• Lonesome George is the last known Pinta Island Tortoise. There may never be another tortoise of his subspeices after George. However, George has recently mated with a female of a similar species of Galápagos Tortoise. If the eggs hatch, the offspring would be ‘intergrades’. (via mefi)
• Certain forms of cancer are contagious and can be transmitted from animal to animal:
  

  Cancer is not an infectious disease. And the axiom is (usually) correct. But there are exceptions. Those exceptions point toward a broader reality that scientists have begun to explore: Cancers, like species, evolve. And one way they can evolve is toward the capacity to be transmitted between individuals.

  (via bb)

• The Berkeley Pit, one of the largest Superfund sites, is an abandoned copper mine in Montana that has flooded and become extremely acidic. No plants or animals were thought to be able to live in it, but single-celled algae was found living in the pit in 1995. Since then, more than 160 species of extremophiles have been discovered in the pit. From the wiki:
  

  New fungal and bacterial species have been found to have adapted to the harsh conditions inside the pit. Intense competition for the limited resources caused these species to evolve the production of highly toxic compounds to improve survivability; natural products such as Berkeleydione, berkeleytrione and Berkeley acid have been isolated from these organisms which show selective activity against cancer cell lines.

• Fraternal twins can have multiple fathers. This is known as heteropaternal superfecundation and is rare in humans, but more common in other animals. Dogs and cats can have ‘multiple-sired litters’. (via Jess)
• Viruses can infect other viruses. This supports the idea that viruses are alive. (via ./)
• Bonus random thing: A wholphin is a hybrid between a bottlenose dolphin and a ‘false killer whale’, which is also a species of dolphin. Wholphin is also the name of McSweeney’s DVD Magazine of Unseen Films. We’ve been watching these on KenFlix, and they are awesome. I love the ’secret’ films hidden in the DVD title animations.
  

Filed under: bobslobster, science | 2 Comments
Tagged: 5randomthings , cancer , LonsomeGeorge , tortoise , virus , wholphin