SHY CANNIBALS ... THE PONDHAWK ... and then a bit of DNA awestruckiness

Cannibalism. while not popular in our species, is easier when you are a dragonfly who perceives anything that moves as either a meal or a threat.

 For a powerfully built pondhawk ... (Eastern Pondhawk...I think), even other dragonflies provide a large and useful meal.

This pondhawk decapitated another dragonfly and was quietly consuming it on a sabal palm frond when my son in law Rob spotted it. 

It's best not to be too obvious with your prize if you're a dragonfly with prey and this pondhawk was holding everything still except his mandibles.

They were working.

Hey!  I'm eatin' here!

 NOM, NOM, NOM...

 Another pondhawk was flitting about and diving in towards the dining pondhawk, so he changed location and assumed a better position for protecting the prize while keeping an eye on the skies. 

 Anyone who admires, rather than fears insects has to be blown away by their architecture.

I mean, LOOK  AT ALL THOSE PARTS!

All of it coded for by DNA, the shape, the location, and the function of every bitty bit (that science talk for really small parts) due to a sequential arrangement of 4 different bases.

I love teaching the DNA portion of my high school Biology course. We delve into molecular biology far deeper than we used to do.

The rate of new DNA discovery keeps a teacher on their toes too ... there's something new almost daily.

Ya gotta keep up Teach.

I always hope that some of my sense of wonder at this amazing chemical comes through during these lessons.

Sometimes you just need to get up close to some multifaceted organism like a blue crab (careful on the closeness), a passionflower blossom, or ... a dragonfly... and observe and ponder ... heck count if you want to ... all the different structures and how they interact to make that organism function.

And I'm only brushing the surface here ... obviously the inside of this dragonfly is loaded with special jiggly bits that allow it to dragonfly around my yard like it does.

ALL of it coded for by DNA.

AND ... we haven't even mentioned the DNA switches that turn on and off to change the aquatic nymph form of this creature to the flashy, flying, death dealing P-51 fighter of the insect world.

Also, since this is an instinctive animal ... not a thinker like you, ALL of it's basic behavior is pre-programmed by ... wait, what was that chemical ?

Oh yeah, Deoxyribonucleic Acid.

If these guys didn't exist, you could never make one up.

It's like something from IKEA ... so many different parts !   Lucky for us, DNA (and the proteins it codes for) does all the assembly.

SLOWMOrning

If you have a hard time getting going on a cold morning, ...consider the fence lizard.

 On any normal warm Florida day, these guys combine excellent camo with ninja-like speed to avoid capture. On an oak tree, they practically vanish due to their superbly adapted coloration.

If that doesn't work, they are experts at squirrelian scrimmaging to whatever side of the tree you are not on.

...BUT, catch them on a cold morning and their supereptilian powers are nullified.

I picked this one up cold and limp from under a bit of plywood that was lying on the ground. With chilled muscles that were below their working temperature, he was helpless.
I'm pretty sure my endothermic mammalian warmth felt delicious to him, because he was perfectly content to hug a finger and bask.

All of his coldoldruminicity gave me a chance to appreciate our similarities and differences.
 
My nails and his scales are made of the same stuff.

That hand and that arm has the same basic blueprint as mine:
Humerus -- Radius & Ulna -- Carpals -- Metacarpals -- Phalanges -- Nails.
Shared, but not identical DNA makes this handsome male (talking about the lizard) my cousin, but not my brother.
He's way better adapted to catching ants and other insects...while I'm better at say ... remodeling a house.

We're working on DNA in my Biology class and I can't help but think of my Bio students when I look at this lizard.

(Not because he just wanted to lie in the sun and bask)

They were working on the basic structure of DNA last week...poor things.
 My biology class is the last class of the day for them and my job is to take their tired brains into the most important chemical on the planet and have them walk away with a working knowledge of it's structure and the whole amazing process of replication, transcription, and translation.
We'll get there, but maybe we should start the class next week with that lizard face above and just try to appreciate that every shape,substance, color, fold, space, pattern, ... everything in that face is the result of DNA code ... 4 little bases arranged in infinite variety... it leaves me a little awestruck.
I hope that comes through in the lessons.

The fence lizard doesn't know about DNA, (neither did we not so long ago), he just knows my hand is warm and it is better to cling to it than not on this cold morning.

That gives me more time to admire his architecture.
The blue scales say, "I'm a male".
Inside, his body is warming up, both immediately from my 98.6 F, but also seasonally as the Florida Spring is not far away.
Soon it will be time to put those blue scales to use wooing the ladies.
The DNAmour gene will soon fire up and this loner will be chasing tail up and down the oaks here.

A slightly tighter grip in this picture as I could feel him becoming more active ... a signal that it was time to part.
At the rotting oak stump in the blueberry patch, I held my hand to the bark and released my grip.

He stayed.
In fact, he had to be scraped gently from my hand to the stump.
No lizardy affection there, just warmth,... I know this.
Still, it made me smile.