Southern Bald Ibis

Image via Wikipedia

I'd heard of the Northern Bald Ibis for a while before that "Bald as a Coot" post but it wasn't until I did some further research that I realised what probably ought to have been obvious from the start: there is a Southern Bald Ibis. It's very gratifying to see that while there are similarities to its close, Northern relative, it looks strange in a completely different way.

What's the Difference Between a Sawfish and a Sawshark?

Sawfish, Image via Wikipedia

It's easy to confuse Sawfish with Sawsharks. They're both flat and have an all round similar profile but worse of all, they both share a feature that looks like it shouldn't exist at all, let alone twice. This, of course, is the eponymous saw. It serves them both as a crippling weapon used to cut and slash prey with sideways swipes and strikes. Scary! For the rest of us? Scissors, knives and saws, never run with any of them.

Common Stinkhorn

Image via Wikipedia

Hmmm... "Common Stinkhorn". What does that tell us? I suppose it tells us that this thing is common. Good start. Perhaps it also tells us that it stinks? I suppose that's quite possible, a lot of things are deemed offensive by our tender nostrils. Does it... does it also tell us that it's... horny? Surely not! Surely that's just a  vulgar thought that crept out from some filthy crevice of my own sordid mind. Let's look beyond my dirty, little brain and look to what the sober observations of scientists say.

The scientific name for the Common Stinkhorn is Phallus impudicus. "Impudicus" comes from the Latin for "shameless". And "Phallus"... I see.

ONE YEAR!

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday Real Monstrosities,

Happy Birthday to you!

Wow!

Real Monstrosities has reached the grand old age of 1 today!

It's one year (and 12 hours) since I clicked on that all important PUBLISH button having first put fingertip to keyboard to write all about the Deep Sea Anglerfish. That was not so long after my first time ever seeing a real one in a jar and being amazed at how tiny it was. Of course, there are loads of Deep Sea Anglerfish and they aren't all so small. We'll see more about them all some day.

Anyway, I'm quite amazed that I've managed to last this long. I'm usually one of those fellows who's really great and committed to stuff for a while and then just, sort of... stop. This time, I eventually set myself a blogging schedule that I've managed to stick to all the way up until now. I really didn't think I would have it in me!

I've seen other blogs that go through some retrospective of the year. I don't know... all I'll say is that I've had ups and downs. Downs usually coming right after the ups, but usually not going quite so far down as before. Progress, basically. Which is nice, really, really nice. I'm not, like, all crazy with ambition, but neither am I "blogging for myself and if anyone reads it, that's a bonus". Nope. People reading it is mandatory.

So thanks for reading it!

Thank you to all the glancers, readers, subscribers, commenters, linkers, sharers and passers-by (who I guess won't see this) who have all contributed to Real Monstrosities over the past year.

You are all very much appreciated and keep at bay the gnawing jealousies and dark thoughts of abject futility! Woo!

Three cheers to that!

Three cheers to you!

Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker

Image via Wikipedia

Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker? What on Earth? Did someone just pick some words at random from a bag and throw them together to make a name? Apparently not. The Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker is one of those odd little creatures that merge the utterly adorable with the downright ugly to create something marvellously intriguing.

Treehopper

Image via Wikipedia

Treehoppers are small insects, true bugs most closely related to cicadas and leafhoppers. There are over 3,000 species found in every continent in the world aside from Antarctica. Lots of them are green or brown, camouflaged against the plants they spend their time on.