Thanks for stopping by the newsletter today! There are some fun blogs for you to read below. I've put together enough of these emails now that somewhere along the way I stopped getting nervous about emailing thousands of subscribers at once. But last night I was one of many people mistakenly sent an email by DraftKings regarding a golf bet I never placed. My nerves are back! I hope whoever's reading this installment of The Cipher is an intended recipient.
-Maitreyi |
At Home With The Worst Team In Baseball
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Josh Hartnett Was Always Guaranteed To Jack You Up
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How A 170-Year Old Lizard Finally Came To Jamaica
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Three Things We Liked On The Internet Today:
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New Itty-Bitty Clam From South Africa |
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The clam in the above photo may look like an ordinary clam: whitish, shelled, vaguely oval. But this is no ordinary clam. In fact, it is only loosely a clam, and more specifically a galeommatoidean bivalve—a rare type of two-shelled mollusk that scientists know very little about. Galeommatoidean bivalves are tiny, and this particular new species, Brachiomya ducentiunus, is only 2 millimeters, or an eighth of an inch, long.
Unlike more sedentary clams, galeommatoidean bivalves can get around quite easily, crawling on their muscular foot like a snail. The tiny bivalves often live in symbiotic relationships with other invertebrates that live on or burrow into the seafloor. Scientists discovered B. ducentiunus in just one spot in False Bay, South Africa, where a cluster of the tiny clams were found clinging to the burrowing sea urchin Spatagobrissus mirabilis, according to a new paper in the journal ZooKeys. The researchers were surveying the bay for another project around regional kelp beds. But many of western South Africa’s smaller marine invertebrates remain undescribed, so research in the area often turns up new species, as one of the scientists explained in a press release.
Before I learned about this teensy bivalve, I had no idea that any clams formed symbiotic relationships with other species. I always thought about clams as being stiff and solitary, not big-footed and on-the-go. I’m grateful to B. ducentiunus for making me question my long-held clam assumptions. Moving forward, I shan’t dismiss any clam as too still, or too small, to be worth looking at. I salute you, little clam!
-Sabrina Imbler
Photo credit: Craig Foster |
Pass Me Another Olive Oil Shot |
This afternoon, ageless first baseman Carlos Santana hit his 16th home run of the year, and a triumphant Minnesota Twins social media manager quickly dug up an old tweet from a fan who, back in February, had pledged to take a shot of olive oil if Santana hit more than 15 home runs. |
Here at Defector, we respect gastronomically adventurous sports dares. But frankly, I'm underwhelmed by this one. This is way less painful than eating an onion like an apple, if it is even painful at all. Consuming olive oil in shot form seems like it would be pleasant. Olive oil is yummy. You know what? If Santana hits 17 home runs this year, I will do a shot of olive oil.
- Maitreyi |
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