Learned Something New

[+Dave]

Anyone ever hear of a Tuatara? It's lizard like thing that lives on Stevens Island in New Zealand. Saw it on the Discovery channel. Never heard of one before. I find it amazing that there is always something to learn about our planet and it's creatures.

[ShrikeHawk]

Most cool. It's always fun to learn new things.

[Capitaine Vengeur]

Agree. A friend posted me just this week-end about the coconut crab. I've never heard or read anything before about this ugly beast. I wouldn't say that I damped my sheets that night, but... Brrrr!

[GwynO]

Yes! Not many people have heard of them, fascinating little creatures. I learnt about them through an article in Fortean Times about the Genaprugwirion lizard of Wales. My cousins used to go searching for them every summer and swear they found them in an old farm building that had long since fallen into disuse, there the creatures would climb the walls and sun themselves. When I was old enough to go out there myself, most of the building had gone and the traffic from the surrounding roads had increased. I'd like to think though, that somewhere in the Anglesey marshes, there might still be a few Genaprugwirion, or Tuatara left. The Tuatara identification was first suggested by Karl Shuker, perhaps the most famous cryptozoolgist since Bernard Heuvellmans link

 

I'm loving that crab! Imagine the meat you'd get from those claws! Then again, I'm sure the Navy doctors have seen worse

[eraser_tr]

That picture looks really fake, as do a few others I googled. That butt looks like a hamburger.

 

But it is a real animal.... Nature Gallery Notice no hamburger ass

 

Doesn't look as absurdly huge though.

Edited June 14, 2010 by eraser_tr

[eraser_tr]

Well these were the same people who thought tomatoes were poisonous.

[GwynO]

Tomatoes are poisonous?

[ShrikeHawk]

Long ago, lobsters were so plentiful that Native Americans used them to fertilize their fields and to bait their hooks for fishing. In colonial times, lobsters were considered "poverty food." They were harvested from tidal pools and served to children, to prisoners, and to indentured servants, who exchanged their passage to America for seven years of service to their sponsors. In Massachusetts, some of the servants finally rebelled. They had it put into their contracts that they would not be forced to eat lobster more than three times a week.. .

 

OMG! That is SO funny. It just goes to show you how people's sense of "taste" whether in regards to tastebuds or music or fashion, is often determined by social pressures; not by truly liking something or not.

 

Cool thread. The coconut crab is another one I'd never heard of and I watch Animal Planet and Discovery more than anything else on TV. I guess they hadn't gotten around to it yet.

 

Has anyone heard of a "Wetta." It's a huge relative of the cricket that allows itself to freeze during the winter and then can thaw itself back out during the spring!

[+Dave]

 

 

Has anyone heard of a "Wetta." It's a huge relative of the cricket that allows itself to freeze during the winter and then can thaw itself back out during the spring!

 

A friend of mine has a wife just like that......

[Coot]

I think I might just loose my bowel functions if I happened upon a coconut crab unexpectedly. Creepy looking suckers. I bet they are tasty though. Instead of mulitple plates of snow crab legs all you would need is one plate of three or four coconut crab legs. I think I first learned about those over at Cryptomundo.com