healthy mix of genes from local and interstate populations. The species, also referred to as the common Sydney octopus, or octopus

science Interesting things abound about Australia. It is a unique continent being isolated from the other land masses for millions of years. Animals have evolved with unusual behaviors. The cute, tiny Antichenus gets so high on testosterone that the little fellow doesn't eat or drink. He mates until he dies. The ugliest fish live in the deep sea off Australia's coast. They have large eyes, a necessity where light is almost total nonexistent.  Land creatures have evolved where some beauty is required to facilitate mating.  living in the darkest depths means seeing your mate is not so important, but large eyes, huge jaws and venomous spines are. Tourists and locals know about the deadly creatures living here. Oddly, Funnelweb spiders are not dangerous to dogs, cats, mice, lizards or snakes. An unlucky human can die if bitten by this spider.  Muscles in our bodies fibrillate.  Unsynchronized contraction of heart muscles can kill us. Bundaberg is the home of the world

While new animals are regularly identified, all species of seadragons were thought to be known. Indeed, it has been 150 years since all were classified. A surprise was on hand for Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Western Australia Museum. A new type of seadragon was found off the WA coast. A sample had been in a lab untested since 2007. The latest DNA testing system enables new kinds of creatures to be singled out. Named Phyllopteryx dewysea , the new seadragon is bright red in color. This is an ideal color for camouflage in deep water. No one expected a new type, so it remained undetected until the new technique made 5,000 X-ray slices of the sample. The Ruby Seadragon has a distinct skeletal structure. It increases the number of known seadragon species by 50 per cent, because there were only two other kinds of this mysterious animal previously. ✴ Technology by Ty Buchanan ✴ http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogsp

There are some really strange things out there. Some animals are living fossils. They should have died out with the great extinction, but they survived and lived on. The frilled shark looks more like an eel. Its mouth and teeth are enormous in relation to its body. It was caught for the first time in Australia by a fishing trawler. Fishermen had never seen one before. Like the platypus it is a mishmash, having a tail like a shark with head and body like an eel. The animal can live in deep water as well as the shallows. This guy had a bad day. They usually frequent deep water. However, this one was swimming at 700 metres, the maximum fishing depth for trawlers. ✴ Science by Ty Buchanan ✴ http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/atom.xml . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vista Computer Solutions Blog   Evolution B

Many animals have not been seen for a long time. Indeed, it is not known whether they have become extinct. Some, of course, live in places not usually visited by humans. Recently a beaked whale was washed up on a beach Australia. It is rare and lives deep in the sea. The actual species cannot be verified by manual examination of the body, Part of the body will be sent to the Australian Science Museum in Sydney for DNA tests and X-ray scans to determine the correct species. Not much is known about beaked whales because they live so far down in the sea. Only stranded and beached specimens have been found. They do come to the surface to breath but do not linger there for very long. Many scientists have never seen a live beaked whale. A beaching of this kind is very rare indeed. Parts of the body will be thoroughly examined to shed more light on how the mammal lives.  We will never know everything about fellow animals.  The more we know the better. ✴ Science by T

There may be alien creature "out there" - Well many believe that there is - but some weird things live on this planet. In the ocean depths of Australia odd living organisms have recently been discovered. At first glance they look like floating mushrooms. They are not related to fungi though. The creatures are actually flowering plants and vertebrates. Dendrogramma mostly consist of a stomach surrounded by jelly-like skin. Scientists believe they are the remnants of early life forms which appeared before the life that went on to dominate the Earth. In other words they were a dead end. They are unique, not related in any way to life that eventually became successful across the globe. There are a lot of new things still continuing their existence at the bottom of the oceans. Many are very specialized living off toxic substances that would kill other organisms. Don't bother to look for life in the stars. Much still awaits discovery beneath our feet. ✴

We need more privacy. What's that say Australian police? They are ignoring the public and installing a system that intercepts emails and keeps them for future perusal. It is called "deep packet inspection". Whether they will need permission from a judge like phone tapping is not yet known. The American NSA has been using the system for a few years. Data collection is immediate, in real time. Everything is caught by this new technology - content, duration, location, times, dates, email addresses and even phone numbers when used. Australian Federal Police say it will be used as a "system tool". Does this mean it will not be used routinely? You can bet your bottom dollar it will be used all the time if they can get away with it! There will certainly be a public outcry. It has been compared to the post office opening mail to see the content. As the system will be on all the time and will be used to continually monitor someone, it is not similar. The po

It is said there is nothing like blowing your own trumpet. Well, in some cases it can be very pleasing. The fact that the Voyager 1 probe has pass into space beyond the solar system is good news, The US must take most of the praise, but a small country in terms of population played a major part. Australian scientists are base at Canberra's Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC). The controlling body is the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). This company is a big mover in world science. Many new ideas, concepts and discoveries have their origin at CSIRO. The world's most advanced antennas are situated at the CSIRO base and they have been following Voyager since its launch in 1977. A round trip for a signal forward and back between the Earth and satellite is 34 hours. There are two probes, Voyager 1 and 2. Only one is in deep space. Due to improvements in technology the antennas have been constantly upgraded as the probe journeyed

Our ancestors not only fished rivers and the coastline. They caught marine food in the deep ocean. It is known that people travelled across oceans 50,000 years ago. However, proof that they could catch fish in the deep sea went back only 12,000 years. New evidence shows that Man ate fish from the ocean further back than 12,000 years. In caves on the island of East Timor remains of tuna and other large fish have been found. East Timor was "out of bounds" for paleontologists until recently because of the ongoing troubles with Indonesia. Information on ancient Man is changing scientific knowledge about our ancestors. Bone fish hooks dating back 42,000 years have been found there. The diet of early Timorese was varied. It included birds, rodents, bats, snakes turtles and fish. Few large animals lived there. Half of the fish found were tuna, a fast moving fish that would have taken great skill to catch. Using nets was the only way, so they had an advanced culture. http:/

Australia has a rare turtle restricted to the Mary River in Queensland. The University of Queensland has concluded that global warming will seriously endanger this species. Eggs were collected and incubated at 26, 29 and 32 degree Centigrade. Young turtles from eggs incubated at the highest temperature stayed in shallow water because they had difficulty swimming. Life expectancy would be short for these young. Food is in deeper water and there is safety from predators. The Mary River turtle, Elesor macrurus , is classed as endangered. Numbers have been falling for several decades. Other dangers to their survival are eggs being collected to the pet trade and introduced predators such as dogs and foxes. It is suspected that other species of turtle are similarly affected. Circumstances for the Mary River turtle are particularly dire because nests are in shallow water which can be directly affected by a warming atmosphere. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.ty