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A few more scenery-type photos from our recent Belize adventure.
PHOTO ONE. As we approached the Lamanai Mayan ruins area in a boat on the New River, the largest of the structures stands higher than the surrounding jungle. I can only imagine what this area must have looked like 2,000 years ago when it was built, and this city was bustling with the activity of thousands of Mayans.
PHOTO TWO. This is a smaller structure, called the Jaguar Temple, but it is still breathtaking.
PHOTO THREE. An example of why we love to snorkel Belize's Great Barrier Reef. It is an underwater wonderland.
PHOTO FOUR. The Belize River. Awesome place to spot birds, iguanas, crocodiles, and much more. We drifted this river for hours, both during daylight and at night, looking at wildlife.
PHOTO FIVE. I took this photo while snorkeling at the famous "Blue Hole." This is part of the shallow rim around the Blue Hole, which is about 1,000 feet across. The diversity of corals and sponges here is astounding.
PHOTO SIX. Trish doing what she loves to do. I think she loves snorkeling even more than I do.
PHOTO SEVEN. Sunset on our last night on Turneffe Atoll, a massive array of mangrove islands surrounded by coral reefs. We spent a week there, snorkeling every day.
Photo Credits:
All photos by Stan C. Smith
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Normally I share wildlife photos, but here are a few scenery-type photos from our recent trip to Belize.
FIRST PHOTO – A view from the air as we approached Belize City.
SECOND PHOTO – We floated a river on inner tubes, which gave us a unique perspective of the area.
THIRD PHOTO – The river float also took us through an extensive cave. Once we got several hundred yards away from the cave opening, we were in total darkness (only the light from our headlamps) for almost an hour.
FOURTH PHOTO – Convenient wooden walkways at Howler Monkey Resort. This was a charming resort run by a wonderful couple and their two sons.
FIFTH PHOTO – Half Moon Caye. This became Belize’s first nature reserve in 1981, and the first marine protected area in Central America.
SIXTH PHOTO – Belize’s Great Barrier Reef has some astounding underwater scenery, with a nice diversity of corals and other marine life.
SEVENTH PHOTO – Trish in her happy place at sunset, bare feet in the sand. This is at Blackbird Caye, which is part of Turneffe Atoll, about thirty miles off the coast of Belize. This was the fourth time we have spent a week there, snorkeling every day and eating wonderful food.
Photo Credits:
All photos by Stan C. Smith
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I'm going to tie this topic in with one of my sci-fi series. Profusion is the grand finale of my Diffusion series. This epic novel puts Bobby in a seemingly impossible situation where he has to save the entire world from a horrifying plague (a profusion) of grotesque transformations. With ground zero on the island of Puerto Rico, millions of out-of-control nanobots are transforming every living thing they touch into bizarre and deadly amalgamations of various creatures. It seems nothing can stop this terrifying profusion.
But Bobby is no ordinary teenager. In fact, he is not what he seems to be at all. He comes up with a plan, which involves millions of birds that can disperse over the landscape quickly. When each bird reaches its destination, it will transform into hundreds of fast-flying dragonflies. And when each dragonfly reaches its destination, it will divide into thousands of the tiniest flies Bobby can think of, called no-see-ums. Each of these minuscule flies has a mission to carry out. It's definitely not a perfect plan, but it may be humanity's only hope.
If you like that kind of stuff (and who doesn't?), I recommend checking out the Diffusion series—FIRST IMAGE.
https://www.amazon.com/Diffusion/dp/B07F7LMW5Z
Now let's get to the topic. What the heck is a no-see-um?
No-see-ums are called different names in different parts of the world. They are actually a type of fly (the order Diptera), but they are much smaller than many other flies such as mosquitoes or deer flies. In fact, some of them are so small you simply cannot see them without a magnifier. You don't even know they are on your skin until you feel them biting you. That's how they got their name, no-see-um.
During the warmer months, we have a lot of no-see-ums here in Missouri, and they seem to like biting me more than they like biting Trish. This is why I call them the devil's spawn. The little jerks.
