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Showing posts from May, 2018

Ancient Seas #2

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*cough* Rivers *cough* Sarcosuchus Photo: Max Thomas Kingdom: Animalia Class: Reptillia Conservation Status: Extinct (EX) Found: Africa (sometimes South America) Era: Cretaceous Lived : 112 million years ago Diet: Fish Weight: Up to 8 tonnes* Size: 11-12m (36-39ft)* Habitat: Tropical regions, freshwater rivers.  *Estimates The Sarcosuchus is a giant crocodylian which lived over 112 million years ago, during the Cretaceous era. It is a distant relative of the modern living crocodylians, but has no direct living relatives as they are technically a pholidosaur.  Fragments of this gargantuan "croc" were first found between 1946-1956 by French paleontologists. More complete speciemens were not found until the late 20th century. From the fragments, scientists were able to extrapolate the estimated 11-12m size of the Sarcosuchus, which is over twice the size of the largest modern crocodile. The initial fragments were from the skull and p...

Taking Baby Steps

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In case you missed it, cutting out plastic from my life sent my brain reeling somewhat. I rambled incoherently for a lot of words and didn't really make any concrete plans. Things have changed. A little, I mean it is still colossally overwhelming. I just have to keep remembering, I am but one human, at this juncture I can only take baby steps. But baby steps add up, especially if I can inspire some of you to follow in my tentative steps. And that is exactly the ethos behind the source of my newly gained confidence. The #2minutesolution book: No. More. Plastic. by Martin Dorey. I got this book at the beginning of the week and I have already finished it. By the founder of the Beach Clean Network and #2minutebeachclean. I found this book massively helpful because it has an easy reading tone. It's not agressive or preachy; it just talks sense. And the best bit? It offers help. Excuse me while I sing a chorus of heavenly hallelujahs. It has a logical progression ...

Marine Creature of the Month MAY

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Suggested by Carole , who is a fan of this month's creature ! Which is... *drum roll* Nudibranch Photo credit: Dive the World Kingdom: Animalia Class: Gastropoda Conservation Status: Not Evaluated (NE) [As far as I can tell] Found: Worldwide; salt water, occasionally brackish water Diet: Carnivorous Size: 0.25-12 inches Weight: Up to 3.3lbs Habitat: Seabed, depths from intertidal zones to 700m (2,300ft) Nudibranch are a vastly diverse species inhabiting our oceans, with 3,000 valid species so far. They are everywhere, in any type of sea. They are found in tropical waters, temperate waters, even the cold (cold) waters of the both Poles. New species are even being found at depths of 2,500m (8,200ft). Everywhere! While they are most diverse in shallow, warm waters, there are two main types of nudibranch: Dorids and Aeolid. They have distinct defining features, which I shall get into later. (I feel you need a little more information first!) Most...

Problematic Plastic

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This post has been a long time coming for me. It has even taken me three days to write it. I wasn't sure how to approach my own plastic comsumption, let alone blog about reducing it. This post has been pushed back and back and back... My beautiful handwriting But I guess the reason why  I was having such trouble is because plastic is just so problematic . It's everywhere! So much of my life seemingly depends on the substance suffocating our planet. Grappling with this warrants blogging about, so I am diving in. Problematic Plastic will no doubt become an on-going series as I figure out how to undo nearly thirty years of bad habits. It's all part of the journey. My starting point was the Earth Day Plastic Pollution Primer , which was both inspiring and a little infuriating. It pushes the core message: Reduce, Refuse, Reuse, Recycle, Remove . All good, these are all things I can do. Reading further it even has a plastic calculator to figure out how much you use...