Mudskipper

It is believed that the first fish to move onto land did so to avoid increased predation in the seas. This makes sense, because if there was little on land but plants and insects, it would be a safe place to be, so long as you could handle the sun. Today’s fish, not so much. If you’re leaping out of the water, you’re coming into a land that has birds, cats and crabs to eat you as well as the same sorts of insects that existed millions of years ago. This is of particular interest because those three types of animals (avian, mammal, insect and arthropod) have different kinds of eyes. Thus, if you want to be safe, you have to be able to see them without them seeing you. On top of that, you want your camouflage to work underwater as well. Thus, you get this type of patterning, where the top and sides match the rocks on which the fish sits and the bottom is lighter to blend in with the brightly-lit surface. You can also see a light speckling presumably helps to break up the pattern for those predators with eyes tuned for smooth expanses (such as the compound eye on an insect, I hypothesize).

One thing I’ve long wanted to do is get cameras that can see the infrared (like snakes) and the ultraviolet (like birds and insects). The camera helps you to see things you otherwise wouldn’t, and by adding things like macro lenses and microscopes, you can see closer like smaller animals do. Telephotos let you see like some birds. A polarizer can help you to see like some crustaceans and mollusks. But it takes different technology to extend the spectrum and, even then, it’s only an approximation. Still, I think it’s one worth (eventually) pursuing.

2014 WWF Poll (Voting ends December 1st)

It's that time again. This year's selection of WWF animals is up. As in previous years, you get to vote on who gets to come and live with me. The rules are similar to last year. One vote per person in the poll, for one point. As many votes as you like in the comments, which counts for five points.

A comment vote should be creative, but needn't be long. Poems are popular, but flash fiction is good too. No one has done fan art in favor of an animal yet, but if that's your thing, go for it.

Here are this year's contenders:

	The Whale Shark is the largest fish still living. It has over 300 rows of teeth, but pretty much ignores them in favor of filter feeding. They are a deity in Vietnam, where they are called "Sir Fish", 'cause when a fish is that big, you better treat it with respect.
	Pygmy Marmosets are the smallest true monkeys in the world. "True" monkeys are like "real" men/women in that that particular classification only matters to outsiders and the monkeys themselves don't really care. They eat tree gum, which is the real reason your parents didn't want you swallowing your gum as a kid. You were enough of a monkey already.
	A Narwhal, interestingly, is named after the Norse word "nár", meaning "corpse" because they look like dead sailors. Yes, that means that in historical Norse culture, dead sailors were seen sufficiently frequently for their skin colour to be well known to the general population. More importantly, one-horned animals must have been seen even more often, for the tusk not to have been used for identification.
	North American Porcupines are unique in this list in that they are the only one I have (thus far) been able to pet. If you are fortunate enough to be given such an opportunity in the future it is important to remember that, like the while shark, you should only pet them in one direction. They are also the only North American mammal with antibiotics in their skin, to prevent infection in case the poke themselves. This fact is particularly interesting as it implies that there are non-mammals in North America with skin antibiotics and mammals in the rest of the world with this feature. At the time of this writing, Wikipedia does offer a list of antibiotic animals.
	The Pronghorn is refereed to as an antelope on the WWF page even though they should really know better. Shame on them. Their horns are also technically not horns. Also, wikipedia lies when it calls them the fastest mammal in Western hemisphere as there are, in fact, cheetahs in zoos all over the place. Also, humans have learned to operate airplanes which move them pretty darn fast. Basically, everyone lies about the pronghorn.

Now, vote.

[Poll #1988436]

African Rock Python (Python sebae)

Some snakes don’t need the protection of overlapping scales and just deck themselves out in semi-precious stones instead.

Palm Cockatoo (Probosciger aterrimus)

In honor of Halloween, I present to you, a dinosaur dressed up as a bird.