THE SECOND IMAGE is a no-see-um biting someone's leg:
Most of the insects people call no-see-ums are in a family of flies referred to as biting midges. Depending on where you're from, you may have heard them called midgies, knotts, moose flies, sand flies, punkies, or biting gnats. some of these names, though, like gnats and sand flies, are ambiguous because they are used for a number of other insect groups. Amazingly, there are 4,000 to 5,000 species of no-see-ums (biting midges) that we know of, and they live in almost every part of the world. They've even been found on Mount Everest!
No-see-ums are so small they can fly right through typical screens on windows and doors. Whenever I purchase a tent, I make sure the windows are made of "no-see-um netting," a special type of netting with very small holes. In order to block no-see-ums, the netting must have mesh size of at least 4,900 holes per square inch.
Like with mosquitoes, it is the female no-see-ums that bite. The females have a needle-like sucker along with a separate injector tube. The sucker is obviously for sucking up blood. The injector tube is used to inject a small amount of anticoagulant, to keep the blood from clotting so it will flow freely up the sucker tube. It is actually our body's allergic reaction to this anticoagulant that causes the itch. Some people are more allergic to it than others. Fortunately for me, the itch only lasts about 20 minutes, but for some people it can go on for several days or even weeks.
Female no-see-ums seek out blood for the same reason female mosquitoes do—to get nourishment for developing their eggs. Once a female gets a blood meal, she will lay her eggs on water or wet sand (water is necessary for the larvae). A female can lay 400 or more eggs at a time, and she can breed 5-7 times in her adult life. I guess that's why they're so abundant.
Although I despise no-see-ums, I also love them. Why? Because no-see-ums (along with gull midges) are the only pollinators of the cacao tree. So without them, we would have no chocolate!
Photo Credits:
- Biting midge (no-see-um) - Dunpharlain, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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THE FIRST PHOTO is a BANANA SLUG. These slugs are variable in color, sometimes bright yellow, sometimes with black spots, and sometimes various shades of brown or gold. They get their name not only from sometimes being yellow, but also from their immense size, growing to almost ten inches long.
THE SECOND PHOTO shows that this banana slug is close to six inches long. Slugs are terrestrial air-breathing gastropods. Gastropods include snails and slugs (which are basically snails without a shell).
While banana slugs are native to the Pacific Northwest, THE THIRD PHOTO is a EUROPEAN SLUG, which is an invasive species. Something about the climate in the northwest must be perfect for slugs to grow to enormous sizes, because these European slugs are also big (this one was also about six inches).
THE FOURTH PHOTO is a YELLOW-FACED BUMBLEBEE. We have bumblebees in Missouri, of course, but I immediately saw this this species looks different—the only place it has yellow is right behind the head (and just a touch of yellow on the tip of the abdomen) . The yellow-faced bumblebee, which only lives on the west coast, is an extremely important pollinator for agriculture.
THE FIFTH PHOTO is a WESTERN LEAFCUTTER BEE. These are larger than a honeybee, almost as big as a bumblebee. They live in many of the western states, but not as far east as Missouri. These bees are usually solitary, but at breeding time, a small group of them will work together to dig a burrow in the ground, where they lay their eggs.
All photos by Stan C. Smith
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THE FIRST PHOTO is a NORTHERN ALLIGATOR LIZARD, which only lives in the Pacific Northwest. I had to search for a while to find a few of these cool lizards. They are quite secretive, and I spotted this one peeking out from under a piece of loose bark.
THE SECOND PHOTO is a bizarre kind of lichen called METHUSELAH'S BEARD. A lichen is actually two kinds of organisms living together in partnership: fungus and algae. The fungus provides a moist place for the algae to live, and the algae provide food by doing photosynthesis. This lichen hangs from trees, and it is the longest type of lichen in the world.
THE THIRD PHOTO is a CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEE. We see a lot of black-capped chickadees in Missouri, but this species only lives in the Pacific Northwest.
