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World of Beautifull Fungus

25 Amazing, Beautiful Animal/Bird Photographs

Don’t you just love animals? Their cute faces and adorable habits are enough to cheer even the gloomiest of souls. Some people are lucky enough to capture some animals in the act: elegant, beautiful, and adorable. This is a list of such photographs.

1. I’m Looking At You!
This cat looks just like me!
2. Taking Off
A mountain caracara taking off. Stunning
3. Migraine!
Iz having headache!
4. Collective Flight
Thousands of birds, flying together.
5. Together, forever

6. Sharkin’
You don’t want to get on the wrong side of this shark!
7. Gazing
Beautiful.
8. Forever
Brilliant. This is my favourite
9. Deer, Oh Deer
10. Squirrel

Cuddly, fat squirrel
11. The Need For Speed
Run, dawg, run!
12. Lookin’ Foxy
You’re lookin’ foxy today, fox! ;
13. Chimp In Thought
Whatcha thinking, chimp?
14. Hide n Seek
I can see you!
15. The King

His majesty.

16. Wise Eyes
The Great Grey Owl. Look at those eyes!
17. Butterfly

Perched ever so delicately…
18. Cheetah

Elegant, beautiful.
19. Giant

The giant and the dwarf…
20. Thinking, Wondering

Lost in thought.
21. Where Is Thee Looking


A mangabey monkey. Adorable.
22. No. 296

Don’t call me No. 296!
23. A Hard Day’s Work…

Tired, are ya?
24. Nutting Away

A prized possession.
25. Into the Light

The lighting is awe-inspiring…

7 Animal Finds of 2008

It’s the beginning of another year, when who knows what’s going to happen, what adventures we’ll have and what ground-breaking news will hit the headlines. It’s the perfect time to reminisce over events of the previous year and ponder new discoveries. At Environmental Graffiti because we’re besotted with the natural world it was good to see National Geographic’s list of their most read stories of the year include seven best animal finds of 2008. We thought we’d share them with you in case you missed them.
Elbowed Alien-like Squid Caught on Film

There was great excitement in November 2008 when a remote control submersible was investigating a deep oil-drilling site and captured the image of a long-armed and ‘elbowed’ Magnapinna squid. One had never been caught on camera before in their natural habitat.

Vampire Moth has Fruity Past

Researchers reported in October that a previously unknown population of vampire moths in Siberia could have evolved from solely fruit eating species. Vampire moths have hook-and-barb-lined tongues, which they tunnel into their prey to feed on blood. Researchers say there is only slight variations in wing pattern compared to a common species of moth found in central and southern Europe called Calyptra thalictri that eats only fruit.

Italian Wall Lizards Evolving at Lightening Speed

Not exactly an animal find but a new discovery nonetheless. In April 2008, researchers studying Italian wall lizards that had been introduced to a small island off the coast of Croatia have evolved in ways that would normally take millions of years in just a few decades. Records dating from 1971 show that the tiny lizards have developed a completely new gut structure, larger heads, and a harder bite.

Worms Go Supersize in the UK

A new breed of ‘superworms’ that feed on lead, zinc, arsenic, and copper were found at disused mining sites in England and Wales. It’s thought that the newly evolved worms and their toxic eating habits could help cleanse polluted industrial lands as their excretions produce different versions of the metals, which allows plants to grow. Scientists believe their ability to tolerate extremely high metal concentrations has affected their evolution.

Dog-size Deer Rediscovered in Sumatra

In October last year a tiny dog-sized deer was catapulted into the limelight when anti-poaching conservationists released a photograph of the animal caught in a trap in Sumatra. The Sumatran muntjac had not been photographed since 1930 so had almost completely been forgotten about by science. The mountain-dwelling deer is now on the global Red List of Threatened Species, so doubtful it will be neglected again.

Half-ton Colossal Squid Reveals Secrets of the Deep

In 2007, a 30 ft-long (10 m) squid was caught on a fishing line in Antarctic waters. The colossal squid was taken to New Zealand where an autopsy was performed on the half-ton female last August. The dissection revealed the squid was “a ‘giant gelatinous blob’, would have been sluggish and highly vulnerable to predators”, and was carrying partially developed eggs. Scientists believe she may have been feeding from the fishermen’s nets rather than hunting naturally because of her condition.

The same squid was found to have eyes the size of soccer balls – the biggest recorded – which were rimmed with light-emitting organs thought to play a role in cloaking the animal from prey.

