Thorny devil

Moloch horridus

Twenty-ninth in a series of notes and comments on The Book of Barely Imagined Beings

Chapter 20: Thorny devil

page 298: remarkable Australian native.  Here is charming short paper on the Thorny devil.

page 299: Life is a pure flame. Olivia Judson compares fire to an animal like sheep a slug because it eats plants. But unlike a normal animal, it’s a shape-shifter. Francis Ponge (1942):

Fire's gait can only compared to that of an animal; it has to leave one spot to occupy another; it makes moves like both an amoeba and a giraffe, lunging forward with the neck, trailing along with the foot.

Italo Calvino (1985):

models for the process of formation of living beings “are best visualized by the crystal on the one side (invariance of specific structures) and the flame on the other (constancy of external forms in spite of relentless internal agitation).”

Picture below, by Tim Holmes, added 9 Jan

Added 18 Jan: Australian inferno previews fire-prone future.

Cane toad rex

Kakadu was until very recently thought to be immune from the extinctions that have plagued much of Australia’s native fauna. That bite needs to be felt by many more buttocks — not just in Australia but across the globe, where invasive species, ineffective management and wishful thinking imperil the wild places and creatures that still remain.

-- Sean B. Carroll

Koala barely

According to the Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, [Sam the Koala] was the subject of widespread comment at the G20 summit in London in April this year, and he issued a personal tribute to this "symbol of hope" when Sam died six months later. "It's tragic that Sam the koala is no longer with us," Rudd said, just restraining himself from decreeing a state funeral.

-- from Koala Wars by Gideon Haigh

Death in the sun

Our region has the notorious distinction of having possibly the worst extinction record on Earth. We have an amazing natural environment, but so much of it is being destroyed before our eyes. Species are being threatened by habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, climate change, over-exploitation, pollution and wildlife disease.

-- Richard Kingsford, lead author of Major Conservation Policy Issues for Biodiversity in Oceania, quoted here.

The silent country

It takes a while for it to sink in, but the closer you get to the desert, the more life here is in the land; once you're beyond the reach of modern cultivation there are trees again, and from the their shadows come enough birds, reptiles and mammals to let you feel you are finally back in Australia. Each time I traverse the dead zone of the wheat belt and reach this territory, my mood lifts. What kind of man cheers up at the sight of roadkill?

-- from Where the wild things were, Tim Winton on the land that was once the home of the boodie, the woylie, the wambenger, the chuditch, the short-beaked echidna, the dunnart and the bandicoot.

Creatures with names like these would be at home in a satire by Jonathan Swift. So it should be no surprise to discover that the Dean's co-ordinates put Gulliver here abouts. At the time Swift was writing, there was indeed an austral land teeming with creatures more strange and marvellous than even he could imagine.

There are human sites in this country that thrum with power, places whose ancient presences intimidate and confront, but this is not one of them. This feels like a monument to lost songs, languages, connections and clans, for a place like this, without its people, is bereft.

Still, Winton finds ground for hope in projects such as this.

(photos by Sharyn Munro and Jerome B.)

Getting lumpy on the GBR

Porites are seldom regarded as beautiful. They are, however, often among the most robust coral species. So the decline in calcification rates reported from the Great Barrier Reef looks like a real cause for concern. [1]


In December 2008, notes Elizabeth Pennisi, a 4-year assessment of the Status of Coral Reefs of the World said that 45% of the world's reefs were healthy with no significant threats from human activity on the horizon. [2] But looks can be deceptive. Anne Cohen of Woods Hole says "Even though the corals look healthy, some pretty dramatic changes are occurring beneath the surface." [3]

More on this by John Bruno and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg at Climateshifts.

Footnotes

1. Declining Coral Calcification on the Great Barrier Reef by Glenn De'ath et al. DOI: 10.1126/science.1165283 (See also Declining coral calcification in massive Porites in two nearshore regions of the northern Great Barrier Reef by Timothy F. Cooper et al. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01520).

2. Noted on this blog at A glass almost half full. For some background and context see Coral Bones.

3. Calcification Rates Drop in Australian Reefs DOI: 10.1126/science.323.5910.27. Pennisi reports that the role of acidification in this decline is "far from settled". Alina Szmant of the University of North Carolina concludes, "It's not clear that carbon dioxide enrichment will have negative effects on calcification rates." [Question: why did the calcification rate increase by 5.4% between 1900 and 1970 (before falling 14.2% between 1990 and 2005)?]

P.S. 4 Jan: a comment on resilience by Tom Goreau here.

Urchins

Pohls sea urchins found off Lizard Island (see New species revealed on Great Barrier and Ningaloo reefs). "The researchers spotted about 300 soft coral species, up to half of which they think are new to science, as well as dozens of small crustacean species, likewise thought to be unknown."

Seen/Unseen

What form does this επιστήμη (episteme - knowledge) take, and how far, in the various areas of human life and study, can our need for it be satisfied? What will the most satisfactory answers to our "why" questions be like? How are our various answers related? How far should we press the demand for understanding?

(The quote is from Martha Nussbaum on Aristotle's De Motu Animalium. The image is the rainbow serpent from aboriginal mythology.)