THE FOURTH PHOTO is a PACIFIC WREN. This wren species lives—you guessed it—only in the Pacific Northwest. Missouri has house wrens, Carolina wrens, and winter wrens, but it's always fun to see a new species.
THE FIFTH PHOTO is a ROOSEVELT ELK. Wild elk used to roam throughout Missouri, but by the 1880s, they were completely extirpated by humans. They were reintroduced in 2011 to 2013, and now we have several breeding populations in Missouri. The Roosevelt elk, however, is a subspecies that lives—you guessed it again—only in the Pacific Northwest.
I'll share a few more Washington critters in another post soon.
All photos by Stan C. Smith
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The plants covering those branches are mostly mosses. The Pacific Northwest is home to about 1,000 species of mosses, many of which grow on the branches of trees. Mosses are what we call nonvascular plants—they do not have veins to carry water and nutrients up the plant. Therefore, they cannot grow very tall because they have to soak up water from rain and from the surface they are growing on.
Many trees in the Pacific Northwest are also covered by lichens. Check out the PHOTO TWO. The bright green and brown plant in the center of this photo is an example of moss. Surrounding the moss are two types of lichens—one type that grows in flat lobes, and another type that grows as long, thin, branching filaments.
Lichens are nothing like mosses. Lichens are actually a bizarre partnership, in which a fungus lives together with a type of algae (or sometimes a cyanobacteria). The fungus provides a moist, safe place for the algae to live. The algae provides food for both the organisms by doing photosynthesis. Nature is so cool!
Well, as I was looking into the forest from the balcony of a cabin we stayed in for a few days, I saw this tree with something long and stringy growing on it. PHOTO THREE.
This stringy stuff is NOT Spanish moss (which grows on trees in the southeast USA and is actually a type of air plant called a bromeliad). This stuff is also not a type of moss (there are some long stringy mosses that hang from trees in the Pacific Northwest).
How do I know it's not a moss? Because when I zoomed in on it, what I saw is shown in PHOTO FOUR.
These long strands with little filaments sticking out in all directions indicate that this is a lichen called bearded lichen, or Methuselah's beard lichen. It is the longest lichen in the world, growing to twenty feet in length!
This is why I love being outdoors. Every living thing you see—if you pay attention and learn more about it—is unique and spectacular in its own way.
All photos by Stan C. Smith
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Missouri is in the center of the United States, far from any coasts. So, during warm months, Missourians flock to these rivers instead of flocking to the beach. You can swim, snorkel, fish, paddle the river in canoes or kayaks, or just relax on the gravel sand bars and enjoy the scenery. THE FIRST PHOTO was the view from the porch of our cabin. You can see that the sand bar on the far side of the river is a popular destination.
We spent one of our days paddling in a canoe and two kayaks down the river. We had a guide take us in a bus to the put-in spot about five miles upstream, then we floated our way back to the resort, stopping occasionally to swim or eat snacks. Confession: Trish and I dumped our canoe at one point as we tried to navigate a tricky bend in the river... not a big deal, but she did lose her favorite hat to the river! Notice she is hatless in THE SECOND PHOTO.
Missouri has about 110,000 miles of flowing streams and rivers. Because the Ozark region (the southern half of the state and into Arkansas) is an elevated plain of ancient bedrock, the streams here tend to run over gravel instead of mud, which makes the water clear. Many Ozark streams are spring fed, and the water coming from beneath the ground makes the stream water quite cold. This cold, clear water has resulted in numerous fish, amphibians, and invertebrates that are endemic (they aren't found anywhere else in the world) to Ozark streams.
Examples of endemic species are the Ozark hellbender (a large aquatic salamander that is so slimy it has earned the name "snot otter"), the Ozark cavefish (a translucent fish with no eyes that lives in underground springs), the Ozark madtom (a tiny catfish), and many others, including several endemic crayfish, like the longpincered crayfish.
THE THIRD PHOTO is an Ozark hellbender (snot otter). Unfortunately, this is not my photo... I've always wanted to find one of these, but they are rather rare and I haven't been lucky enough.
