CMNH Future Scientists

2010 Great Lake Erie Boat Float

2010-09-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

The Great Lake Erie Boat Float is a unique event meant to promote awareness of the impact of plastic on our environment. The Future Scientists competed in this event, making a boat out of recyclable materials that the students collected combined with junk from the Museum.

Here's the team proudly standing in front of our boat: the S.S. F.S.

Other competing boats are pictured below. People got really creative with their junk!

Before sailing, the Future Scientists make some last minute tweaks to the boat. The PVC frame was created from a discarded cart. The plastic seats are human forms from old Health exhibits. The pontoons were filled with plastic bottles, wrapped up with discarded banners. The base of the boat was made with plastic bottles covered with printed foam board used for past exhibits.

Launch!

Here's the field of competition.

Future Scientists come back first!

Raising the boat's dual mast heads in victory.

Digging up the Curator's Yard

2009-10-24T13:14:00.001-07:00

Been a long time since the last blog, but we're back!

The Future Scientists teamed up with the Student Naturalists to visit Dr. Joe Keiper, CMNH's Curator of Invertebrate Zoology, at his house. Why? To dig up a white-tailed deer and pygmy hippo buried in his yard. This was a truly unique experience - if nothing else to work with the pygmy hippo's remains, a truly endangered animal. Read more about the pygmy hippo at the animal diversity web.

Dr. Keiper had the brainchild to bury these animals in his yard two years ago when the Zoo's pygmy hippo passed away, figuring he could let nature clean up the bones for him, and adding a memorable experience for students who get to excavate the bones for the museum's collections. Such is the thinking of a man who studies how maggots decompose dead bodies. Those fortunate enough to know Dr. Keiper can ask for a thrilling recount of how he brought the dripping, bloody 400 pound animal back to his house with unknowing Sheriff in tow.

Anyway, after two years, the animal bodies should have been adequately decomposed, and Dr. Linda Spurlock, CMNH's Director of Human Health and Anatomy graciously offered to show the students careful archaeological technique in excavating the bones.

Dr. Spurlock gets down and dirty.
The Future Scientists use the shake screen to make sure small bones (and missing jewelery) are not missed.
As layers of earth are removed, the students come across a skull! The skull looks happy.
Skull successfully extracted. White-tailed deer.
Wheel-barrel of deer bones.

Well, after two years, the bodies likely would have all decomposed. That is, unless you left them in a plastic bag. Like Dr. Keiper did. But hey, if you were digging a hole all by yourself to bury 500 pounds of stinky dead animal, what would you have done?!

Meat still clinging to the bones. We'll save that for next year.
Hippo skull successfully extracted. Nice and clean - good job, Nature!
The hole was reburied and concrete blocks were piled on top to prevent coyotes or other scavengers from dragging away the precious bones. Students will check out the scene again next year to hopefully extract the bones for the museum's collections.

First Ever!

2009-08-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

The Future Scientists discovered this skink at the Grand River Terraces (museum property) in Ashtabula County. Upon reviewing its identification with the museum's Vertebrate Zoology department, it was discovered that this was the first ever five-lined skink documented on the property! The pictures below can be used as photo vouchers to confirm the identity of this species at that location.
Maggie takes one for the team.
This skink had recently lost its tail and is regenerating a new one.

At first, this superficially appeared to be a broad-headed skink given its robust body and head, however its species range is more towards the Southern part of Ohio. Outside of species ranges, other more meticulous identifying characteristics could be used to confirm this to be a five-line skink, such as counting superior labial scales (number of scales above the lip) - five-lined skinks have four superior labial scales and broad-headed skinks have five labial scales. So if you are a herpetologist, you could be wrangling a venomous viper one minute, and counting lip scales the next. The excitement never stops!

Random pictures

2009-08-03T12:18:00.001-07:00

Summer Mudpuppies

2009-07-31T11:59:00.000-07:00

CMNH Curator of Vertebrate Zoology Dr. Tim Matson and his interns spent a morning with the Future Scientists showing how they did their mudpuppy studies. One factor that they are tracking is the effect of lampricides (to get rid of non-native lampreys) on these aquatic salamanders.
Seining for salamanders.
Checking the haul.
Dr. Matson shows off a large crayfish.
Mudpuppy! The Future Scientists were extremely fortunate to witness the only adult that was found the whole day.
Mudpuppy in a tube. A science tube.
Injecting a tracking marker into the mudpuppy. Hence the science tube.
One nest of mudpuppy larvae was also found. Here you can see the yolk sac on the ventral side of one of the salamander babies.

