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rhamphotheca:

Survival denied:  Birds, fish, plant, pygmy rabbits lose out on endangered species protection 

by John R. Platt

A variety of rare and threatened species have been denied protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in recent weeks, including North America’s smallest rabbit and a plant that may already be extinct in the wild.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which makes the final determination on which species get protected status, ruled that some of these species deserve protection, although not as much as other, higher priority species. FWS also said it lacks the funding to add some of these species to the endangered species list at this time.

The most recently denied species is the Sacramento splittail (Pogonichthys macrolepidotus), a minnow that was listed as threatened under the ESA from 1999 to 2003 then removed after a lawsuit from the San Luis and Delta–Mendota Water Authority in California. After seven years of additional review spurred by another lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), FWS ruled on Tuesday that the splittail does not warrant ESA protection, saying “while habitat loss has occurred over the years, the existing data fail to show a significant long-term decline of the splittail.” The splittail can be one of the region’s most abundant fish, but only during flood years, which California has not experienced lately. The CBD says it will challenge this most recent decision.

Another tiny species, the pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis), was denied ESA protection on September 29. The decision affects the rabbit’s dwindling populations…

(read more: Extinction Countdown Blog | Scientific American)

(photos: USBLM, USFWS)

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sciencephotolibrary:

Jellyfish larva. Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a stage in the larval development of a jellyfish. Jellyfish are any of numerous usually free-swimming marine coelenterates of the class Scyphozoa, characteristically having a gelatinous, tentacled, often bell-shaped medusoid stage as the dominant phase of its life cycle. This immature medusa or ephyra was found in a sample of zooplankton, the array of microscopic animals found floating in the world’s oceans. Magnification: x250 when printed at 10 cemtimetres across.

Credit: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

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bloodshotmary:

IT HAS FEETIES

FEEE. TIEEES.

(Source: bunnyprincesshigh, via ladyladyington)

7h475p00kyc4p70r:

milesjai:

Man the 90’s were weird.

i remember this shit omg

this was why i was afraid to eat gushers

(Source: obama-fix-this, via cobycockkills)

angrybrownbaby:

disconnectedreality:

cosmicportal:

Figure of Goddess Hathor found in “Cueva de los Tayos” (Ecuador)

Time to relearn history folks, scrap your modern european warped view of how we came to be. The ancients were connected  

People really think only Europeans knew how to sail the oceans? Oh.

(via katniss-everbeans)

(via anowlnamedpig)

(via twerking-for-the-tardis)

(Source: stay-calm-and-allons-y, via katniss-everbeans)

lizzysouth:

The most powerful argument for gay marriage I have ever read - Imgur

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