Next up, we have:

[1] Badgerfish, Lo vulpinus
[2] Purple Tang, Zebrasoma xanthurus
[3] Pyjama Cardinal Fish, Sphaeramia nematoptera

The seagrasses are an ecologically important clade of marine plants. They have the distinction of being the only fully submerged marine Angiosperms (flowering plants), and have recently been split into more than one taxonomic Family. Originally they were all grouped within the Zosteraceae, but there are now four Families where once there was just one. The other three Families are the Cymodoceaceaae, the Ruppiaceae and the Posidoniaceae. This latter Family, containing the Genus Posidonia, is notable not only for being an efficient aquatic photosynthesising plant, but for possessing nitrogen fixation capabilities also.

Members of Posidonia have an odd geographical distribution. P. oceanica is endemic to the Mediterranean, but all the other members of the Genus are found around the coasts of Western Australia. No member of the Genus is found in any of the intervening 10,000 miles of ocean between those locations.

In the case of the Genus Zostera (usually known as Eelgrasses), one species living off the coast of South Australia (possibly Z. mucronata or Z. tasmanica[/i]) plays host to that most rococo of fishes, the Leafy Seadragon.

Seagrasses of various species are important marine nurseries for a range of fishes, including juveniles of Jacks, Fusiliers and several species of Seahorse.

Interesting that this topic should be highlighted for my attention after I spent two days visiting various aquarium shops and photographing the exotic fish there

Since rodents have been a major feature of this thread, perhaps it's time to remind everyone of the more outlandish members of the Order ...

This word crops up frequently in the world of software development. Which is the reason I'm familiar with it. Caught me by surprise to find it missing from the Chi lexicon ...

Quote from: Calilasseia on October 28, 2022, 01:04:04 PM

One for Pat's bucket list perchance?

Such a big world. So many birds. So little time.

Exactly how I feel about Lepidoptera, only two orders of magnitude more intensely because of the numbers involved 

If I find myself in Peru sometime, there's 3,500 species of butterfly to chase down with the camera, and a whopping 35,000 moth species. That's around 25 to 30 lifetimes' worth of study material in one country alone.

But if the chance to do that arose, I would SO much be in my happy place.

And today, I find myself being introduced to a spectacular little bird, in the form of Cissa hypoleuca, the Indochinese Green Magpie. Some nice photos of this can be found here.

One for Pat's bucket list perchance?

Sample photo from that website:

Petrol heads will be aware of the Volkswagen Phaeton, an attempt by VW to outdo the Mercedes S-Class. Which was a sales flop, because the world wasn't ready for a halo car from VW with the running costs of a Bentley. Lovely car, but few people were prepared to splurge £120,000 on a car that looked like a Passat. The W12 engine option was also hideously fuel hungry, as you might expect from an engine that also appeared in the Bentley Continental GT.

That's a recent usage of the word that will elicit smiles from those in the know.

VW should have learned from the Maybach débacle experienced by Mercedes -Benz. They tried reviving the old Maybach name as a separate luxury brand, the way Toyota did with Lexus. Except that the Maybach project was intended to take on Rolls-Royce, just as RR had unleashed the latest incarnation of the Phantom as the ultimate palace on wheels.

Needless to say, the sort of people who were contemplating blowing a cool £350,000 on a Rolls-Royce Phantom, were NOT going to blow a similar wad of cash on something that looked like a stretched S-Class with flab issues. To highlight how much of a disaster this move was, RR managed to sell more Phantoms in Germany alone than Mercedes-Benz sold Maybachs worldwide.

Now VW had the chance to learn from this, but went ahead with the Phaeton anyway. Worse still, they built a halo car with lots of toys that was almost identical in appearance to a Passat unless you got close enough to it for the car to sue you for harassment.

Still, at least it wasn't as pig ugly as the Ford Edsel or the now infamous Pontiac Aztek, the latter having much to recommend it features wise (built in camping tent and cooler box from the factory?), but which was chopped off at the knees by the frankly hideous body styling.

Oh, and wind the clock back to the early days of motoring, and several car makers of the past, such as Lanchester (and for that matter Rolls-Royce itself) offered cars with "Phaeton" body styles. Which was how Mulliner Park Ward made a handsome living becoming the "go to" coachbuilder for RR and Bentley.

Heh, there are single celled life forms whose life cycles are longer than Truss' tenure in the PM's job. Never mind the Daily Star lettuce, there are Dinoflagellates, Diatoms and Desmids that last longer than 45 days. (I'm not counting amoebae or bacteria because they're effectively immortal).

There are fruit flies that have more staying power (see for example Drosophila suzukii and close relations), and some butterflies of my acquaintance can remain alive as adults for eight months.

As for Tardigrades, those things can survive being exposed to the vacuum of space for 21 days, and still come alive when returned to Earth. One of which might be the only thing living inside Truss' head right now. The fun part being that Tardigrades are genuine occupants of gutters, yet still manage to exude more honesty and integrity than a Tory MP.