Fossil Fish!

2009-07-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

This summer the CMNH Paleontology team made some nice discoveries of fossil armored fish that Cleveland is famous for. The Future Scientists had brilliant luck and good timing to be able to check out the finds and even help chip out some of the pieces.
The Future Scientists march across river with gear (rock hammers, goggles, and sandwiches).
Scopin' out the cliff
Can you find the fossil?
How about here?
CMNH Paleontologist and team leader David Chapman explains the difference between hard dusty things that are rocks and hard dusty things that are bone.
Cutting stuff out of the cliff! Jad eats a sandwich.
Here is a large piece of what turned out to be a Dunkleosteus, one of Cleveland's famous armored fish. Field marks have been placed on the bone for orientation. These pieces will take several weeks to clean. More bone is still in the rock waiting to be harvested.

Click here to learn more about Dunkleosteus on the Cleveland Museum of Natural History website!

Follow the leader

2009-07-21T20:13:00.000-07:00

The Future Scientists did more water quality sampling near the Grand River Terraces in Ashtabula County. This is a site that has not been surveyed in years due to difficulty of terrain. However, FS courageously braved the challenging landscape, reaching the designated testing location to do a fine job of collecting data. On the way back, some of the students chose to take the low road rather than the high road.
Note to future Future Scientists: follow the path that Jeff takes if you'd like to keep your underwear dry.

Water Q

2009-07-21T19:52:00.000-07:00

The Future Scientists do some macroinvertebrate water quality surveys for the Ohio Scenic Rivers Program:
First we catch some stuff.
Then we look at it.
Then we get a lil' fanclub.

Archaeology article

2009-07-20T09:57:00.001-07:00

Check out this great Cleveland Plain Dealer article explaining more history and theories about the Archaeology field site that the Future Scientists got to help out with!

Summer snake survey

2009-07-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

The Future Scientists examined tins set out by the Geauga Park District at Observatory Park in an effort to document what species are in the area before the park is developed.
Marching out to find tins. Eli (in front) points to the right. Accordingly, Shaun (in back) tries to look in completely the opposite direction.
Checking a tin.
Many garter snakes were found. Frank makes his typical "I got musked" face.
Northern brown snake!
Milk snake!

Things to come

2009-07-17T12:22:00.001-07:00

Many toadlets were found during the summer session of Future Scientists, this one still with tail. This tiny toad is just a small preview of pictures to come - keep checking back for more!

7-7-09 Sifting for Stardome

2009-07-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the flint tool pieces that the Future Scientists found. More good stuff has been found at the archaeology site - check the Archaeology Field School blog for more!

7-7-09 The Art of the Dig

2009-07-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today the Future Scientists attended CMNH's Archaeology Field School, where they learned the art digging the perfect hole. Specimens as old as 3000 years old could be found at the site (pictures in following post), but hey, you gotta dig a hole first! Follow along for a dramatic reconstruction of Future Scientists deconstructing the ground:

Looks pretty professional!

Follow along with Curator of Archaeology Dr. Brian Redmond's blog to see what they eventually find from this magnificent hole, as well as other great pictures, specimens and insights from the Heckleman site!

05-09-09 Jackson Field

2009-05-14T18:33:00.000-07:00

The Future Scientists also visited Jackson Field today, checking out newly placed coverboards as part of a Metroparks study for snakes. The Future Scientists did not discover any snakes under the boards this day, but they did discover a particular type of caterpillar that really seemed to like the boards. Interestingly, only one caterpillar was found under each wooden board.
This peculiar caterpillar is still unidentified! Please comment below if you have a suggestion. ID will be posted when a good guess is made.

While the above caterpillar remains a mystery lepidopteran, the Future Scientists were able to get a good shot of another one whose identity is less mysterious. This is a question mark butterfly? Or, maybe, it is, a comma, if you can tell the difference, please enlighten us! The punctuation mark underneath the wing was not observed.
While no snakes were found underneath the coverboards, the Future Scientists did find two garter snakes and one water snake along the trails. This garter snake has just eaten, and you can even see limbs popping out the sides.
Glamorous.

05-09-09 Wood Frog Research

2009-05-12T17:56:00.000-07:00

Case Western Reserve University professor and evolutionary biologist Dr. Mike Benard led the Future Scientists through some of his wood frog research at Squire Valleeview Farm. The Future Scientists helped Dr. Benard collect dragonfly larvae for some of his research where he compares how tadpoles of high and low genetic diversity respond to stresses. The Future Scientists helped collect dragonfly larvae that prey on the tadpoles as one of the stressors. If the tadpoles all do well with the challenge, perhaps the Future Scientists can help up the ante next time by having the tadpoles do their own taxes. You can read more about Dr. Benard and his research here.
This innocent-looking dragonfly larva is a tadpole killer.
Dr. Benard shows the Future Scientists his tadpole research tanks.

