Tasseled Anglerfish
“The tasseled anglerfish is one of over 200 anglerfish species that put food on the table by combining camouflage and the physiological fishing tackle that gives them their name. The fish uses a protruding piece of rodlike dorsal spine, tipped with a bacteria-fuelled, glowing “lure,” to tempt prey close enough to be gulped by its outsize mouth.”
Photograph by Jason Edwards
“The vivid purple spines of this sea urchin from God’s Pocket Marine Provincial Park, British Columbia, help it move along the seafloor, as do hydraulically operated tube feet.”
Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic
Blue Poison Dart Frog
“Poison dart frogs, members of the Dendrobatidae family, wear some of the most brilliant and beautiful colors on Earth. Depending on individual habitats, which extend from the tropical forests of Costa Rica to Brazil, their coloring can be yellow, gold, copper, red, green, blue, or black. Their elaborate designs and hues are deliberately ostentatious to ward off potential predators, a tactic called aposematic coloration.”
Photograph by George Grall
“Nudibranchs’ colorful lives are short, lasting less than a month in some cases, and rarely more than a year. Their elusive nature makes them difficult to study, and their boneless, shell-less bodies leave no record of their brief existence.”
Photograph by Clare Keating, My Shot
Throat of Fire
Molten lava streams from the cone of Tungurahua volcano on April 26. Tungurahua is one of eight active volcanoes in Ecuador. Less than 80 miles (130 kilometers) to the north, the active Cotopaxi volcano threatens more than a million people living in the Andes highlands.
Photograph by Soledad Contreras, European Pressphoto Agency
Circles Of Life
Photograph courtesy NASA and NASA Earth Observatory
“Fields near the city of Perdizes, in the Minas Gerais state of Brazil, are seen in a 2011 astronaut photograph.”
Aurora Over Earth
Photograph courtesy NASA and NASA Earth Observatory
“During a geomagnetic storm, a neon green ribbon of aurora australis danced over Earth in this 2010 photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station.”
Aurora On Saturn
“Streams of charged particles blasted from the sun collide with Saturn’s magnetic field, creating an aurora on the planet’s south pole. Unlike Earth’s relatively short-lived auroras, Saturn’s can last for days. Scientists combined ultraviolet images of the auroras, taken by Hubble over a period of days, with visible-light images of the ringed planet. In this view the aurora appears blue because of the ultraviolet camera, but a Saturn-based observer would see red light flashes.”
Total Solar Eclipse
“The sun’s outermost region, called the corona, shines like a halo around the moon during a total solar eclipse. Such eclipses occur when a new moon passes in front of the sun. They don’t happen often—only about once a year—since the tilted orbits of the sun, moon, and Earth make their alignment rare. Total solar eclipses are of special interest to astronomers because it is the only time the sun’s corona can be seen from the Earth’s surface.”
“On a drying lake bed in Victoria, a farmer in 2007 alerted scientists to a major find: well-preserved tracks of a Diprotodon. The slow-moving behemoth had been crossing a volcanic plain 100,000 years ago, when megafauna still walked tall.
Giant Wombat (Diprotodon optatum)
A plodding colossus, D. optatum, the largest known marsupial, grew to rhinoceros size. The biggest ones reached over six feet tall at the shoulder and ten feet long, their furry, pillar-like legs supporting three tons of weight. Diprotodon occupied a niche similar to the African elephant, browsing on shrubs and collecting at water holes. Its SUV size and lack of agility would have made it a tempting target for marsupial lions and human hunters.”
Photograph by Amy Toensing
“The transparent shells of tiny Cypridina hilgendorfii, found in the coastal waters and sands of Japan, hold a creature that emits a luminous blue substance when disturbed. During World War II, the Japanese harvested these creatures for soldiers to use when reading maps and messages at night.”
Photograph by Paul A. Zahl
