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Underground pitchers. (Martin Dančák) We often think of plants as sedate, tranquil organisms that can't help but keep to themselves. But not all plants are harmless wallflowers. Carnivorous plants, as the name suggests, eat prey – mostly bugs, but also small animals, and other nutrient-rich matter. While the whole idea seems vaguely nightmarish at first, these "ecologically unique" plants need our protection just like any other threatened organism; and we're still finding examples of these carnivores we've never even noticed before. In the latest such discovery, scientists have now reported the identification of a previously unknown species of carnivorous plant,...

The pandemic-delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics will take place under a coronavirus state of emergency, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshide Suga confirmed Thursday. Speaking at the start of the government's Covid-19 task force meeting, Suga said he had decided to declare a new state of emergency for the capital from July 12 to August 22 -- covering the 16 days of the embattled Games in its entirety. "The number of infected cases in the area including Tokyo has been increasing since the end of last month," Suga said. "The number of severe cases and bed occupancy rate continues to be on the...

Neandertals' ...are traditionally considered carnivores and hunters of large mammals, but this hypothesis has recently been challenged by numerous pieces of evidence of plant consumption. Ancient diets are often reconstructed using nitrogen isotope ratios, a tracer of the trophic level, the position an organism occupies in a food chain. Neandertals are apparently occupying a high position in terrestrial food chains, exhibiting slightly higher ratios than carnivores (like hyenas, wolves or foxes) found at the same sites. It has been suggested that these slightly higher values were due to the consumption of mammoth or putrid meat. And we also know some...

Video of what happened last year during the "Believe" show at San Diego's SeaWorld, a pelican decided to drop in for the show. Unfortunately for the pelican, the whales decided to take a brake from the show and have the pelican for lunch instead. The person who captured this video was in the right place at the right time. Unfortunately for the pelican it was in the wrong place at the wrong time. During a portion of the show where a young child it introduced to a friendly whale, the pelican landed onto the pool. Suddenly out of nowhere...

A carnivorous pitcher plant that eats rats and insects has been discovered in the Philippines and named after Sir David Attenborough. The plant is among the largest of all pitchers and is believed to be the largest meat-eating shrub, dissolving rats with acid-like enzymes. The team of botanists, led by British experts Stewart McPherson and Alastair Robinson, found the plant on Mount Victoria in the Philippines. They were inspired to search for the plant after word that it is existed came from two Christian missionaries who described seeing a large carnivorous pitcher in 2000 after they climbed the mountain. Mr...

The carnivorous nature and suffering of animals by Robert J. M. Gurney All evolutionists and virtually all old-earth creationists believe that animals were killing and eating one another for millions of years, long before the Fall of man. Young-earth creationists argue that this is incompatible with Scripture. Old-earthers dispute the young-earthers’ interpretation of Scripture and employ at least two other counterarguments. One is that carnivorous behaviour is actually very good, and the other is that animals in the wild do not suffer. There is very good reason to believe that they do suffer; but even if they do not, carnivorous...

Carnivorous Plants Use Pitchers Of 'Slimy Saliva' To Catch Their Prey ScienceDaily (Nov. 24, 2007) — Carnivorous plants supplement the meager diet available from the nutrient-poor soils in which they grow by trapping and digesting insects and other small arthropods. Pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes were thought to capture their prey with a simple passive trap but in a paper in PLoS One, Laurence Gaume and Yoel Forterre, a biologist and a physicist from the CNRS, working respectively in the University of Montpellier and the University of Marseille, France show that they employ slimy secretions to doom their victims.Pitcher...

A dinosaur that died just before it was about to lay two eggs has been found by an international team of scientists. The creature, which lived 65-98 million years ago, was discovered in China's Jiangxi Province. The fossilised remains comprise little more than a pelvis with the shelled eggs still viewable in the body cavity. Tamaki Sato and colleagues tell Science magazine the dinosaur's reproductive system shares similarities with both primitive reptiles and modern birds. The animal was probably a theropod; the name describes a broad group of bipedal, largely carnivorous dinosaurs which many scientists believe gave rise to birds....

How the Venus flytrap snaps up its prey PARIS (AFP) - American and French scientists believed they have explained how one of nature's marvels, the Venus flytrap, snaps shut to snare its victims. The plant -- described by Charles Darwin as "one of the most wonderful in the world" -- is able to enclose a fly within its clamshell-shaped leaves in just 100 milliseconds, faster than the eye can blink. Scientists have long wondered how the flytrap (Latin name Dionaea muscipula) is able to do this spectacular feat, given that it does not have the nerves and muscles of fast-moving...

After enjoying yet another great feed at my neighbors' annual pig roast this past Saturday evening, I commented on all of the lightning bugs across the road in the corn field. My wife's good friend, Wendy Everly, said I should write an article on them. I asked her what the big deal is with lightning bugs and she replied that they don't have them in Montana. My response was sort of "so what?" We don't have the great trout fishing they do and no elk and mule deer to hunt. This, along with all of the othe r great diversity...

<p>JANESVILLE, Wis. (AP) — A carnivorous alien fish known for its voracious appetite and ability to wriggle short distances on land has been found in southern Wisconsin's Rock River. The discovery of the 2-foot-long giant snakehead by the state Department of Natural Resources marks the first time the species, a native of Asia, has been found in Wisconsin waters, where officials said it may not survive the winter cold.</p>