Good times. (especially if you're not a tadpole)

Tis the season for love (4/25/09)

2009-05-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

Ahhh spring. When a young man's fancy turns to love. Throughout the pond, the Future Scientists heard the sweet trilling serenade of bachelor toads. Upon further examination, it seemed the toads' instincts were getting the best of them...
We knew the situation had definitely gotten out of hand when we saw a ribbon snake dragging away a toad (pictured below - the toad facing to the left is in the snake's grip). Immediately after being captured, several other toads hopped on the captive toad attempting to get it on, while the poor snake was attempting to drag away its already bulky meal. You can see one toad below (facing right), which has hopped on top of the captive toad...not to mention the snake's head!
Vocabulary word of the day: Amplexus: the clasping posture frogs and toads use in attempt to fertilize eggs.

During this week, toads could be heard all throughout the area. Amazingly, the following week the ponds were silent, and in many cases, the only traces of toads were the long strings of eggs left over in the water.

WVW survey sheet

2009-04-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

If you're interested, this is what our survey sheet for West Virginia Whites looked like. More information about the butterfly and the plants that affect it, as well as extra survey sheets can be found at http://leapbio.org/west_virginia_white.php

04-25-09 Girdled Road Butterflies

2009-04-26T18:55:00.001-07:00

Today Lin of the Ohio Lepidopterists joined the Future Scientists in surveying for the increasingly rare West Virginia White butterfly at Girdled Road Reservation. Throughout the day, the group viewed five mourning cloak butterflies and one West Virginia White. Many good wildlflowers were seen, including the native mustards cut-leaf toothwort, two-leaved toothwort, and spring cress. Of course, other bits and pieces of weirdness were also observed along the way, some of which are pictured below. (Views of the butterflies were too fleeting for photo ops!)
The above photo is of a short-winged blister beetle. This beetle can secrete goo from the legs of its joints as self defense against pugnatious pests like ants...and people. The insect's common name is apt for its ability to cause blisters in people when enough concentration of goo is released. When disturbed, this insect is also known to play dead by lying on its side, as pictured in the second photo. These blister beetles do not bite people, but they do have a weird life cycle where they do parasitize bees. When the mobile larvae hatch, they climb plants seeking to catch a ride on bee passers-by back to their nests. There, the larvae transform into grody grubs and feast on their bee hosts before turning into vegetarian adults.
The red-bellied snake is also a critter that may play dead for safety, exposing its bright underside which can also be quite startling. Sadly however, this snake was not playing, as our friend the blister beetle was. Red-bellied snakes have many enemies in the wild, including birds, ground squirrels, raccoons, cats, shrews and other snakes. However, this one probably succumbed to an animal with more bone-crunching power: horse. Watch yourself on the bridle trail.

While not uncommon, the red-snake is not often seen, so this was a cool find! Check this page to see its range in Ohio.
We cannot end the blog with morbidity/mortality, so here's a picture full of hope and promise! The Future Scientists also stumbled across a goose nest. A quick photo was taken before leaving the nest as it was found. The young gosling-to-be just might be a lepidopterist some day...

Please stay tuned for awesome toad action in blog-to-come.

04-18-09 Chytrid Testing

2009-04-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

Naturalist Tim Krynak led the Future Scientists through amphibian chytrid testing this week at the North Chagrin Reservation. Chytrid (short for Chytridiomycosis) is a genus of water-bourne fungus that is thought to be a major player in the global amphibian decline. To read more about chytrid, a good overview can be found here. To read more about the Future Scientists' session, scroll down below!
Before testing, the Future Scientists found a garter snake. Jonathan got musked. Chuck-Norris style.
How to look scientific:
Clipboard: check.
Nets: check.
Fancy glove: double check.

Here's a pickeral frog we caught for testing. Note the rectangular spots and the yellow leg-flash.
This little piggy went to the market... This little piggy stayed home... This little piggy got tested for Chytrid.
Redback salamander. Looks menacing, doesn't it?

No, we are not measuring the perfect finger-to-thumb ratio of this lovely hand-model. Somewhere, there is a salamander whose snout-to-vent ratio is being scrutinized.
The Future Scientists also got to help put in some pool measuring posts!

Mount Union College will be running the tests for our Chytrid sampling. If you are interested in finding out the results, keep up with the blog and results will be posted as they come in.

