Normal? Ewww.. Todos estamos locos!.. o al menos todos los que conozco jeje!

Día a día clasificamos a las personas a nuestro alrededor como "normales o no (anormales)", con el usual sesgo de pensar que "nosotros" somos normales, mientras que "ellos" no lo son! Pero si hay una cosa que me fascina de la ciencia es que nos ayuda a entender que lo "normal" no es más que una percepción; que a nuestras sociedades les encanta colocar patrones de normalidad (incluso cuando no lo son ni cercanamente); que usualmente hay muchas excepciones a la regla; que si todo fuese igual sería muy aburrido; y por lo tanto, que en la variedad está el gusto. Y para confirmar esto, está en circulación el borrador del próximo manual de la Asociación Estadounidense de Psiquiatría.

Fuente: ¿Qué es lo normal? / Sid's garden

Alguna de estas situaciones te suena familiar?

• ¿tu última pareja te dedico la canción Hot N' Cold de Katy Perry porque dice q eres bipolar?
• ¿tienes alguna manía que para tus amigos es "extraña" (incluso si es divertida... recuerdas a Mónica de Friends)?
• ¿cuando estás triste, comes como loco / o no comes nada, y eso te pasa seguido?
• ¿te encanta y necesitas el sexo a diario y si no lo tienes, ufff sufres hasta encontrar con quién?
• ¿estás seguro que el otro día alguien te seguía, aunque el pasillo estaba vacío?
• ¿no pasas nunca debajo de escaleras, o tienes superticiosas creencias en milagros y figurillas de cerámica?
• ¿compruebas 20 veces si apagaste la plancha?

Si tu respuesta fue si a alguna de estas preguntas, pues resulta que según el próximo manual de diagnóstico mental de la Asociación Estadounidense de Psiquiatría, no eres tan normal que digamos (y esto se amplía a muchos otros comportamientos, así que si incluso si tus respuestas fueron no, puedes no ser normal jeje).

Exotic prehistoric fauna in Germany

Prehistoric Gila Monster, Furry-Coated Rodent and More Unearthed at the Messel Pit, a former volcanic lake near what is now Frankfurt


When Messel Pit was located at the present latitude of Sicily, it was home to a very special fauna, including the primeval horse and the ancestors of today’s birds. 47 million years ago Messel was covered by dense primeval forests with warm, wet climate. Surveys by the Senckenberg Research Institute carries out in the Messel Pit, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site, have discovered about 3,000 fossil remains, including some beautiful and interesting animals:

A reptile about 80 centimetres long, the bulldog of the lizard world, closely related to the Gila monsters (Helodermatidae), a family found today just in southwestern USA and Central America. These lizards are renowned by being venomous.

Jewel beetles of the family Buprestidae, whose living representatives can now only be found in the Tropics. “The exquisite coloration is created by refraction at different layers of the chitin carapace,” explains Dr. Sonja Wedmann.

A rodent of the genus Masillamys recovered nearly whole, allowing identification of the fossilised remains of its stomach contents. The extremely well-preserved outlines of the body reveals this ancient rodent had a thick, short-haired coat of fur. The short legs typical of the genus suggest it once lived on the floor of the primeval forest surrounding Messel.

Full size image of Lizard here

Full size image of Beetle here

Full size image of the Rodent here

Among the mammals found, the famous Leptictidium auderiense, star among the Messel fossils thanks to the BBC documentary "Walking with Beasts". Leptictidium had a highly specialised locomotor system. Its extraordinarily long tail with 40 vertebrae, long back legs and reduced front ones point to a bipedal gait.

Fossil of Leptictidium (Wikipedia)



Leptictidium as reconstructed in BBC documentary "Walking with Beasts".

Among the total of 6,773 finds recovered at Messel Pit in 2007 and 2008, there were 1,929 fossilised remains of vertebrates, 1,403 insects and 3,441 plant remains. The information contained in the finds provide the scientists of the Senckenberg Research Institute data on the occurrence of individual species, their bodily structures and lifestyles, and the evolutionary history of animal groups. In addition, the research results help to reconstruct the Eocene environment and give clues to the relationship between climate and biodiversity.

Based on information provided by the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, to whom credit for all images goes to.

Full news at Discovery Channel: http://blogs.discovery.com/news_animal/2009/08/prehistoric-gila-monster-furrycoated-rodent-and-more-unearthed.html

Cochranella erminea sp. nov.

Cochranella erminea, a new species of Centrolenidae (Amphibia: Anura: Athesphatanura) from Amazonian Peru)

Abstract.--We describe a new species of Centrolenidae, Cochranella erminea n. sp., from the Amazonian lowlands of the department of Junín, Peru. This new species is diagnosed from other centrolenids by having vomerine teeth, bones green in life, parietal peritoneum and pericardium white, all other visceral peritonea clear, dorsum in life viridian to olive green with abundant enameled (bright white) flecks/spots on flat warts, and scattered larger dark blue spots on warts, extensive webbing between outer fingers, snout in profile slightly sloping anteroventraly, and rounded in dorsal view, iris in life between light grey and slate gray with fine darker gray reticulations. We also present new information on the distribution of C. truebae and C. ametarsia in Peru..

Cita / Citation: Torres-Gastello, C.P., J. Suarez-Segovia, J. & D.F. Cisneros-Heredia. 2007. Cochranella erminea, a new species of Centrolenidae (Amphibia: Anura: Athesphatanura) from Amazonian Peru. Journal of the National Museum (Prague), Natural History Series 176 (1): 1-12.

Mas información: http://www.cisneros-heredia.org/public