Animal of the Week: Ornithorhyncus anatinus

Last week Thomy had to write the plural of platypus as part of his homework and he came to me for help. Platypi is the correct form, -i being the masculine plural Latin suffix. I'll bet his teacher wasn't looking for that one.

Octopus means eight feet; platypus means flat foot. These words come from Greek but have been transformed to Latin.

We talked about the genus name, Ornithorhyncus, and how it means bird nose. The platypus belongs to a group of animals called Monotremata, meaning one hole. The monotremes have only one urogenital opening, like birds and reptiles, which they use to lay eggs and to do other things. Very cool.

I think they look like floating gummy bears.

Plant of the Week: Tsuga heterophylla

Hemlock has woody pegs. Tsuga heterophylla or Pacific Hemlock was this one if my memory serves me. I think its the only Tsuga species in the area. Picea, or Spruce, also has woody pegs but is easily divided from Tsuga by its awl-shaped needles: they are triangular in cross-section.

Here are some more photos of that camping trip from last summer at Cape Lookout near Tillamook, Oregon.

Do I look tired? I was.

Pip Squeak is a great trail dog. He would blaze the trail, make sure everything was safe and wait for us to catch up at the bends. That is until we went off-trail and he could not get through the thick grass. After that he rode on my backpack.

Movie Review: Escape from Planet Earth

Jenny and I took the kids to the movies tonight. According to the writers of Escape from Planet Earth, humans are the product of de-evolution from higher forms of life such as dinosaurs, a dimwit is a man with a rifle, the United States military is led by sadistic men, and the only thing America knows how to do is build big guns and blow things up. Why can't children's entertainment just be fun these days instead of pushing a political agenda? I recommend a boycott of this movie.