Let's make some fish!

2009-04-11T17:28:00.000-07:00

At the Linesville Fish Hatchery open house, we had the pleasure of seeing how fish are made!

Don't pick the males off the tree yet.

Males + Females = Eggs! If you look closely, you can see some of the babies (literally small fry) swimming around.
That's how many.
One of these guys is not in the Future Scientist program. Can you guess which one?
(Hint: radioactive skin)
Can you find the golden rainbow trout?

Speaking of golden rainbow trout, you can read more about the interesting selective breeding process that created this creamy delight at this Pensylvania Fish and Boat Commission page. Apparently, all golden rainbow trout alive today were derived from one oddly colored individual back in the 1950's. Wackygenes!

Newt treadmill video

2009-04-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

You can view the newt treadmill video here.

Pymatuning spillway carp

2009-04-07T18:56:00.001-07:00

No words needed.
If you pay attention to one of the videos, you can see that Eli is just about to be sucked into the ether by the Force.

Videos here and here.

Six spotted fishing spider

2009-04-06T13:02:00.001-07:00

Remember this guy (gal)? It was caught back at the Grand River Terraces at the first pond we visited in the midst of the field. This is a type of fishing spider, aptly named for the six dark spots below its abdomen. Above its abdomen, there are twelve white spots. Whoever named this spider must've been an underside lookerer. If this spider were just discovered today, perhaps we would've named it a six-legged fishing spider.

Here is a site with more nice photos of this type of spider and some interesting information.

One cool fact about fishing spiders is their ability to trap air bubbles with the hairs on their body or their legs so that they can breathe underwater.

This six-spotty does not get as large as the fishing spider we found in the fall.

04-04-09 Sad Shad

2009-04-05T19:21:00.000-07:00

At the Northwest end of the Pymatuning reservoir, there was a great view of an eagle's nest. There were also views of dead/dying American shad. Click here for a video we shot of one of these fish struggling to survive.

A naturalist at the Linesville fish hatchery remarked that these fish were stocked in the reservoir, but were accustomed to a warmer clime, thus resulting in many deaths through the winter. You can check this Animal Diversity Web article for more interesting information on the American shad. The article mentions that 2-3 degrees C is the lower limit of temperature at which the fish can generally survive.
If you know your fish and determine that this is not a shad - please comment below or forever hold your peace. Jeff does not know his fish! This fish's personal identity has also been partially concealed by a strategically placed plant across the eye.

In the background of the above fish video, you can also hear spring peepers doing their thing (thang). There was a large pond with some open area in the back of the woods where the low rumbling call of leopard frogs was also heard.

03-28-09 More cool Terrace stuff

2009-03-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

Big honkin crawfish.

Can you tell if it's a boy or a girl? Check this post to see if you can figure it out!

Dragonfly larva. It's big. It's green. It's a sitting-still machine.
Praying mantis egg sac.
Exploring the cool hemlock swamps.
We found egg masses! Sarah is thrilled.
Wood frog egg mass up close.
Hooray for cheese!
A lonely skunk cabbage bids us adieu.

03-28-09 Chorus frog

2009-03-30T20:51:00.001-07:00

The sound of an army of comb-teeth beckoned the Future Scientists to a drainage ditch next to a field. Upon exiting the van, the FS crew was greeted by this handsome frog. Similar to the spring peeper in size and shape, this chorus frog could be distinguished by its unique call and the three rows of dark patterns along its back (as opposed to an x-pattern). There are several species of chorus frogs, and range-wise, Northeast Ohio is in the kingdom of the Western chorus frog.

03-28-09 Dude! Red spotted newt dude!

2009-03-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

The Future Scientists netted a couple nice adult red-spotted newts at one of the ponds at Grand River Terraces.
Spring, being the season of love for our amphibian friends, prompted us to examine the "love zone". Note the swollen cloaca (at the base of the tail) characteristic of males.
Male red-spotted newts also have dark "nuptial pads" running along the inside of the legs and toes, perhaps to help hanging on to those female newts playing hard-to-get. You know who you are, girls.

03-21-09 Biorobotics Lab

2009-03-26T18:02:00.001-07:00

After visiting Dr. Ritzmann's neurobiology lab, the Future Scientists walked over to the Case Biorobotics Lab headed by Dr. Roger Quinn. Two Ph.D. candidates, Andrew Horchler and Brandon Rutter showed off some of their cool creations with designs inspired from nature.

Check out http://biorobots.case.edu for more cool stuff from this lab!

