Baby Stingrays Born In Captivity

A pair of darling baby roughtail stingrays were born in captivity, surprise guests of the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center.

Apparently, a male who had been brought in earlier to mate with a female who has lived in captivity for ten years at the aquarium had the right chemistry. But according to the details of the report, no one at the facility knew the mother was pregnant.

Thus, surprise!

Link (via reddit).

Artificial Reef Declared "Ecological Disaster"

This is interesting but would be less so if not for the video footage linked to the end of this entry. In Miami, an attempt at creating an artificial reef - which to me looks more like a dumping of tires as opposed to an actual effort, having created successful reefing structures from used auto tires myself at Danger - has been declared unsuccessful and in fact a threat, due to loose tires being propelled by strong storm conditions into actual coral reefs.

But the footage below shows that while it is definitely in need of maintenance, the environment is indeed creating a habitat. (Also, oddly, one quoted person says with authority that "it wasn't deep enough," when the setting is over 60 feet down!)

Video link; Story link.

Dolphin Minds, Thinkers of the Deep

This is the post I have been waiting for, something that elaborates on the unusual intelligence of dolphins.

See, dolphins are proto-humans, that is, creatures early in their own human* development.

Link via Reddit.

*Important note. I use the term human here in a context parallel to Orson Scott Card's Utlanning, Framiling, Ramen, Varelse divination of human kinds, ie...

Utlanning- A human we recognize as part of our same world and species, yet from another town or country.

Framling- A human we recognize as part of our same species, yet from another world or planet.

Ramen- When a lifeform is considered human, but is of another species. Being able to think and behave at a human level and act civilized.

Varelse- A creature with whom communication is impossible. If such a creature is belligerent, then it is the only time when war is truly unavoidable and necessary.

It is my deepest impression that human is an unlimited state of being, and that homo sapien is merely a single expression of the kind, human.