How Antechinuses Do It - Animal Sex

The Tasman Peninsula dusky antechinus is under threat. 
                                  Credit: courtesy of Gary Cranitch, Queensland Museum

The antechinus is a small, shrewlike marsupial indigenous to Australia and New Guinea. These animals are best known for their odd practice of having sex until it kills them, but what else does their mating behavior entail?

There are currently 15 known antechinus species (animals in the Antechinus genus) living in the forests and woodlands of Australia and New Guinea, five of which were discovered since 2012, said Andrew Baker, a mammal ecologist at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia and leader of the group that made the discoveries.


"It wouldn't surprise me if there were one or two more [Antechinus species] we haven't discovered yet," Baker told Live Science.
Generally speaking, antechinuses are loners that stick to themselves until the breeding season nears.


Antechinuses breed during the Australian winter, when their food — small vertebrates and invertebrates — is scarce. This timing ensures their babies will be born in the spring, when food is bountiful.

Also Read : Starlings The Bird That Can Learn Human Grammar

Interestingly, males stop producing sperm before the mating season begins.

It's not clear how sexually mature males and females find mates, but Baker suspects scent, and pheromones, are involved. And as with many other species, males likely roam longer and wider in search of sex, he said.


Baker also suspects that male-male fighting is probably common among antechinuses. "They have surging testosterone levels that tend to make them very aggressive," Baker said.

Antechinuses don't bother wasting time with wooing mates or engaging in courtship rituals. Instead, they prefer to get down to business immediately.


In fact, a male has no issue with resorting to ambush mating, during which he will catch hold of a female from behind and mate with her while grabbing the scruff of her neck with his forepaws and biting her neck.

Recommended :  Ancient Aeroplanes That Incas and Other Pre-Columbian People Left Behind

It's not uncommon to find females with tufts of fur around the neck area missing, Baker said, adding that females are fine with the rough ambush as long as they have an opportunity to mate with other males afterward.


Both male and female antechinuses are promiscuous, and will try to mate with numerous partners throughout the breeding period. However, to increase their chances of fathering offspring, males will mate with females for as long as possible.


Scientists have documented antechinus copulation events lasting for 10, 12 and even 14 hours. "That's intermittent thrusting between just one male and one female," Baker said. When not thrusting, the male will guard the female, keeping her from getting away (and looking for other mates) and other males from getting to her.


Anetchinuses will mate continuously for the entire breeding period, which lasts, on average, about two weeks. This activity takes a toll on the male's body.


The sustained high levels of testosterone stop the production of cortisol from being turned off, allowing males to burn more sugar, Baker said. "It frees them from the need to feed as often, but the downside is that cortisol in sustained levels is poisonous," he said.


Over time, the males will start to behave erratically, bleed internally, lose fur, develop sores and ulcers that don't heal, become blind, and develop high parasite loads as their immune system shuts down. "They are like a blank slate for every parasite and disease going around," Baker said.


It's rare for a male to survive the breeding period.

Females, on the other hand, may die of exhaustion after weaning their litter, which have multiple paternities. Less than 50 percent of females make it to their second breeding season, and only a very small percentage make it to their third, Baker said.
Source: livescience.com

The Mexican Government’s Maya Artifacts

The story goes like this: In 2012, the Mexican government released a number of Maya artifacts they had been protecting for 80 years as state secrets.
 These objects were retrieved from an unexplored pyramid that was found under another pyramid in Calakmul, the site of one of the most powerful ancient Maya cities.

 A government-sanctioned documentary by Raul Julia-Levy (the son of famous actor Raul Julia) and financier Elisabeth Thieriot (ex-wife of a former publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle) featured a number of these finds, most of which clearly depict UFOs and alien visitors. The case may seem fairly enticing, but once you look closer, a strange pattern of fraud begins to emerge.

Both of the documentarians seem to be lying about something. Julia-Levy doesn’t appear to be who he claims to be—Raul Julia’s widow has publicly called out a con man named Salvador Alba Fuentes.

 According to her, Salvador is attempting to ride on her late husband’s fame and is going around telling everyone his name is, yes, Raul Julia-Levy. Meanwhile, Thieriot has shut down the production of the documentary and sued her partner, accusing “Julia-Levy” of stealing her documentary and misusing filming equipment (a statement “Julia-Levy” vehemently opposes).

 What’s more, there seems to be very little scientific proof of the authenticity of the artifacts, and the pictures that have emerged online are less than concrete evidence. Perhaps the artifacts were cheap fakes manufactured by a local artisan.

 Perhaps the officials had second thoughts about the documentary and ordered Thieriot to shut it down by any means necessary. Whatever the truth behind these strange artifacts is, their case is far from convincing.

The Glorification Of The Eucharist

An Italian painter named Ventura Salimbeni is responsible for one of the most mysterious altar paintings in history.
 “Disputa of the Eucharist,” a 16th-century painting also known as “The Glorification of the Eucharist” (Eucharist is an alternate term for the Holy Communion), is a three-part work.

 The bottom two parts are relatively normal: They depict a number of religious authorities and an altar.
 However, the top part shows the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and a dove depicting the Holy Ghost) looking upon them . . . and holding what seems to be a space satellite.

 The object is large and spherical, with a metallic finish, telescopic antennas, and strange lights. In fact, it heavily resembles an old Sputnik satellite.Although UFO enthusiasts and ancient astronaut theorists have often claimed the Disputa as proof of extraterrestrial life (or perhaps time travel), experts have been quick to debunk such notions.

 According to them, the orb is a Sphaera Mundi, a globe-like representation of the universe that used to be common in religious art.
 The strange lights on the “satellite” are merely the sun and the moon, and its antennas are actually scepter wands that act as symbols of authority for the Father and the Son.

Ancient Aeroplanes That Incas and Other Pre-Columbian People Left Behind

Incas and other pre-Columbian people left behind some extremely puzzling trinkets. Some of the strangest are probably the so-called Ancient Aeroplanes, which are small, golden figures that closely resemble modern jet planes.

 Originally thought to be zoomorphic (meant to resemble animals), the statues were soon found to have features that look very much like fighter planes’ wings, stabilizing tails, and even landing gears.

They were aerodynamic enough that when ancient astronaut believers (allegedly) made model planes with their proportions and fitted them with propellers and (again, allegedly) jet engines, they flew perfectly.

 All of this has led to speculation that the Incas may have been in contact with (likely extraterrestrial) people who were able to build advanced jet planes, and who perhaps even possessed the technology themselves.
Well, that, or these wonderful statuettes might just be artistic representations of bees, flying fish, or other winged creatures. As always, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.