Friday, March 15, 2019

Pink Squirrels

A biology professor at Northland College in Texas was shining a UV flashlight in his backyard because ... I don't know why, I guess that's just what bio profs do. Anyway, as he was shining the UV light a hot-pink flying squirrel flew by him. No typos in that sentence. See for yourself.


Turns out no one ever noticed this before, except maybe rob but he kept it to himself. The loon with the UV light then started shining on museum specimens and found more glowing squirrels.


His results were published in The Journal of Mammalogy, in which he concluded:

Fluorescence in varying intensities of pink was observed in females and males of all extant species (G. oregonensis, G. sabrinus, and G. volans) across all sampled geographic areas in North and Central America and a temporal range of 130 years. We observed fluorescence in museum specimens (n = 109) and wild individuals (n = 5) on both dorsal and ventral surfaces. Museum specimens of three co-occurring, diurnal sciurid species (Sciurus carolinensis, S. niger, and Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) were also examined but did not fluoresce. The ecological significance of this trait in the nocturnal–crepuscular flying squirrels warrants further investigation.

I eagerly await rob's scholarship on this matter.

36 comments:

  1. I have not read the Journal of Mammalogy, sadly. But I maintain my own journal of mammaries.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was going to reference your journal collection in the post but decided instead to let you connect the dots in the comments. Well played sir.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is Juggs Carlesimov in the journal?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beware the Ides of March, good people. And St. Ides.

    ReplyDelete
  5. And speaking of pink, Pink Talking Fish tomorrow! Get some.

    ReplyDelete

  6. "Former Bills’ [sic] QB JP Losman, now a 38-year-old offensive coach at Clemson, threw the ball to WRs/DBs so well at the school’s Pro Day today, that an NFL team actually asked him if he had any interest in coming back to the NFL, in which he last played a game in 2011. Losman declined."

    https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1106266446164840449

    ReplyDelete
  7. Enjoy your new OT Ty Nsekhe.

    Actually, he's ok.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Why is it called a "hot water heater" and not just a "water heater"?

    ReplyDelete
  9. How many total wins did Charlie Woollum have as head coach of William & Mary?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Warren Sapp approves the Ty Nsekhe signing.

    https://twitter.com/SharpFootball/status/1105536249069215745

    ReplyDelete
  11. everyone should listen to "switched on pop" podcast. songwriter and musicologist break down pop songs music-theorywise. taylor swift one is great. i just finished this one:

    http://www.switchedonpop.com/why-is-90s-pop-so-bizarre/

    now that whit is in the studio, he will especially enjoy this. much more fun than song exploder.

    ReplyDelete
  12. justin pierce transferring from w&m. good job, good effort, #hugemistake.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I’ll pass, Dave. If we ever meet you can tell me all about it.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I’ve seen countless number of space launches in my life. A night time launch never gets old though. Something special about seeing the night sky light up from a rocket launch followed by the rumble of it breaking the sound barrier.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I know Rob hates Carolina but I think even he would admit they’re rocking some dope shooting shirts.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Re: night launches. They’re pretty fucking cool, Rob. Nothing was as special as a space shuttle night launch. Those truly lit up the sky. They’re all pretty special though.

    ReplyDelete
  17. carolina generally has dope gear. still hate 'em, though.

    ReplyDelete
  18. They do. I appreciate the old school ram logo on the shooting shirt. Brings me back to my days at Carolinas basketball school with Greg.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Duke-UNC with both near their peak. Yessir.

    ReplyDelete
  20. If UNC wins tonight, I hope we only get one ACC team as a 1 seed. UVA is miserable to watch. Zero chance they can win it all, and they deserve to be punished for sharting their shorts last year.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I was coming around on UVA this year. Guy is an NBA level shooter. Hunter is a lottery pick and Jerome is a backup in the league. But slow, deliberate offense is so susceptible to upsets. It’s foolish to ever pick them in a big game with semi equal talent.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Wishing a happy 76th to the legendary Iron Sheik.

    ReplyDelete
  23. mark, if you were at the party i was at last night, that would have happened. i was (drunkenly) telling the story of omc's "how bizarre" and rednex "cotton eyed joe." god help whoever i buttonholed.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Does Cat know you buttonholed someone last night?

    ReplyDelete
  25. I spent my afternoon housing fantastic bbq hanging with friends and enjoying some beers but I was able to see the end of Florida-Auburn. The. I call at the end of the game was fucking criminal. I have no clue how that isn’t a foul and if I wasn’t so content and full on brisket, pulled pork and sausage I’d be irate.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Not the most grammatically sound comment from me but I think I made my point.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I live in a town populated predominantly by drunken Irishmen. Tonight a bunch of them are staggering around setting off car alarms (presumably because in their stupor they mistook someone else's car for their own, not because they're thieves) and fireworks. I'm staying inside tonight.

    ReplyDelete
  28. i was just downtown in my little hamlet, where i observed a similar phenomenon. all the amateur drinkers are out in force. me, i had my first hopslam of the season, and i found the bar i'll spend a lot of time in if i ever (god forbid) become single again.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Hopslam is a very good beer.

    I’m a drunken Irishman but have no desire to deal with the block party scene that has becomes St Patrick’s Day. Day drank a bit and (as mentioned) ate a ton of smoked meat. Happily sitting at home and sipping on Jameson. As Rob said, and my Dad and talked about today, St Patrick’s Day is amateur hour these days.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I broke into the Col. Taylor tonight. He might've been Irish.

    ReplyDelete
  31. i really don't like duke, but i really want to watch as much zion williamson as i can. please advise.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Now the cops are across the street. They might be drunk too, I'm not sure.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I was Duke fan as a kid. Big fan. That ended when I enrolled at Florida in the same year as Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem and Teddy Dupay. I thoroughly enjoy watching Zion. Beyond his transcendent athleticism, he plays really

    ReplyDelete