World's Smallest Monkey

The pygmy marmoset is a petite monkey that is native to rainforests of the western Amazon Basin in South America. About just 100 grams, the pygmy marmoset is well-known to be the smallest species of monkey in the world. Pygmy marmoset is averages about 15cm in height with a 20cm long tail behind it. The tiny pygmy marmoset has sharp claws which make the pygmy marmoset superb at climbing trees and the long tail of the pygmy marmoset gives this little monkey unbelievable balance when jumping between tree branches.

The low weight of the pygmy marmoset permits to get to the canopy tree tops, a place where a lot of larger species of monkey cannot reach. They are also having ability to turn their heads 180 degrees, an adaptation which permits them to scan the environment for predators while vertically clinging to a tree. Pygmy marmoset lives on on a specialized diet of tree gum. It gnaws holes in the bark of suitable trees and vines with its specialized dentition to elicit the production of gum. When the sap puddles up in the hole, it laps it up with its tongue. It also lies in wait for insects, particularly butterflies, which are fascinated to the sap holes. It supplements its diet with berries, nectar and fruit.

The pygmy marmoset has been progressively more well-liked as an exotic pet, but they are extremely hard to keep. Therefore; when a baby pygmy marmoset is taken away from his family it can commonly die quickly due to depression. Baby pygmy marmosets also require feeding every two hours for their first two weeks in the world so they can be very time-consuming pets. Pet pygmy marmosets can take a grave dislike towards their owners and some have been known to bite their owners and throw feces at them, as a form of attack.

Beautiful Sea Creature “Nudibranch”

The bottom-dwelling, jelly-bodied Nudibranch might look an unlikely canvas for Mother Nature to express her wildest indulgences of color and form. But these shell-less mollusks, part of the sea slug family, bear some of the most mesmerizing shapes, sumptuous hues, and complicated patterns of any animal on Earth. There are over 3,000 well-known species of Nudibranch, and newest are being recognized almost daily. They are originate throughout the world's oceans, but are most plentiful in shallow, tropical waters. Their scientific name, Nudibranchia, means naked gills, and explains the feathery gills and horns that most wear on their backs. Usually oblong in shape, Nudibranchs can be thick or flattened, long or short, ornately colored or drab to match their surroundings. They can grow as small as 0.25 inches or as large as 12 inches long.

They are carnivores that slowly ply their range grazing on algae, sponges, anemones, corals, barnacles, and even other Nudibranchs. To recognize prey, they have two highly responsive tentacles, Named “rhinophores”, situated on top of their heads. Nudibranchs get their coloring from the food they eat, which assist in camouflage, and some even retain the foul-tasting poisons of their prey and secrete them as a defense against predators. Nudibranchs are instantaneous hermaphrodites, and can mate with any other mature member of their species. Their lifespan are varies generally, with a few living less than a month, and others living up to one year.

Gisborne Airport; Railway Line Intersecting the Runway

Gisborne Airport is a undersized regional airport that is situated on the western outskirts of Gisborne, the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The unique thing about this airport is one of the very few airports in the world that has a railway line intersecting the runway. The beautiful Gisborne airport covers a land of 160 hectares has three grass runways and one main runway that are intersected by the Palmerston North - Gisborne Railway Line. The airport has a single terminal with two tarmac gates.

The Tasmania’s North Western Coast, Wynyard Airport also had a railway crossing on the runway but moribund rail traffic forced the closure of rail traffic in early 2005, and thus the Wynyard airport rail crossing is no more operational. At Gisborne Airport on the other hand, the rail route functions actively and so does the airport everyday between 6:30 in the morning and 8:30 at night. After that, the runway is sealed off till morning. 

One of the more appealing aspects of the Napier-Gisborne railway line is when the line passes directly on top of the Gisborne Airport runway; trains have to stop and look for clearance from the air traffic control tower to cross the runway and continue down the line. The railway tracks splits the runway approximately in the middle and very often trains or aircraft are stopped until one of them moves on. 