Testing the strength of a pneumatic muscle.
This is where the magic happens. Everything is created in-house!
Lotsa cool stuff. Note the WEGS (wheel-legs) robot in the foreground and the robotic grey-hound hanging in the background.
Don't get too close!

03-21-09 Roach neurobiology lab

2009-03-25T20:44:00.000-07:00

Today, the Future Scientists visited a neurobiology lab at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Roy Ritzmann was generous enough to give the Future Scientists a personalized talk, and he showed how insect behavior and neurophysiology could could be used to develop novel robots that could navigate difficult terrains and make simple decisions. It is hoped that these robots could be used for dangerous missions such as exploring disaster sites or sniffing out bombs among other applications.

Here is a link to Dr. Ritzmann's lab, with cool videos!
http://www.case.edu/artsci/biol/people/ritzmann.html

Dr. Ritzmann shows off a prototypical robot

Dr. Ritzmann's lab uses tiny electrodes to map out cockroach brain activity, reflexes and how the insects react to stimuli. The Future Scientists visited the "roach room" and decided that the smell was ______ (choose the best answer here):
a.) invigorating
b.) inspiring
c.) vitalizing

A newly christened adult roach has emerged from the nymphs. The pale color will soon caramelize into the sweet roach hue we all know and love.
Showing off the titan death-head roach. It is used more for impressing Future Scientists than for actual science.
No pants!

03-21-09 Manor House, Case Farm

2009-03-25T20:29:00.001-07:00

The Future Scientists visited Squire Valleevue Farm to run a dizzying orienteering course set up by their ruthless leader. Hopelessly lost at first, the Future Scientists found their way by the end of the course, and no one was hurt or resorted to eating lichens off trees for survival. Also, the Manor House was pretty.
Teamwork.

03-07-09 Sandy Ridge

2009-03-11T11:15:00.001-07:00

Presumably, the bald eagle is on the left side of this picture.

The Future Scientists visited Sandy Ridge Metropark in Lorain County with the hopes of spotting waterfowl migrants. Upon entering the wetland, the Future Scientists were greeted with calls of spring peepers and a magnificent bald eagle sighting. The binocular view was good, the camera view not so good.

Waterfowl seen during the day included blue-winged teal, green-winged teal, widgeon, lesser scaup, mallards, northern shovelers, ring-necked ducks and redheads.

Hiding in this picture are one turtle and one Sasquatch. Can you find them? Go!

A painted turtle was seen basking above the icy chill. Perhaps a few beams of sunlight warmed a few molecules of the turtle on this overcast morning. Spring must be coming!

Those fish are just "sleeping".

Many dead fish were seen at Sandy Ridge. Our naturalist (who happened to be a former CMNH Future Scientist!) explained that when the reservoir was frozen over during the winter, the water was unable to pick up oxygen. Fish with higher oxygen requirements such as these sunfish (pictured) and bass would not fare so well. Other fish with lower oxygen requirements, like catfish and carp were not as affected.
As the Future Scientists left the park, a juvenile red-tailed hawk bid them a fluffy farewell.

2-28-09 Zoo recap

2009-03-10T08:48:00.001-07:00

On 2/28 the Future Scientists visited the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. They had the fortune of taking a behind-the-scenes vet hospital tour and were thankful to Dr. Chris Bonar for offering his time and expertise. To respect patient confidentiality, no pictures are provided (animals are people too!). The Future Scientists also had the pleasure of meeting Grace Fuller, a behavioral scientist up at the Primate, Cat and Aquatics building...and in timely fashion, some odd (non-human) primate behaviors were observed...

Oh nothing, just a dead mouse in a tree

2009-03-10T08:36:00.001-07:00

Mysteriously, the Future Scientists discovered a deceased white-footed mouse draped along the branch of a small beech tree, about one meter up from the ground at Observatory Park. One suspect of this carcass placement was the northern shrike, which is a bird that impales prey on thorns, barbed wire or branches and saves them for later. This behavior has been called "wanton killing" because the bird kills more prey than it is able to eat all at once. It did not appear that our mouse in question was necessarily "impaled" on the tree, and humans were not left off of the suspect list. The mouse was left in the tree so whoever put it there wouldn't miss it.

02-21-09 Winter Stonefly

2009-02-26T20:10:00.000-08:00

At Observatory Park, several of these two-tailed insects were seen crawling on the snow, just above an icy stream. These turned out to be quite fascinating insects known as winter stoneflies (a.k.a. snowflies)!

Stonefly nymphs hide under stones in streams, and can only live in areas of very high water quality (way to go, Observatory Park!). They need cool, flowing, high-oxygen water to live since they have really dinky little gills.

