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An epiphany after observing a specimen of a Giant Anteater at the DMNS

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  Photo of Giant Anteater ( Myrmecophaga tridactyla) , Copenhagen Zoo, by Malene Thyssen . I was looking at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science's anteater exhibit, when I got an epiphany. And it relates to... reef fish. As a diver, I am mesmerized by the sheer variety of fish colors and patterns on a reef. I hear marine biologists talk about reef fish eyespots or ocelli, a "phylogenetically widespread, conspicuous marking that has been shown to effectively reduce predation, often through its resemblance to the eye" (see  Hemingson et al 2021 ). A Princess Damsel , Pomacentrus vaiuli , at North Murion Island, Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia. Note the obvious eyespot located above the caudal peduncle. Andrew Photo by J. Green / Reef life Survey. Although eyespots in reef fish are hypothesized to have a number of functions, the general consensus is that eyespots found behind the dorsal fin "align more strongly with the deflective function; where eyespots ...
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DMNS Diorama - Big Pine Key, Florida

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  Big Pine Key is one of larger islands of the Florida Keys, and home to the National Key Deer Refuge . This diorama  is located in James Hall on the third floor of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. As with many dioramas, the focus is on a few species, but there is more to see.   The foci of the diorama are the Great White Heron (a white subspecies of the Great Blue Heron ),  American Crocodiles (as opposed to American Alligators ), the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake , and the Tricolored Heron , with the rattlesnake and the crocodile locked in a lethal embrace. As with many dioramas, there is more to be seen than just the featured species. Here's what I found, aside from the herons, crocodile, and snake: Horseshoe crab . Most people don't recognize the importance of this animal to both birds (particularly the Red Knot) and humans. Horseshoe crab blood being harvested to extract Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL),a reagent that detects bacterial and fungal cell-...
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Adventure of the Seas - a transatlantic voyage

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  Caroline on shore in Arrecife, a port city on the east coast of Lanzarote, one of Spain’s Canary Islands. We were still a bit gun-shy after the disastrous cruise on Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas in June. The Adventure of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas are both from Royal Caribbean’s older Voyager Class of cruise ships. More than half of the passengers headed to Europe on the Adventure (going there for repairs and upgrades) were planning to board the Voyager  in Barcelona 4 days after disembarkation in Lisbon for the return to Florida. However, we had canceled that return cruise immediately upon finishing our cruise on the Voyager in June, so our plans were to have 2 days in Lisbon and 2 days in Barcelona to explore before flying back to Denver. That terrible cruise on the Voyager was not the fault of the ship's layout; rather, the food was submarginal and staff kept canceling events listed on the Cruise Compass newsletter. For my friends returning to Florida...
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