Indeed it is a very challenging job for the airport authorities to manage landing at the intersecting runway along the operational rail route which has scheduled departures and arrivals itself. The Gisborne airport is a main link to enter the little region of Gisborne and hosts more than 60 domestic flights, and over 150,0000 passengers fly through this airport each year.

First Black Tomatoes Grew by UK Gardner.

United Kingdom plant nursery has become first garden centre grows Britain's BLACK tomatoes and they could assist in fight cancer. The remarkable vegetable which has a jet black skin, is the world’s first fruit which contain anthocyanins, an antioxidant thought to have a number of health benefits. Anthocyanins are compounds found in fruits, vegetables and beverages that some believe can help with diabetes, cancer and obesity. The new variety is a novelty type intended for home gardens and the market.

Tomatoes strange color stems from pigments in the skin which develop when exposed to sunlight. Ray Brown, 66 years old, who runs Plant World Seeds, first came across the strange vegetable when a buyer sent him a mystery package entitled 'black tomato”, disbelieving the label, he sowed the product and was stunned by the outcome. He said, we are always looking for something original and nobody has every produced black tomatoes, the closest they have got are brown ones and orange ones, and people thought was impossible, we thought it was a hoax. But when we grew them we realized they nonplus vegetable, which is jet black, and we were absolutely staggered. This is completely new, as far as i am aware they have never, ever been grown in this country before.'

I’ve three plants, each containing twenty tomatoes which have black skins but are red on the inside. This is not easy for something is totally unusal,  and no one can quite believe what we've got, they keep asking if it's a joke, or if they're edible. These tomateos are deible, and we’ve eaten lot of them, have a nice taste and a really exquisite flavour.

Deadly Lake Water Turns Bird into Stone

1. Tanzania's Lake Natron actually a mix of chemicals and it contains mainly sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and sodium carbonate de-cahydrate (soda ash). The lake Natron is fed by mineral hot springs and a river, but no water flows out except through evaporation. The results are totally havoc and the caustic waters create deadly outcomes.

Deadly Lake Waters Turn Birds to Stone

2. Calcified Fish Eagle

It may look like this bird was gripped by the icy hand of death, but actually it was calcified in the caustic waters of Tanzania's Lake Natron.  The unexpectedly found the creatures all manner of birds and bats washed up along the shoreline of Lake Natron in Northern Tanzania.No one knows exactly how they die, but it appears that the extreme reflective nature of the lake’s surface confuses them, and like birds crashing into plate glass windows, they crash into the lake.The water has a tremendously high soda and salt content, the soda and salt causes the creatures to calcify, perfectly preserved, as they dry. Across The ravaged land is to give these clearly lifeless creatures an air of reanimation. 

Calcified Fish Eagl

3. Calcified Bat

The Lake Natron waters can reach high temperatures up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. And during dry spells the PH can go up to 10.5, just shy of the alkalinity of ammonia. Sometimes the mineral to water ratio is so high that the water becomes almost thick to the touch.

Calcified Bat

4. Calcified Songbird

Some living things can survive the super salty waters, with the exception of certain red-colored cyanobacteria a type of blue green algae which give the lake a rust colored appearance from space. A single species of endemic fish can thrive in the corrosive environment. 

Calcified Songbird

5. Calcified Flamingo

Lesser flamingos take advantage of the inhospitable environment as a breeding ground. They feed off the blue-green algae in the lake and nest on islands of evaporated salt, or even along the dry, salty shorelines. It's such a good spot for nesting, indeed, that this lake area where these 2.5 million birds will breed. There are no needs to fear predators because there are none. However; saline waters themselves can prove toxic if the birds aren't careful. The lesser flamingo is now categorized as "near threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Calcified Songbird

6.Calcified Swallow

The Gelai Volcano sits on the southeastern shore of the 35-mile lake, towering 9,652 feet above the caustic waters. Due to its exclusive ecosystem, the Lake basin is on the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance. The significance of birdlife and other species to big threats from nearby development, which include a proposed hydropower plant on the Ewaso Ngiro River, just over the border into Kenya, and a mill to process the soda ash from the lake itself.

