“Pyrosomes, genus Pyrosoma, are free-floating colonial tunicates that live usually in the upper layers of the open ocean in warm seas, although some may be found at greater depths. Pyrosomes are cylindrical- or conical-shaped colonies made up of hundreds to thousands of individuals, known as zooids. Colonies range in size from less than one centimeter to several metres in length.
Each zooid is only a few millimetres in size, but is embedded in a common gelatinous tunic that joins all of the individuals. Each zooid opens both to the inside and outside of the “tube”, drawing in ocean water from the outside to its internal filtering mesh called the branchial basket, extracting the microscopic plant cells on which it feeds, and then expelling the filtered water to the inside of the cylinder of the colony. The colony is bumpy on the outside, each bump representing a single zooid, but nearly smooth, though perforated with holes for each zooid, on the inside.
Pyrosomes are planktonic, which means their movements are largely controlled by currents, tides, and waves in the oceans. On a smaller scale, however, each colony can move itself slowly by the process of jet propulsion, created by the coordinated beating of cilia in the branchial baskets of all the zooids, which also create feeding currents.
Pyrosomes are brightly bioluminescent, flashing a pale blue-green light that can be seen for many tens of metres. The name Pyrosoma comes from the Greek (pyro = “fire”, soma = “body”). Pyrosomes are closely related to salps, and are sometimes called “fire salps”.
Sailors on the ocean are occasionally treated to calm seas containing many pyrosomes, all luminescing on a dark night.” (x)
i know everyone describes mothman as being a big, fluffy black (or white in some accounts) moth creature but what if, because it was usually dark/in the distance when people saw it
one time mothman comes out in the daytime and everyone sees that mothman really looks like this
mothman is pink and yellow. it’s just a huge rosy maple moth.
not that many people know what earthworm eggs look like so now you do
Also, the eggs form when the worm sheds a mucus layer from its clitellum – that “band” they have – and slides it off, depositing a baby into it before it leaves. The bag of mucus dries out into the pinched-off balloon looking egg.
Whoa! I needed to better visualize that, so here’s what Howstuffworks says about earthworm eggs:
“Two worms line up against one another facing opposite directions. In this position, both worms excrete so much mucous, that what is called a slime tube forms around their bodies. Each worm ejaculates sperm from its sex organs into this slime tube and it is then deposited in the other worm’s sperm receptacle. The act of mating is completed, but the process of reproduction still continues as each worm goes its separate way. You know the wide band near the front of any earthworm? That band is called the clitellum and it’s responsible for producing another tube of mucus. This band is passed forward toward the mouth end of the worm. As it travels forward, the mucus passes over the sacs containing the worm’s own eggs, which stick to the slime. Attached to the slime tube, the eggs then pass over the seminal receptacle, where the other worm’s sperm is kept. The eggs and sperm come in contact in the slime tube and if all goes well, the eggs are then fertilized.The band of slime is wriggled off the head of the worm and forms a cocoon in the shape of a lemon for the anywhere from four to 20 worm eggs that the common European earthworm typically lays. In about two to three weeks, the newborn worms will hatch and emerge from the cocoon into the soil.“
In some black communities there’s still a stigma that kinky or coarse hair is “bad”, which couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s no such thing as good or bad when describing someone’s natural hair texture or type. To those struggling to love and accept their natural hair because of societal pressures, remember this – straight, curly, kinky or wavy, it doesn’t make a difference. Embrace your hair the way it is, no matter what society tells you. All hair is good hair. It’s your Crown.
it took me 3 times reading this post to realized that (wild) meant living in the wild and wasn’t just a casual remark on the longevity of these organisms
Plume de Lynx 