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Annie raises Monarchs from eggs or caterpillars she finds. Two days ago we found one in the plowed field with a malformed and smaller right wing. Annie is now trying to get it healthy though there is not much hope for it long term. Between the farmers chemicals and the amount of birds and other predators here, they would likely not survive long but we are still seeing a dwindling hatch every year since she started. Two years in a row now they have come back to roost in our yard by the thousands on their way south to Mexico. Quite a sight and one that really puts a smile on Annie's face.

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These burrowing fish that live in intertidal zones not only feel right at home on land, but they can actually die if they spend too much time underwater. Mudskippers get their name from their ability to jump or skip from one tide pool to the next, and they propel themselves with the help of an unusual jointed pectoral fin that looks and functions much like a leg. Probably the most commonly encountered amphibious fish, mudskippers make up more than 20 species found in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions around the globe.

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Highly prized as a food fish throughout Asia, where they often inhabit the same brackish, poorly oxygenated waters as snakeheads, the climbing perch is a fish that can walk on land for several hundred meters. The fish’s name derives from its rumored ability to climb trees—a legend for sure. It can remain out of water for six to 10 hours by using a maze-like breathing organ called a labyrinth to extract oxygen from the air, and it has been known to survive even longer by burying itself in mud to stay moist. In Australia, where climbing perch are thought to have been introduced by fishing boats, the fish are considered an invasive species. Surprisingly, that classification is due to their status as prey, not predator. The 10-inch perch’s ability to flex their spiny fins when swallowed has led to the choking deaths of native Australian birds.

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Another nonnative invasive species that’s taken up residence in Florida, walking catfish are a Southeast Asian fish first reported in Broward County in 1967. They’ve spread throughout south and central Florida and are now commonly found in canals, ponds, and Walmart parking lots. They can cover ¾ of a mile on land and survive 18 hours out of water, and their ability to colonize new territory is greatly aided by their ability to walk on land and use storm drains to move around during periods of high stormwater runoff. Initially thought to pose a dire threat to native species, walking catfish—which can grow to 20 inches and three pounds—have proven to be more of a nuisance than a serious threat, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. It’s still against state law to transport live walking catfish, so anglers who want to eat them are advised to immediately put them on ice. The species’ extreme sensitivity to cold weather may be the single biggest factor limiting their spread.

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Horseshoe Crabs aren't crabs at all. They have more in common with spiders than they do with crabs. They were here long before the dinosaurs appeared but due to their unique blue blood, they many not be here in the near future.

Because the pharmaceutical industry exploits their precious blue blood. Their sky-blue blood contains amoebocytes, which react to toxic substances and can thus be used for the so-called horseshoe crab amoebocyte lysate test. This test is necessary for the marketing authorization of medicines and vaccines. Hundreds of thousands of horseshoe crabs die each year for this reason.

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Did you know that tuna are like pelagic sharks. They need to keep swimming - even when they are sleeping - or else they drown.

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Were you taught in school that elephants have the longest gestation period of any animal - 22 months. It's a half truth. It's a record for mammals but not for all creatures. The record is held by the spiny dogfish - part of the shark family. It's gestation period is 24 months.

Want to see your wife faint? Just ask here how would she feel if her pregnancy lasted 24 months? I suspect the human race would have died out thousands of years ago if this was the case.

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All clown fish are born as males. When they reach maturity they can change their gender to female to propagate and make sure their species lives on.

This gender change is not unique in the animal kingdom. Wrasses, Copperhead snakes, Sea bass, Moray eels and Humphead wrasse can also make the change as needed.

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Echidna is the platypus's close relative, which looks like a cross between a porcupine and a hedgehog, is at least 110 million years old, making it the oldest surviving species of mammal in the world. Native to Oceania, they are the only mammal that lays eggs besides the platypus.

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One of the most ancient inhabitants of Earth that is still with us is the chambered nautilus, a seafaring cephalopod that has been around for 500 million years. That's twice as old as the oldest species of dinosaurs!

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The fascinatingly unique wobbegong shark got its start in the Upper Jurassic period, around 145 million years ago. This means that they, along with many other aquatic forms of life, survived the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The elusive nature of the wobbegong, and its expertly utilized camouflage, has helped it thrive well into the present without any threat of endangerment.

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These tiny reptilians, today found only in New Zealand, may look like shrunken down dinosaurs. And they essentially are! Tuataras are the last surviving members of the family of reptiles that first appeared in the Triassic period around 250 million years ago. It's likely only due to their small size that tuataras survived the mass extinction event 65 million years ago that wiped out their dinosaur cousins.

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Ghost sharks, or chimaeras, are some of the oldest species of fish in the world, diverging from true sharks around 400 million years ago. That makes them just as old, if not older, than trees and forests. Today, chimaeras stick to the darkest and murkiest depths of the ocean.

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Sturgeon are another incomprehensibly ancient species of fish that have managed to stick around for more than 100 million years. Sturgeon, although far smaller in numbers now than they were in the Cretaceous period, can still be found in the Great Lakes of North America, and can grow up to 12 feet (3.5 meters) in length.

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One of the cutest and cuddliest creatures in the world, the red panda is actually of no relation to the panda bear. They are part of a unique family of animals, of which they are the only surviving member. Red pandas have been lounging around the forested mountains of Nepal and China for an estimated 25 million years, based on fossil records.

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Alligator gars have remained virtually unchanged by evolution for the past 100 million years, since the early Cretaceous period. Apparently, no change has been necessary, as they have been a thriving species for all of that time, and even today are in no danger of extinction or endangerment.

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Brachiopods are some of the oldest and, at one time, most populous invertebrates on the planet. According to the available fossil records, brachiopods first appeared over 500 million years ago, and shortly after became the most common shelled creature in the sea. They remained dominant until the Permian mass extinction, which occurred around 250 million years ago. While they managed to hold on, brachiopods have yet to return to their former glory.

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The coelacanth fish has truly made the comeback of the epoch. With the earliest fossils of a coelacanth dating back more than 400 million years ago, these ancient fish were thought to have gone extinct during the late Cretaceous period, around 66 million years ago. That is until, in 1938, scientists discovered that the coelacanth had survived in seclusion the entire time.

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Horsetail plants are considered living fossils, as they have gone through little to no evolutionary change for their entire existence. Horsetails can be found nearly everywhere in the world, excluding most of Oceania and all of Antarctica. They first appeared in the early Jurassic period, around 200 million years ago.

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It's no secret that sharks are some of the oldest fish in the ocean, but cow sharks are especially old and have remained virtually unchanged for their entire existence, which stretches nearly 200 million years. Unlike most modern sharks, cow sharks have seven gill slits on each side of their body, a characteristic shared with the most ancient progenitors of sharks.

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Certainly one of the most unnerving creatures in the sea, lampreys are also some of the oldest. These primitive, bloodsucking fish have been around for at least 360 million years, according to the available fossil evidence.

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The oldest multi-organ creatures to exist are still thriving in the depths of the ocean today. As of 2007, the oldest jellyfish fossils discovered date to over 505 million years ago. Some scientists speculate that they may have existed as early as 700 million years ago.

1958 Glastron Seaflite Seville:biggthumpup: