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i thought it was lobsters
It's hard to comprehend the destruction this ethereal creature could do in its lifetime — a juvenile crown-of-thorns starfish, raised in a lab where researchers have discovered worrying new findings about its progression into adulthood.
Research published today from the University of Sydney and Southern Cross University's National Marine Science Centre in Coffs Harbour has found the crown-of-thorns starfish will eat a much more varied diet as juveniles than previously thought, making them worryingly resilient.
As juveniles the crown-of-thorns starfish are vegetarian, favouring a particular type of algae.
But the study found they they would eat much more in order to survive.
"We initially thought that they only ate crustose coralline algae but we found that they can also eat biofilm, which is a mixture of diatoms, bacteria, and other microorganisms that grow pretty much everywhere in the ocean," Dr Mos said.
The findings offer a significant change in thought on the life cycle of the crown-of-thorns starfish, and raises the spectre of it being a much more dangerous predator.
Journal Reference:
Dione J. Deaker, Benjamin Mos, Huang-An Lin, et al. Diet flexibility and growth of the early herbivorous juvenile crown-of-thorns sea star, implications for its boom-bust population dynamics, PLOS ONE (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236142)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @09:27PM (5 children)
Crown-of-Thorns sounds a lot like Corona -- maybe this starfish is the Corona virus of the sea?
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @09:38PM (4 children)
First class sleuthing Mr. President.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @09:44PM (3 children)
Hey, who just dumped a tanker load of bleach into the ocean?
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Saturday July 25 2020, @10:58PM (2 children)
One of these days I'm going to empty out a bottle of Clorox, fill it with soda or powerade or something, and use it as my water bottle on the bus.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2020, @12:40AM (1 child)
lol.
you know on the bottle label it's got a warning to not reuse the container... just saying.
would storing some diluted muriatic acid in it neutralize any sodium hypochlorite that might be in the plastic? or just deionized/distilled water?
But otherwise that'd be seriously funny, but funny out in public could be hazardous to your health these days, too.
Jukin Media would pay for reaction vids tho.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2020, @12:40PM
I would not sweat the bleach too much.
Bleach is actually recommended to sanitize drinking water in an emergency.
https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/emergency/making-water-safe.html [cdc.gov]
Just rinse the bottle out good. You won't get the taste out of it, but I can see the sight gag.
Do Not do this with poisons.
FWIW, I like to use those 220 ml PET whiskey bottles to keep my Diesel fuel additive in. It is just the right size for a fill up dose, and the long bottle neck makes it easy to get the dose of additive into my van's fuel inlet. They are rugged bottles, have well fitting caps that do not leak, and diesel stuff attacks most other plastics.
I get the most unusual comments when others see me apparently fueling my van with booze.
And I have also a lot of interest, and mirth, at those roadside sobriety checks when the officer spies my bottle of additive in the dash tray. They think they nailed me until I surrender it to the officer requesting that he sniff it first. Then we both laugh at it.
So I can see your sight gag. One of the checkers at our local supermarket uses a bottle of Hershey chocolate syrup as a water bottle.