Gizmo the Gremlin Hiding Out in Sulawesi

Many people may be familiar with this animal as it’s been likened to a cute’n’cuddly Gremlin (before the water). A group of three pygmy tarsiers were discovered on an expedition in Indonesia last summer. The tiny 57 gram (2 oz) carnivorous primates were last seen alive in the 1920s, so were thought to be extinct. Logging in the forested mountain slopes of Lore Lindu National Park, Sulawesi has destroyed much of their natural habitat and population. Lead researcher Sharon Gursky-Doyen, who found the primates, is hoping the find will inspire the Indonesian government to do more about protecting their native species.

Top 10 New Organisms of 2008

The world's smallest snake, a prehistoric ant and microbes that may be 120,000 years old: These are just a few of the species revealed to the world in the last 12 months.

With animals going extinct at rates unseen since the dinosaurs disappeared, it's nice to be reminded that some species haven't even been discovered.

As Smithsonian Institute ornithologist Brian Schmidt said after finding the olive-backed forest robin: "It is definitely a reminder that the world still holds surprises for us."

Left: Stiphrornis pyrrholaeumus, also known as the olive-backed forest robin, was found during a biodiversity expedition in Gabon. Scientists know little more about S. pyrrholaeumus other than it exists.

Leptotyphlops carlae was found in a patch of forest on the eastern side of Barbados. Thin as a spaghetti noodle and small enough to curl up on a quarter, it's believed to embody the evolutionary limits of snake smallness.

Only three specimens of Martialis heureka have been found, all outside the Amazon jungle city of Manaus — but that's all scientists needed to trace a direct evolutionary lineage to the last known ancestor of all living ants, a subterranean creature that lived 120 million years ago.

The first new elephant shrew in 126 years, the 18-ounce Rhynchocyon udzungwensis — also called the grey-faced sengi — is a giant in its family (which, technically, are not shrews, though they are distantly related to elephants).

Undiscovered parasites are relatively common, but Myrmeconema neotropicum does something no other parasite can: mimic fruit. The abdomens of infected ants swell and turn bright red, making them easy targets for berry-hungry birds who then spread M. neotropicum's eggs in their droppings.

Carpomys melanurus, or the greater dwarf cloud rat, was first observed 112 years ago, and never seen again. Until it was found again in the rain-forest treetops of the Philippines, scientists thought it was extinct.

Tridacna costata is the first giant clam species found in two decades, and not a moment too soon: Fossil evidence suggests it once made up 80 percent of Red Sea giant clams, and now accounts for just 1 percent.

When Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences collection manager Mark Sabaj Pérez needed to name a new catfish, he thought immediately of Frank Gallagher, who managed the Academy's mail room for 37 years.

"I wanted to honor Frank for his many years of dedicated service to the global community of taxonomists and systematists in handling the shipping and receiving of countless loans of biological specimens," said Pérez. "I was impressed by Frank's dedication, his love for fellow employees, and his keen interest in the science we do. I simply thought, here is a guy who should be honored with his own catfish." The result was Rhinodoras gallagheri.


When biologists in New Zealand compared modern yellow-eyed penguins to centuries-old museum specimens, they realized that the birds were not the same species. Megadyptes waitaha is a brand-new species that's already extinct.


With only 8,000 of an estimated 3 million bacterial species identified, new bugs aren't hard to find. But unlike Chryseobacterium greenlandensis, they don't usually date from the late Pleistocene.

Thawed from ice recovered two miles below the surface of a 120,000-year-old Greenland glacier, C. greenlandensis appears unchanged by its time in deep-freeze. Its discoverers aren't sure whether it shut down or just slowed down its metabolism.

"There may be some metabolism occurring in the ice. If they have been dividing, it may be on a very low rate, on a scale we're not accustomed to — so slow, they could be dividing every 100 or 1,000 years," said Penn State biochemist Jennifer Loveland-Curtze.

Asked whether her samples may not have divided at all, and have survived in suspended animation for 120,000 years, Loveland-Curtze replied, "We don't know yet."

And there's more: 120,000 years could be the low end of C. greenlandensis' age.

"The bottom of the ice core had sediment where the glacier had rubbed against the earth," said Jean Brenchley, a Penn State microbiologist. "We don't know if the microorganisms were from snow that was deposited and became trapped, or were scooped up from the permafrost and there for millions of years."