The winter stonefly adults will emerge from the water, usually at the end of winter or early spring, and they are one of the few insects that are actually active on the snow. They may also display fascinating mating behavior by literally rocking out. In some species, the males will drum their butts against rocks in attempts to woo the ladies. The actual drumming is imperceptable to humans, but the stoneflies know what's up.

The photograph above shows an adult specimen, with a giant glove beneath it for scale. If you would like more images of this photogenic insect, you can check this BugGuide page.

2-21-09 Red shouldered hawk

2009-02-25T13:58:00.001-08:00

On the way out, the Future Scientists spotted two red-shouldered hawks at close view. Thanks Eli for the photo!

The red-shouldered hawk is slightly larger than crow-sized, and the Future Scientists noted its ruddy chest and distinctively black-and-white banded tail. The broad-winged hawk can be a similar sized bird but it's too good for us, and only passes through the continental U.S. on its way migrating south. The red-shouldered hawk is a glutton for punishment like the rest of us Ohioans and can stick around for the winter.

??

2009-02-21T21:22:00.000-08:00

???

2-21-09 Track Recap

2009-02-21T21:09:00.001-08:00

The Future Scientists participated in citizen science for the Geauga Park District, searching for signs of mammals at the recently acquired Observatory Park. Tracks of deer, mice, voles, squirrels, raccoons and coyote were discovered.

Coyote tracks: Hind foot has registered on top of fore foot. About 2.5 inches long.

Raccoon tracks. Hind foot about 4 inches long.

No poop was found (or stepped on). However, by the end of the day every Future Scientist had cracked through thin ice at least once, getting their feet wet in the shallow streams. Brrr! Evidently today was not the day for learning from the person walking in front of you…

Looks purty...

Unless you bust through.

The Future Scientists did not just keep their eyes on the ground track-finding however. The day was a good bird-o-prey day, with sightings of red tailed hawks, two red-shouldered hawks at close view, and possibly a juvenile bald eagle. Keep a look out for more interesting findings in upcoming posts…

Things to see high and low.

11-08-08 Slug Eggs?

2008-12-01T08:06:00.000-08:00

Here, the Future Scientists have discovered what looks like slug eggs underneath a rock. The photographer was wily enough to make the picture quality of the eggs just fuzzy enough so that it is difficult to dispute the true identity of the white spheres.

Slugs actually display a fascinating mating process. They are hermaphrodites, meaning that each individual has both lady and dude parts. You may see them do a writhing dance in mid-air, suspended from a thin bungee cord of mucus if you are lucky enough to see them get their groove on.

If you have a maturity level rated at a 6.5/10 or above, you may click here to view amazing footage of slugs getting it on. This youtube clip is footage from "Life in the Undergrowth", narrated by David Attenborough, who is the MAN for those who don't know. His British accent alone enhances scientific fascination by 13%.

After the slugs have copulated, they will lay thirty or so eggs in a moist area, such as in the leaf litter or under a rock or rotting log, which is consistent with what we see in our picture. The Future Scientists declined searing up a slug egg omelette...although the pinwheel mushrooms might have been just the right size garnish for the miniature breakfast delight.

[NOTE: The author does not truly endorse human consumption of slug eggs or other gastropod excreta.]

11-08-08 Planet Pinwheel UPDATED!

2008-11-16T20:59:00.001-08:00

The Future Scientists found a leaf that supported a little town of pinwheel mushrooms, which are appropriately named after their distinctive caps resembling... pinwheels. Other descriptive common names include the "collared parachute mushroom" or the "horsehair mushroom" based on the distinctive look. Notice how each mushroom is smaller than a fingernail - good find!

You can see much better pictures of this mushroom here, at mushroomexpert.com.

Click here to see the mushrooms the author first mistook them for.

Interestingly, one distinguishing feature of the mushrooms we found is the fact that they like to grow on oak leaves. CHECK. The other pinwheels prefer sticks and logs.

One cool beans fact about both types of pinwheel mushrooms is that they shrivel up when it is dry, but rain will revive the little guys, making thousands of them seem to sprout up overnight! Aren't we lucky that it's been raining?

11-08-08 Loch Ness Salamander

2008-11-15T05:48:00.000-08:00

The Future Scientists are all about identifying mysterious creatures of the deep. And mysterious creatures of the deep are all about grainy film quality.

This particular mystery monster was a redback salamander, which is a beast that the Future Scientists have succeeded in finding for three weeks in a row now. This is not too surprising considering the fact that the redback salamander might be the most common terrestrial (i.e. landlubber) salamander in the Great Lakes region.