Of course, many Ozark streams are too small to canoe or swim in. But they still contain an astounding variety of wildlife, and they are beautiful to see. THE FOURTH PHOTO is a stream that runs through our property.
Do you have a favorite stream or river in your area? Do you have a fun story about an experience you've had there?
- Ozark hellbender - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- All other photos - Stan C. Smith
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My most unusual fictional romantic relationship is in my Across Horizons series. Why is it unusual? Because the male is of the species Homo sapiens and the female is of the species Homo neanderthalensis.
That's right, they are two different species.
At first thought, this may seem weird. But that's probably because we live in a time in which there is only one surviving species of hominin. Hominins are the group of mammals that includes humans and all of the extinct species that are similar to us—Neanderthals, Australopithicus, Homo erectus, Denisovans, and others too numerous to list here.
Throughout history, there were long stretches of time when Homo sapiens existed at the same time as several other human-like species, including Neanderthals. And the different species interacted.
Is it possible that a human and a Neanderthal could fall in love? We can't know for sure, but we do know, with certainty, that before Neanderthals went extinct 40,000 years ago, humans and Neanderthals mated and produced hybrid offspring. How do we know this? Because almost all modern humans have remnant Neanderthal DNA. From 1% to about 4% of most people's DNA is Neanderthal, depending on the region of the world they are descended from. People with recent Sub-Saharan African ancestry have the least amount because their ancestors did not migrate north out of Africa and intermix with the Neanderthals living in Europe.
So, we know humans and Neanderthals had babies together, but we cannot know if they fell in love. I like to think they did. Which is one of the reasons I enjoyed writing the Across Horizons series.
Skyra is an extraordinary Neanderthal woman. Lincoln is an extraordinary human man who happens to have developed a device that allows him to transport drones back in time to collect environmental data from the past. When Lincoln is forced to use his device to send himself back in time 47,000 years... well, as you can guess, the two meet. But what you probably can't guess is how their relationship triggers a sequence of events that echo far into the future.
IMAGE ONE is Skyra and Lincoln talking to Lincoln's drone, named Ripple.
Interestingly, none of the Neanderthal DNA in modern humans is from female Neanderthals. We know this because no Neanderthal mRNA exists in humans today (I'm talking about mitochondrial DNA, which is only passed down from mother to offspring). I won't get into the details, but this means that all the Neanderthal DNA in humans today came from Neanderthal men mating with human women, instead of Neanderthal women mating with human men. This suggests it's possible that offspring from a Neanderthal woman impregnated by a human man may have been sterile (biologically incapable of reproducing). But we know offspring from a human woman impregnated by a Neanderthal man were not sterile.
The premise of my story is a male human and female Neanderthal falling in love and producing offspring. Does the information above make this premise impossible? Not really. It's possible that, in every instance of human men mating with Neanderthal women, the women and their offspring stayed with their Neanderthal tribes, and they and their offspring eventually went extinct along with all the other Neanderthals. It's also possible that the Neanderthal women and their hybrid offspring simply died due to other causes. After all, life was almost certainly harsh that long ago—predators, disease, war with human tribes, war with other Neanderthal tribes, and much more.
Back to the question that fascinates me... if a human male from the future appeared 47,000 years in the past and encountered a Neanderthal female, could they fall in love?
A lot of factors could reduce the chances of this happening. In my story, Skyra already hates humans. In her time (47,000 years ago), in the area that is now Spain, human tribes had traveled north out of Africa and had already been interacting with Neanderthals for thousands of years. Skyra hates humans because they frequently attack her tribe, and a ruthless band of humans captured and abused Skyra's sister. Skyra wants to kill every human man she encounters, especially the leader of her sister's tormentors.
IMAGE TWO is Skyra facing off with her sworn human enemy. This confrontation does not end well.
So, when Skyra encounters Lincoln, a strange human man from the future, her thoughts have nothing to do with attraction or passion. And I would imagine this was the case in real life when Neanderthal women encountered human men. More often than not, violence was probably the outcome.
