For the first time, researchers have found evidence that underwater ecosystems have pollinators that perform the same task as bees on land.
Just like their terrestrial cousins, grasses under the sea shed pollen to sexually reproduce. Until now, biologists assumed the marine plants relied on water alone to spread their genes far and wide. But the discovery of pollen-carrying ‘bees of the sea’ has changed all of that.
Over several years from 2009 to 2012, researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico filmed the spring nocturnal wanderings of crustaceans among beds of turtle seagrass, Thalassia testudinum.
Looking through the videos, they spotted more invertebrates visiting male pollen-bearing flowers than those that lacked pollen – just like bees hovering around pollen-producing plants on land.
“We saw all of these animals coming in, and then we saw some of them carrying pollen,” lead researcher Brigitta van Tussenbroek told New Scientist.
The concept was so new, they invented a new term to describe it: zoobenthophilous pollination. Before that, researchers had never predicted that animals were involved in pollinating marine plants.
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[ID: Tweet from Leah @grammedevanille reads “RIP Aux Anglophones Parce Que Le Jeu De Mots Avec Ken Est Incroyaaaaable
Quote Reply by @MathildeMerouani reads: French twitter losing its mind because they translated the Barbie poster literally and accidentally made a pun that reads 'She knows how to do everything. he just knows how to f*ck.'
Attached is a Barbie poster showing Barbie sitting on Ken's left shoulder and grinning. She has one hand splayed over his face. Text reads: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling. Elle peut tout faire. Lui, c'est juste Ken. Au cinéma le 19 Juillet. /End]
I think that the legipillar outfit for babies is a fine idea, but that baby is developmentally way past the legipillar stage and is going to fall over. The baby is going to faceplant. Kid is like 3 years old. Dude. That kid is thinking about getting into a good college. That potato bag design is gonna hold him back
Frasier and Niles bickering over a voicemail message