What is interesting is the fact that the Future Scientists only seem to find these salamanders colored in the leadback phase. The two most common phases of this salamander are "redback" and "leadback", basically depending on whether a red stripe runs down the back or not. Other color morphs may also occur, including a fiery all-red morph. However, when it comes to finding amphibians, so far the Future Scientists have restricted their salamander-palette to dirty brown/grey doodads.

This salamander did not rest on human flesh for very long, as pictured above. The Future Scientists realized that the salamander is lungless and breathes entirely through its moist skin. After the photo-op, the lil' sally was doused with some leafy creek juice, and put back under the wet leaves. Back to a busy day of lurking in the shadows for you, salamander buddy!

11-08-08 Fishing Spider

2008-11-10T20:43:00.001-08:00

The Future Scientists were keen enough to spot a fishing spider, despite its excellent camouflage.

Fishing spiders are often mistaken for wolf spiders, but the fishing spiders have longer, slenderer, lady-likerer legs. Some of the fishing spiders may be the largest spiders in Ohio.

True to their name, sometimes these spiders will catch small fish and other vertebrates such as tadpoles or small frogs. However, insects are the most common happy meal for these eight-legged monster-beasts. Some species of these spiders may zip underwater if disturbed, and may even stay under for thirty minutes! The Future Scientists are a civilized bunch, and did not disturb the spider.

The fishing spiders are in the "nursery web spider" family. After the big momma spider lays its eggs, it will carry the egg sac in her jaws wherever she goes. Then, when it is time for the spiderlings to be born, the big-momma will spin a "nursery web" with its silk and perhaps throw in some leaves. The egg sac is then gently placed into the nursery, and mommy spider will stay with the sac until almost all the spiderlings are born and dispersed. Nursery web spiders do not use their silk to catch prey, only to pad their babies.

11-08-08 Lodi Fossils

2008-11-10T20:01:00.000-08:00

The Future Scientists went retro this weekend, as in 350 million years ago Mississippian Period retro, when the in-thing was having a shell or tube-feet if you were living large in Ohio. Here, the Future Scientists can be seen prying ancient sea-life loose from rocks in this creek bed at Lodi City Park in Medina County.

The Future Scientists were able to find many brachiopods, bryozoans and crinoid stems. Other non-fossilized, living wildlife were also found, and they will achieve their fifteen minutes of fame in a future blog.

Brachiopod city!

11-01-08 Mystery Caterpillar: Case mostly-closed

2008-11-05T12:29:00.000-08:00

The Future Scientists found a cute little caterpillar along the forest trail.

It had a racing stripe, but it was very obviously not built for speed. What a faker.

The caterpillar was not identified in the field, so a picture was taken to document its existence. Human fingers are provided for scale.

The Discover Life team has created a cool, easy way to identify caterpillars on the web. Just plug in your main caterpillar features (i.e. body color, hairiness, astrological sign etc.) and find out who your scrunchy little bug friend is!

Click here for the caterpillar guide!

Plugging this little guy into the website, the best i.d. option turned out to be a type of tiger moth caterpillar Haploa clymene. The adult moth is quite strikingly beautiful (see images here). Young caterpillars of this species are found in the fall (hence the teeny size), and they will overwinter and mature in the early spring or early summer. The yellow racing stripe of the caterpillar is especially prominent in the fall, during the young stage.

DISCLAIMER: The writer of this blog has is 90% confident about the i.d. of this caterpillar. If you have more enlightened information, please comment below!

11-01-08 HH Two more creek shots

2008-11-05T11:39:00.000-08:00

In the above picture, you can see the Future Scientists in a tranquil state, milliseconds before that tree in mid-fall crashed to the ground and scared the bejeezies out of everyone.

That didn't really happen, but you can tell people that it did.

11-01-08 HH Crayfish bonanza!

2008-11-02T15:30:00.000-08:00

The Future Scientists discovered a section of creek with little water current, but rife with crayfish current! Alas, the calamitous crustaceans were no match for the Future Scientists, once it was discovered that the crawdaddies were all stuck in reverse gear.

We invaded a crayfish's privacy and determined that it was a female. For good pictures of crayfish anatomy, you can check this Cornell University biology class site.

Male crayfish anatomy.

Female crayfish anatomy.

The last pic shows a tiny crayfish - too small to dete rmine gender. Sorry, lil' guy/gal!

11-01-08 The Hell's Hollow Letterbox

2008-11-02T12:40:00.000-08:00

It must have been a sign.

