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Alithographica — Science Fact Friday: Sentinel Species
#animals #biology #cat #environment #environmental #frog #illustration #lichen #mollusc #mussel #nature #plant #science #scientific #scientificillustration
Published: 2018-04-28 03:08:28 +0000 UTC; Views: 1153; Favourites: 71; Downloads: 13
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I didn't die, sorry for the unannounced break last week! Family vacation and commission deadlines and such.
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See also: Canaries in coal mines.
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Comments: 9
Ugh, there are so... many... frogs where I live in the summer! Probably a sign of a healthy environment, but quite detrimental to my mental health at night
Never thought about it, but it makes a lot of sense that muscles would be sensitive to pollutants. They're certainly susceptible to red tides, which aren't too uncommon here along the West Coast of South Africa (maybe a potential topic for a future science Friday? 
Ah, lichen! Every textbook containing anything about natural selection seems to mention the two kinds of pepper moths in Victorian London, and how the pollution killed the lichen and made the trees black with soot, causing the black variant to reign supreme and the speckled white kind to diminish.
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Ahhhh want to change places? I love frogs, nothing makes me happier than frog noises. Even weird loud ones.
Red tides! I forgot those were a thing, I'll definitely make a note.
And yeah! I love that story. Did you know that the white variant is on the rise again because of the decrease in coal use?
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Honestly, if they just croaked or chirped, that would be fine... but no, these guys straight up BARK! aaaall night long... I can really see how they were one of the ten plagues of Egypt XD
Cool! Well, that's natural selection in action for you.
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Hope you had a fun vacation - once again, I learn some new stuff thanks to you! (I only knew about frogs before.)
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Thanks! Pretty good vacation, but not nearly enough frogs haha.
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Stinking plastic manufacturer. I wouldn't be surprised if they KNEW they were doing it too.
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Yup.
It was the 1950s though, even if they were deliberately dumping waste (I think they were? icr) I doubt they knew that the pollutants could be taken up by the fish and then the humans. A lot of those realizations have only happened in the last few decades. Still ridiculous that it was (and is) totally fine to dump waste in general, though - littering on an epic scale.
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Yeah ;~;
The only reason people noticed is because they themselves started to get ill.
So depressing.
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I've heard of that story too from some recent horror manga, somehow the people blamed the cats for the convulsions and that made me mad.
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