Calcified Songbird

7. Calcified Dove

Today nomadic peoples occasionally herd cattle through the region, but public do not live in the Lake Natron basin. The existing lake is a highly poisonously concentrated remnant of what used to be a massive, freshwater lake 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. Even go to more in past, people did occupy this area. Just west of the lake is the resting place of Australopithecus boisei  and the early East African hominin whose 1.75-million-year-old jaw and full set of teeth were uncovered in 1959. His dried bones are not unlike the calcified remains of Brandt's birds.

Calcified Dove

Eye-Catching Multicolored Kernels of Corns

The eye-catching multicolored kernels of corn that seem to be glass beads belong to a particularly bred variety, aptly named Glass Gem Corn, and they are actually grown from seeds. The Glass Gem corn was actually developed by Carl Barnes, a part-Cherokee farmer living in Oklahoma, who noticed that every so often, a cob showed signs of unusual coloring shining through. Carl Barnes collected and saved those seeds, and thanks to his supernatural knack for corn breeding and many years of painstaking effort, Glass Gem corn was born.

Carl Barnes bestowed his precious seed collection to his friend Greg Schoen and also shared with Schoen actually process of breeding the Glass Gem corn. In 2010 Greg Schoen decided to move, however he made the determination of finding someone to store and protect his seed collection so that it didn’t get lost or ruined in the moving process. Then he decided to store the seeds with Seeds Trust, (A small seed company in Arizona), ensuring Carl Barnes magnificent collection of Glass Gem corn seeds wouldn't face the risk of getting lost when he relocated, these special seeds with the unusual name of Glass Gems.  Bill McDorman, the owner of Seeds Trust decided to plant a few seeds in his own garden, and he was amazed at what the seeds produced. I was ecstatic when I see the corns, because no one had ever seen corn like this before. These Glass Gem seeds are now available for sell through its website for $7.95 (£4.90) per packet, although they are so highly sought-after that they are frequently sold out. The corn can be used to make flour or popcorn, even though it is not recommended to eat it straight off the cob.

Two-Tailed Ancient Bird Discovered

An ancient dinosaur-era bird turns out to have two tails, one maybe for flying while the other for showing off. Paleontologists suggest that the early bird gets two tails? A 120-million-year-old bird sported a long tail and a second, unexpected tail frond, the discovery points to a intricate evolutionary path for the tails we see in birds today. The 2^nd oldest known bird, Jeholornis, lived in what is today China, along with a trove of other feathered dinosaurs uncovered in the region over the last decade. Fossils explain that Jeholornis was turkey-size, had claws on its wing forelimbs, and possessed 3 small teeth in its lower jaw, and thought to sport only a long fan feathered tail at its back end. Therefore; paleontologists are claiming discovery of a second tail frond adorning the bird. It is believed that 'two-tail' plumage of Jeholornis is unique. Of 11 Jeholornis fossils that retain evidence of ancient plumage, six have signs of this frond of eleven feathers, which would have jutted above the bird's back at a jaunty, upright angle in a "visually striking" manner.

Visibly the display aspect of the frond would have been irrefutable. It calls to mind living birds, even peacocks, which display broad plumes of feathers. In peacocks and other birds, such feathery skin textures are more for attracting the attention of potential mates than for any functional purpose. Male birds are the ones with the striking plumage, and perhaps only one sex of Jeholornis sported the eye-catching tail fronds.

Jeholornis is not thought to be directly related to modern birds, which seem to have evolved from a different line of early avians. The tail frond may have played a stabilizing role in the flight of these early birds and that if the arrangement of feathers had proven advantageous enough, modern birds might have evolved to sport such two tailed features. The fronds are flattening to offer a streamlined appearance when the bird was in flight. Other researchers aren't convinced the newly discovered tail frond played much of a role in aviation, however. Feathering in the new specimens is quite interesting; it could have been a peculiarity of the one species, as the authors note. Perhaps the frond simply evolved as an easy-to-notice "sexual display" flaunted by these early birds