Stumbling across a soaked diaper embedded into the leafy trail, several of the Future Scientist team stopped to discuss the demerits of littering. Given the impressive absorbent capacity of the diaper, one Future Scientist deemed it necessary to skewer the diaper with a stick in order to judge its weight, and perhaps carry it to a better disposal area. The hefty piece of baby toilet cloth garnered several "whoa!"s as it bent the heavily strained stick.

Now that this portion of the team's eyes were primed for spotting litter, another member eyed a partially concealed zip-lock bag with a gaudy pink object inside. Could someone perhaps have left their cell phone and forgotten about it? The plastic bag revealed...a treasure! Perhaps the team had found a geocache! Perhaps it was pirate booty! The possibilities were endless.

The entire team assembled to make sense of the mystery item. It turned out to be a letterbox - a clued treasure-hunting activity that has been around since the 1800's, and made its way to the U.S. in 1998 after an article in Smithsonian Magazine publicized the tradition. The Future Scientists were quite proud of their ability to sniff out this piece of buried treasure despite not having any clues. Inside the bag was a rubber stamp bearing the logo of this site's letterbox, along with a logbook. According to the log, the treasure had only been found once before, over a year ago!

The Future Scientists made their mark in the logbook, and triumphantly stamped their hands. One of the Future Scientists dyed her hands in pokeweed. Can you guess which one? Afterwards, the letterbox was hidden away as it was found.

The precise location of the letterbox was not described in this blog, so as not to ruin the fun for any potential letterboxers! To read more about letterboxing, you can find a nice summary with helpful links at wikipedia. Perhaps in the future, the Future Scientists will consider going legit and finding a letterbox using actual clues.

Oh, and given the frenzy of the find, we forgot to take the diaper back to a better disposal area. If you happen to find this letterbox, you can also keep your eye out for a 30-pound diaper in the vicinity.

10-25-08 Red Centipede a.k.a "Rad Centipede"

2008-10-26T17:58:00.000-07:00

Upon turning over a stone, some of the Future Scientists discovered a rad centipede. For images of similar centipedes, you can check http://bugguide.net/node/view/21/bgimage.

This centipede was a "soil centipede", which describes the order Geophilomorpha, meaning "ground lover dude" to those in the know. Unlike some other centipedes, soil centipedes completely lack eyes. Instead, they blindly cruise worm-holes, hunting for other tiny, bumbling, not terribly bright creatures. The soil centipedes are also unique in that they take care of their eggs and constantly lick them to prevent fungi from growing. Uncared for eggs usually mold and rot away.

In general, centipedes can be distinguished from millipedes by having only one pair of legs per body segment, whereas millipedes have two. Centipedes have a pair of venomous jaws for catching prey, whereas millipedes are not venomous, and mostly feed on decaying organic matter. The millipedes may occasionally secrete noxious substances such as cyanide, but this is unlikely to be harmful to a human handling the many-legged bugger (but don't lick the millipede!).

10-25-08 Mystery Worm

2008-10-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

Some of the Future Scientists may have seen the mystery worm collected by the group's intrepid leader.

Upon further review, this worm was a "hammerhead worm" or a "land planarian".

The sample picture is from the University of Florida site http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/misc/land_planarians.htm. There, you can read more about the natural history of this worm, and how it would totally crush an earthworm in a fight.

Just as a teaser to read more: the land planarian has an interesting primary form of reproduction - it rips off its butt and the nubbin grows a head and becomes a new worm. Check it out!

10-25-08 Cuyahoga Valley National Park

2008-10-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

The Future Scientists explored the towpath trail around Station Bridge and the ledges on the Virginia Kendall side of the park. Many birds were spotted, including a belted kingfisher being mobbed by a dinky, unidentified bird. The Future Scientists discovered a great blue heron rookery with a large bald eagle nest in the middle. No one was able to catch a glimpse of the bald eagles "getting it on", despite reports of the raucous activity by other visitors and neighbors.

The Future Scientists had a good herpetological day, despite the late season. Sightings included a large gray treefrog, a redback salamander (leadback phase), and a sluggish northern brown (DeKay's) snake. Many other northern brown snakes were also found, although they were all pronounced dead at the scene, and very two-dimensional. The Future Scientists deduced that bicycled-humans were the likely culprits to the flattened reptiles.

Many caves, crevasses (use French pronounciation) and good scrambling areas were explored by the Future Scientists at the ledges. An improvised rock slide left proud mud stains on many a Future Scientist's gluteal area.

A camera will be available to document next week's interesting findings, mystery organisms, butt stains and other misadventures.