Hi gang, and thanks for coming to The Cipher. I am locked in on this Tigers game, so let's get moving.
-Lauren |
When Quiet Luxury Gets Loud
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JD Vance Found A Debate He Couldn’t Win
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There Was A Time When Everyone Cared How Pete Rose Smelled
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One Thing We Liked On The Internet Today:
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Creature Drops: A New Worm Lizard From Brazil |
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Northeastern Brazil is home to a biome found nowhere else in the world: a dusky white forest called Caatinga. The climate here is dry and warm, and the area is home to thousands of endemic species that shelter in its succulents, palms, and shrubs. The region is also home to iron and amethyst mines, the latter of which date back to the 19th century. Mines can irreversibly damage the environment, destroying vegetation and soil and displacing the creatures in the area, making it important to conduct environmental surveys and assess the biodiversity of an area before it is affected by mining. Recently, an iron mine’s environmental survey unearthed several individuals of the stunning worm lizard seen above, which scientists have now deemed Amphisbaena amethysta in a nod to the reptile’s crystalline hue.
A worm lizard is not a worm but a legless lizard, which is also different from a snake. But the ringed scales around their bodies make them resemble earthworms, hence the nickname. Also, "worm lizard" is much cooler-sounding than "legless lizard." The genus Amphisbaena is named for the mythological serpent with a head at either end, which apparently also ate ants—a detail that makes this mythological serpent far less fearsome in my mind. “Oooh, I better run!” I would jeer at the serpent, assuming I was far too big for it to eat.
In the paper describing the new worm lizard A. amethysta, the researchers seem to really focus on the fact that the species has four precloacal pores. In fact, it is the 71st species in the genus with four precloacal pores—so close to a diamond jubilee of pores! The pores, which you can see in Figure 2 at the link, are fairly demure—at least compared to what you might expect from something called a precloacal pore. Lizards use these pores to secrete chemicals and mark their territory, and I can only imagine having four pores makes this process much more efficient than a poor worm lizard with just one or two pores. In a just world, this worm lizard might be able to smear its chemicals around its territory in such a way that a mining company would have no choice but to summarily retreat. These worm lizards are basically living, breathing amethysts, and their species might be more precious than any mineral.
-Sabrina Imbler
Image: Thiago Barbosa Da Silveira |
I was lucky enough to be at the Liberty's tense, loud win over the Aces to go up 2-0 in the semis, and one neat thing about their increased profile is that my pals will ask me about the famous people who were at the game. This time, I got to tell them that Robin Roberts, Gayle King, and Alicia Keys were all sitting together. (Carmelo was there, too, but I know they don't care about him.) For Alicia in particular, the crowd went wild as the arena played "Empire State Of Mind" while showing her on the big screen, and the Liberty themselves got a much more intimate version of that experience in the locker room afterward. Keys, wearing that chic varsity jacket Ella Emhoff also had on last week, visited the team, shared some kind words, and stood at the center as the players sang about the concrete jungle where dreams are made of.
Let's see Wayne Newton try to pull that off for Vegas.
-Lauren |
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