But there can always be exceptions, right?
Maybe a more important question is, were Neanderthals even capable of experiencing love? We don't know. And we don't know if they had monogamous relationships. But if they did have monogamous relationships, we can assume that the male and female would instinctively protect each other and nurture each other through sickness and injury. And isn't that the foundation of love? Isn't that how humans developed strong bonds of affection for each other?
So, I like to believe Neanderthals could love. We already know humans experience love, so my opinion is that Lincoln and Skyra falling in love is not impossible.
Of course, their relationship is only one thread to the epic Across Horizons story, which is told in five novels—IMAGE THREE.
If you haven't read the series yet, I'm confident you will enjoy the adventure. Check it out here:
https://www.amazon.com/Across-Horizons/dp/B086PCFB68
Images of Skyra with Lincoln and with her human enemy - Midjourney
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What the heck is a slug anyway? Is it just a snail without a shell? Let's dig into this a bit.
The answer is a bit complicated. Slugs (as well as snails) are in a group of mollusks called gastropods. You might assume that slugs are a specific group of gastropods and snails are a separate group of gastropods. But that's not the case. There are several families of slugs, and the families are not closely related to each other. Each of these families includes some that have shells... which means those species are actually called snails.
Confusing? Let me put it this way: Each of these unrelated families of gastropods have some with shells, some without, and some with very small or internal shells. So, the feature of having no shell has evolved separately in each of these families.
The word "slug" is just a generic name for any gastropods without shells (or with reduced shells) and "snail" is a generic name for any that do have shells. Even if they are not related to each other.
THE SECOND PHOTO is a beautiful little sea slug that we found recently while snorkeling in Belize:
Another interesting gastropod we found while snorkeling was this flamingo tongue snail (THIRD PHOTO). These have a shell... but, interestingly, the pretty color and pattern you see is not the shell itself. Instead, this snail has living tissue, called the mantle, that extends out from the body and covers the shell to give it that striking pattern. When the snail is attacked, it can pull the mantle inside, leaving the plain white or yellow bare shell to protect it.
All photos by Stan C. Smith
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THE FIRST PHOTO is a juvenile cottontail rabbit I saw a few weeks ago, and it's a perfect example.
The leading explanation for this phenomenon comes from Konrad Lorenz, an ethologist (someone who studies animal behavior). In 1943, Lorenz suggested that almost all baby animals have certain physical characteristics in common. For example, a relatively large head compared to the body, rounded cheeks, a high forehead, a small nose and mouth, and rounder bodies. He called this the "baby schema," and the reason most people find these critters to be cute is because humans have a deeply ingrained instinct to nurture babies. After all, humans are animals too, and our babies have these same physical characteristics.
On a more fundamental level, when we perceive cuteness, this stimulates the pleasure center of the brain, releasing dopamine and oxytocin, which promote social bonding and reduce aggression. Cuteness actually triggers a physical response.
And, from my experience, I feel like the closer the baby animal is related to humans, the more we feel the cuteness factor. Baby non-human primates, for example. THE SECOND PHOTO includes a baby howler monkey that we saw in Belize a few weeks ago.
With many species of monkeys, we even perceive the adults as cute. THE THIRD PHOTO is an adult white-faced capuchin we saw in Panama. Even though this individual appears to be grouchy, its similarities to a human, and the overall baby-like proportions of its face, stimulate our brain to feel affection for it.
And a lot of other types of mammals that are not primates have body proportions as adults that strike us as cute. THE FOURTH PHOTO is an agouti (a large type of rodent) that we saw in Belize. Even though this is an adult, its proportions trigger our brain to feel affection for it.
The animals don't even have to be mammals. THE FIFTH PHOTO is a baby gecko we found in Belize, barely larger than the tip of Trish's finger. Simply because its eyes were proportionally huge compared to its body, we both immediately thought of it as cute, and we went to considerable effort to move it safely to a place where it wouldn't get stepped on.
The cuteness factor is powerful!
